Earth Day: Environmentalists, experts advocate change of behaviour to save planet

By Kayode Falade

Environmentalists, climate experts and stakeholders across the globe and particularly in Nigeria have called for change of behaviour to save planet even as they warn of dire consequences if the world does not have an attitudinal change as it concerns the earth.

The calls were made at the weekend during the commemoration of the World Earth Day.

This is as a UN report also warns of continuous assault on the planet by climate change.

According to a report by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), from the depth of the ocean to the peaks of mountains, climate change is continuing its assault on our planet.

The State of the Global Climate 2022 report released on Friday shows that record levels of heat-trapping by greenhouse gases is causing large-scale changes to the land, ocean and the atmosphere.

The environmentalists called for a change of behaviour that is contributing negatively to the environment, in order to save the earth from collapsing.

The experts, who are members of the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Abia State chapter, made the call on Saturday, April 22, 2023, in Umuahia, in commemoration of World Earth Day.

The state chairman of NES, Dr Uchenna Onyeizu, said the day was set aside to remind everyone of their behaviour towards the Mother Earth.

He said that the day was identified to create awareness on the rampant increase of pollution, global warming, deforestation and destruction of environmental resources across board.

Onyeizu, while condemning people’s negative behaviour towards the environment, said: “Your local action has a global effect.”

He added, “The things we do locally at our immediate environment have one or two impacts on the global environment and when the global environment is highly deteriorated, definitely, it will affect the individual.

“When you carelessly manage your waste and pollute your environment, they have a quiet way of getting back to your food chain and getting back to poisoning you, the polluter.

“Our behaviour, may be, our orientation did not put into high consideration the environment sensitivity in our growing up.” Onyeizu, who is a university lecturer said.

“We were also looking at Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which had to do with how we make use of our resources so that our future generation could also have enough to use or exploit.

“We are not saying don’t use environmental resources for our survival as humans, but what we are saying is do we sit down together and agree on how to make use of these resources for sustainability?”

Also, a member of NES, Mr Okechukwu Ogbonnaya, who was the chairman of the day’s celebration, called for urgent action to protect the earth from collapsing.

“We need to change our orientation about how we manage our natural resources, exploit or dispose our wastes,” he said.

Ogbonnaya, while admitting that the government had good policies regarding environmental protection, said that it was not doing enough in enforcing the laws.

The state treasurer of NES, Dr Chioma Nwakanma, said there was need to invest in science, innovation, storytelling and education that help safeguard species for healthier existence.

Nwakanma, an Associate Professor at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, said many species of plants and animals live in the environment, but their well-being was being threatened by human activities.

“What stories do you tell your children and the people around you on how we have conserved our planet earth?

“We must invest in research, conservation and stories that educate the people for a better tomorrow that is sustainable,” she said.

The theme for the 2023 World Earth Day is “Invest in Our Planet”. It is a continuation of the 2022 campaign.

But according to a report by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), in terms of temperature, the years between 2015 and 2022 were the eight warmest on record. This is despite the cool impact of the La Nina over the past three years. Melting of glaciers and sea level rise reach records in 2022 and it will continue for thousands of years. Ice levels in the Antarctic Sea fell to its lowest on record and the melting of some glaciers was quite literally off the charts.

The massive impacts of climate change also made themselves evident with many extreme weather effects across the world, including continuous droughts in East Africa, widespread floods in Pakistan, and record-breaking heatwaves in China and Europe.

Environmental Experts have made a strong case for improved technological based waste management system to enhance safe and habitable environment.

Rising from a one day stakeholders’ town hall meeting in Awka, Anambra State Capital, resource persons drawn from both the public and private sector reasoned that new technologies must be deployed to tackle challenges posed by mountainous refuse being generated as a result of increase in the nation’s population.

While calling for attitudinal change to check incidences of environmental degradation, they noted also that government at all levels must create enabling infrastructure to ensure effective waste management system.

Some of the resource persons who spoke during the event, including Prof Leonard Muoghalu, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Adeyomi Odebumi, Managing Director, Lagos State Waste Management Agency, Chinonso Agbo, while describing the theme for this World Earth Day, “Invest In The Earth” as apt, however called on the citizenry to take ownership of their environment by avoiding harmful environmental practices.

Declaring the stakeholders meeting open, Governor Chukwuma Soludo represented by his deputy, Dr Onyekachi Ibezim, drew the attention of the gathering to imminent existential threat environmental degradation had subjected the state.

He, then, expressed optimism that the forum would serve as a veritable platform to chart the way forward and proffer sustainable solutions to addressed challenges posed by unwholesome waste disposal, deforestation, flooding and erosion.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the state Commissioner for Environment, Felix Odimegwu, said the meeting was convened to seek preventive solution to environmental issues to achieve a clean, green and sustainable state in line with the vision of the present administration.

Meanwhile, the Anambra State Government has sought international aid to combat the gully erosion that is eating up arable land in its domain.

The call for help was made by the state Commissioner for Environment, Dr Felix Odimegwu, while unfolding the state programme for 2023 World Earth Day (WED), celebration in Awka, the state capital, on Thursday.

Odimegwu said the effort to control erosion in the state suffered a setback with pulling out of the World Bank-assisted Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), which had completed its 10-year mission in the state.

NEWMAP worked on 13 sites and fully delivered about eight of them with others in varying stages of completion.