Exclusive: Peace expert issues dire warnings against impending climate disasters, suggests key solutions
As the global canopy of ‘climate’ is getting punctured and ruptured by greenhouse gases, a call has gone to the international community and the Federal Government of Nigeria on the need to intensify efforts to address the danger it poses to humanity and the ecosystem in its entirety.
A peace and environmental researcher at the University of Ilorin Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, Ilorin, Nigeria, Mallam AbdurRazaq Zubayr, made the call in an exclusive interview with Afrireporter.
He noted that climate change or disaster is not unconnected to terrorism, kidnapping, and illegal mining, among other security threats that have taken a severe toll on the socio-economic condition of the West African nation.
The young intellectual highlighted the growing threat of the climate crisis to unsuspecting residents across the globe while adding that many, including Nigerians, are getting affected by the industrial spillage from the developed urban cities.
He said,” In Africa, where these ruralites account for about 70% of her demography and with low climate adaptability nor mitigation, disasters resulting from climate change have swept people from their homesteads, displaced and sometimes suffered loss of lives and properties.”
Speaking on how climate disasters can be mitigated, Mallam Abdulrazaq suggested that “there is a need for localization of climate change understandings so that the locales can speak about it, hence increasing preparedness.
“Secondly, climate legislation needs to be furnished financially and with expertise, especially from our local institutions, to generate home-made resilience.
“Thirdly, climate change needs to be securitized, that is, it must be treated as a threat to national security and an impactful insecurity index. This will encourage reinforced concentration by all stakeholders.”
The peace scholar charged the mass media to upscale efforts in transmitting environmental security information.
He said, “Failure to arrest this situation across the board will mean a perennial catastrophic stroke that could have an apocalyptic effect on the ecosystem. Hurricanes, flash floods, mudslides, and wildfires are among the destructive sights of climate disaster. While also not unconnected to clinical diseases affecting the respiratory and nervous systems of man and animals.”
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), unless greenhouse gas emissions fall dramatically, warming could pass 2.9°C this century, which would have catastrophic consequences for life on this planet.
