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#Climate Action

 

Climate can be defined as the atmospheric conditions of a place over a particular period of time. If conditions are altered even in the slightest bit, there is climate change. Most recently, in different parts of the world, climate change has become an increasingly growing problem, stemming largely from man’s quest to solve his energy problem and answering that quest by employing the use of three primary fossil fuel resources namely: coal, petroleum crude oil and gas. 

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel resource in the United States, China and major parts of Africa. As oil prices have   plummeted and the availability of oil is slowly declining, the use of coal again is most likely going to increase if the United Nations Decade On Ecosystem Restoration strategy isn’t strictly adhered to especially in oil producing nations of the world. And this has tremendous environmental problems and consequences caused by the sulfur content of coal and not to mention the release of carbon compounds in the form of dioxide into the atmosphere which in turn is one of the major causes of climate change. 

The drilling of petroleum crude oil also known as ‘black gold’ in the Middle East, Africa, Canada, some parts of Europe, USA, and the processing of this oil into consumable products have gone a long way in reducing and solving man’s quest and rising demand for energy. Yet, this has been achieved at the detriment and expense of the environment. The environment has been brutally affected as a result of the consequential effects of the production of petroleum products. Gas flaring activities in Nigeria, West Africa has contributed immensely to the climate change especially in the Niger Delta regions of the country. 

Since 2014 precisely, there has been a rise in atmospheric temperatures and this has in turn caused an increase in the amount of rainfall experienced in the region lately. During the wet season in 2015, the rains fell everyday non-stop from the month of July to mid October, and each year, the total amount of precipitation has increased resulting from the high rate of evaporation due to increased surface temperature of the earth from the accumulated effects of many years of gas flaring activities in these places. Acute air pollution from gas flaring has also caused climate change in these regions. The resulting effects, however, have been flooding, erosion and heavy land pollution. 




 

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