The Global Environmental Development Platform

  Green technology also demands the need for environmental justice. This means that electric vehicle batteries are sustainably manufactured, and rare earth materials recycled. This goes for other electronics as well. Instead of just dumping these e-wastes in open dumps and landfills, or worst still, exporting them to low-income countries especially in Africa and Asia, manufacturers of these products should ensure and develop guidelines and policies to jumpstart and regulate the recycle and reuse of these e-wastes. According to the e-waste association of South Africa, the RSA alone generates about 6.2kgof e-waste per habitat annually and only 12% of these are recycled. Although, the UN has set aside October 14, every year, which was just a few days ago, for e-waste day to help address the issues and concerns regarding e-waste management, this current trend continues across boundary lines from high income and developed countries to underdeveloped and developing countries. And now, wh...

I will recommend that as we campaign for our rights for a green environment, we should also have and maintain a thorough understanding of the processes that take place and give way to climate change. Climate action is good, but we need to get to the root of the causes why climatic conditions of a city, town or region are altered. First and foremost, what is climate? What do we mean by climate? Now, in this case, I am not asking about the weather; this is different. Although, a lot of people confuse the two, but there is a large difference between the two. Climate is the atmospheric conditions of a particular region, town or city for a long period of time of say 35 years or more. And so, if Warri in Nigeria, or Leeds in The UK, has a certain pattern of rainfall, or the average is say 30.0cm-35.3cm in both regions for the last 35 years or so, and there is a gradual increase which establishes another pattern of rainfall in the last 3 years and is measured at 45cm per annum, which causes s...

  With the world making a transition to greener energy alternatives, global transport is no exception. If we are going to successfully tackle the problems of poor air quality and air pollution, then adapting to cleaner energy as regards transportation cannot be however overemphasized. First of all, there is a need to redesign our urban cities and centers. Having an urban paradigm shift as regards urban and regional planning is what we need right now, to ensure that our cities are planned in such a way that we do not need to commute unnecessarily to meet our immediate and domestic needs. Residential housing, offices, schools, libraries, shopping malls, convenience stores, churches; post offices etc., can be built in such a way,  that we can reach these places within walking distances. The need to drive or travel would only be necessary when going on long trips.  Urban shift is a conference being organized by the Global Environment Facility on September 21, 2021, which has ...

  The transition to green energy is mandatory and cannot be overemphasized. It will be the only sure way that we are going to gain back our natural ecosystems. We can’t possibly continue to plunge deep underneath the earth’s surface drilling and pulling up fossils to produce energy which is and will continue to be a serious threat to human health and the environment at large. And one activity that is a constant threat is gas flaring.  Gas flaring refers to the combustion of associated gas which generally occurs with crude oil. This gas is generated during various processes including oil and gas recovery, petrochemical processes and landfill gas extraction. This kind of  flare which is used in the oil and gas industry comprises of a boom or stack which collects the unwanted associated gases to be flared.  The illegality of gas flaring is a phenomenon that most oil producing countries have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to. The act of venting mainly emits the methan...

  Desertification can be defined as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and hyper-arid areas. This usually results from factors which include climatic variations and the activities of man in these areas. On the other hand, land degradation is the reduction or loss of biological and economic productivity on these dry lands. These arid and semi and hyper-arid regions are termed so because they naturally lack moisture and the rain fall distribution is highly sparse. And so the humidity in these areas are extremely low as water vapor is very low in the atmosphere resulting from the apparent lack of rainfall. Desertification is a phenomenon that’s quite common on all the continents except the Antarctica. This state of dryness grossly affects the environment and livelihoods of a lot of people majorly indigenes or inhabitants of the dry land regions. The effects of this state of dryness can also be seen, felt and experienced locally, nationally, regionally and globally.  Drylands als...

  June 8 is World Oceans Day. This is the day that the United Nations has set aside every year to convey the importance of our oceans. It is important that we observe these days with utmost precision and care, and not just think that these are just days that the organization chooses to use, so they can  keep up with the ceremony of things or just keep busy. No! They are there,  as a reminder of our duty and responsibility towards our environment,  and the earth in general.  It is vital that we follow and do our own little bit to proffer solutions to our dying planet. And if everyone contributes their own quota to the sustainability of the environment, then we would have gone a long way in ameliorating the problems we have created by our own actions and leave at least a better place for posterity. Oceans are natural carbon sinks that grab carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use in photosynthesis by plants under the sea. These are plankton, corals, algae and oth...