By Okeyo Victor
Climate change is a tune that has been playing on the world stage for decades evident is the climate crisis incessantly soaring. However, in the last three decades, threats posed by the climate crisis have been apparent and the results devastating, to say the least.
It is important to recognize that the earth has been losing approximately 12 million hectares of forest cover annually, according to UNEP, a worrying trend due to the subsequent effects. Each tree fell to create space for agriculture or other human activities means the additional release of greenhouse gases originally contained by the tree into the environment.
Additionally, industrialization has advanced in recent history, meaning more demand for
the consumption of energy. The various aspects of human activities in production and manufacturing
have had devastating effects on the environment due to the release of carbon dioxide and nitrous
oxide, powerful greenhouse gases that blanket the earth and trap the sun’s heat not least the
fertilizers used in farming.
Furthermore, the release of waste from industries, untreated, directly into the rivers and open spaces has resulted in devastating ecological imbalance.
These activities have consequently led to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.
Various regions of the world have been feeling the impact of these changes, most notably in
developing countries which are mostly dogged with corruption and poor governance thus a poor
response to the effects.
Countries in Southeast Asia have been bearing the brunt of massive floods i.e Bangladesh has been affected with more than 5 million of its population internally displaced due to the climate crisis, mostly as a result of flooding and erosion, with farmlands disappearing under water when the rivers break their banks as a result of increased water volume due to the melting snowcaps of the Himalayas.
Bangladesh being the leading exporter of leather in the world draws interest to its massive leather industry and how the wastes from the tanneries are disposed of.
Additionally, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa have been characterized by long droughts both Agricultural, affecting crops, and ecological droughts increasing the vulnerability of the ecosystem.
Kenya has been hit by its worst drought in forty years which has led to the death of
livestock, crops, and wildlife as a result of the crisis. Relief efforts by various NGOs have been set in motion to help curb the food crisis in the nation, a dire situation with Kenya’s economy largely dependent on Tourism and rain-fed agriculture.
Ironically, the least contributors to pollution are the most affected by climate change. Even
though the United Nations have introduced the Net Zero Policy to help cut greenhouse gas
emissions to as close to zero as possible, most of the nations fall critically short of their NDCs.
To cut the emission by midcentury, all countries will need to work hand in hand in developing a
the green world economy, by implementing policies in line with the Net Zero emission target to avert the climate crisis.
