Lasisi, Adedoyin K.S
Environmental Planning and Climate Change Department
Ministry of Environment,
Lagos State
Block 16, The Secretariat
The Alausa
Ikeja- Lagos
Nigeria
“And from all indication,
the earth seems to be warming up in the steady manner of a pot of soup on a
slow- heating stove. For each year,
average global temperature shave been on the highest record, the surface temperature
of the earth could rise by about 10c to 3.50c by 2100 ”.
With the following report
on our hand, there is enough evidence to prove that the quality of the
environment is changing drastically.
Man’s activities within his environment have brought about tremendous
changes. In the past, these changes are
only localized leading only to local or regional impoverishment. However, as a result of industrialization,
urbanization and the recent globazation, the consequences are numerous
environmental changes that result from the serve environmental damage and
unsustainable exploitation of the earth’s resources which takes place on global
scales, no thanks to the zeal of man to find convenience.
Melting ice: a hot topic,
the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. The area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice
each summer has been shriving, and the remaining ice is becoming less
thick. Since 1980, between 20 and 30
percent of sea ice in the European Arctic has been lost. In china, highland glaciers are shrinking
each year by an amount equivalent to all the water in the yellow River.
The Chinese Academy of
science says that 7 percent of the country’s glaciers are vanishing annually.
By 2050, as many as 64 percent of china’s glaciers will have disappeared. Now, are these changes natural or are man-
made.
Neither is the day – to day
state of the atmosphere, and is a chaotic non- liner dynamical system. On the other hand, climate- the average state
of weather – is includes the average temperature, amount of precipitation, days
of sunlight, and other variables that might be measured at any given site. However, there are changes in climatic
condition. This avarices from internal
factors and external functions. The
internal factor which include glaciations, ocean variability and memory of
climate and external factors which include solar radiation, the Earth’s orbit,
and human influence.
Over the years, there have
been several debates on various factors responsible for climatic change. By definition, climatic change refers to the
variation in the Earth’s global climate or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or
average. State of the atmosphere over
time scales ranging from decades to million of years. However, in recent time, especially in the
context of environmental policy the term “climate change” often refers only to
change in modern climate, including the rise in average surface temperature
known as global warming.
For some times now, an
average person on Lagos road often complaint of the intensity of the sun and
usually pray for rain despite the general view of Lagosian on rainfall in the
city. Can we attrite the recent high
intensity of the sun to global warming? What is global warming? What is the
relationship between global warning, climate change and melting ice.
The warming of the earth
will result in the melting of ice and thermal expansion of sea water which will
result in many environmental effects Lagos as one of world coastal city will
face serious problems as a result of this melting ice. Some of the effects include:
Increased
rate of beach erosion:
Nigerian coast though have not been associated with any known disaster has been
undergoing burying erosion processes.
The Victoria beach is the fastest eroding beach in Nigeria with average
erosion rates of 20- 30m annually.
A fundamental caused of the
coastal erosion in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos coastal area is the incidence
of storm surges which generate the powerful waves whose impact on the sandy
formation prove destructive. The storm
surges are frequent during the rainy season at the Victoria recession occurring
during the rainy season months and least during the dry season’s months when
some accretion takes place.
Flooding: Another major problem the
melting ice and change in climate will have on Lagos Environment is
flooding. The melting of the ice and
subsequent increase in the volume of ocean water will definite increases the
flooding potential of coastal areas around the world. With accelerated rise in sea level due to
increase in sea water volume as a result from melted ice.
Flooding of the low- lying
beaches along the coasts of Africa and in particular the Eastern, west and
central African coasts has become an environmental headache in recent times.
The flooding situation experienced in Lagos in resent years can be attributed
to high waves tide, climatic change / sea – level rise and low. Global warming
will cause seal levels to rise (the two poles hold 90% of the Earth’s water),
if no action is taken by about 2050, the worlds temperature wild have increased
by 1.40c. The coastline of
Cairo to Lagos will be completely flooded.
Water as a gift of nature
is generally believed to have enemy, every human on earth needs an average of
two and a half liters of water every day to keep healthy. Without water, plants and animals cannot
survive. No water no food, no food no
life. Like most African coastal zone,
most of the water used for domestic and industrial activities is derived from
groundwater sources.
The depth of water table in
the coastal zone is often very shallow and is subject to saline sea water
contamination. An increased in global
sea level rise due to excess water from melting ice will result in rise of the
water table along the coast: this will results in increased salinity of the
ground water (saltwater intrusion).
Apart from the issues
mention above, what will be the effect of melting ice and sea level rise on
Lagos and other coastal cities? With
accelerated rise in sea level, this will lead to a degeneration or interruption
of social and economic services. With
high sea levels, sea ports, existing fishing facilities like fish storage
facilities built on the coastal edges will be subjected to more frequenent
tidal and storm inundation.
Increases in seal level
would result in flooding especially during the rainy months of May to September
storm surges are prevalent during the April and August- September in west –
Africa. Astronomical high tides exceeding
2m along the coast of Lagos will affects most structures in Victoria Island and
Ikoyi leading to lost in values.
Anothropogenic factors are
acts by humans that change the environment and influence climate. The biggest factor of present concern is the
increase in carbon dioxide (C02) levels due to emissions from fossil
fuel. Combustion other factors, include
land use, ozone depletion, animal agriculture and deforestation also impact
climate. If a certain forcing acts to
change the climate, then there may be mechanism that acts to amplify or reduce
the effects.
Given the near certainty of
an accelerated rise in sea levels, the only hope left for us to save cities
like Lagos from total collapse is to embark on the implementation of policy and
programme that will help in the reduction of any foreseeable impact, prevention
of new development in coastal zone without proper impact analysis, enforcement
of the concept by set back lines.
Setting up of proper coastal monitoring team and adequate emergency
management arm capable of evacuating people in the coastal area to up land.
Education play an important
role in the reclusion of emission that causes climatic change. Corporate
organization, manufacturing industries and individual should endeavor to change
their live style and technology so as to help in the reflection of resistors
gasses to climatic change.
In conclusion, our world is
so complex it is immensely difficult to predict what will happen next. Thus, it is paramount to prepare. Are the true causes beyond our control?
No comments:
Post a Comment