Last week in New York City, a young girl from Sweden called on world leaders to do something drastic about the climate crisis.
Greta Thunberg, the young lady, is special person; she is a trial-blazer. She started a school strike in her country to draw attention to the climate crisis, she avoids traveling by air because of its high carbon emissions, and has vowed to continued fighting because she believes “the climate crisis is an existential crisis that is going to affect our whole civilization.”
Ms. Thunberg was particularly harsh on the politicians who had gathered at the annual United Nations General Assembly Meeting in New York City. She felt they s were sleepwalking through a problem that could well ensure the end of human civilization as we know it.
She told them in plain terms that they were negligent, irresponsible and failures. Whether world leaders will adhere to the wise counsel of Ms. Greta Thunberg remains an open question.
While some rich nations have committed to the fight against climate change by reducing their use of fossil fuels the largest contributor to the carbon pollution, others have remained on the sidelines with the absurd excuse that climate change is a phase that the world periodically goes through.
By and by, the onus to reduce the effects of climate change rests entirely on all of us. But a huge chunk of that responsibility lies on the rich nations, particularly the United States, China and India. The three are the world’s biggest carbon polluters.
Controversially, the U.S. under Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Change Accord.
But thankfully, China and India who were initially reluctant to commit to the fight have since reversed their stance on the issue and have pledged to do more to control carbon emissions.
The most worrying part of the climate crisis is that those bearing the brunt of its effects are all situated in the developing world, the global south.
Poor countries are the least polluters yet are set to pay a heavy price.
We in Africa are especially vulnerable; already, we are seeing the effects on our continent.
The Indian Ocean Coastline is seeing more disasters like the 2019’s Cyclone Idai which killed 1297 in Mozambique and caused 2 billion dollars in damages. The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro have already all but disappeared, and in the Sahel, droughts have led to deadly fighting over resources in arid regions south of the Sahara.
What is more, the Horn of Africa is facing the worst food crisis in the 21st century affecting 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and in West Africa rising ocean temperatures will lead to a 53 percent drop in the fisheries of Nigeria, 56 percent in Ivory Coast and 60 percent in Ghana.
Coastal villages in West Africa have been flooded because of rising sea levels, forcing huge migrations to urban areas and abroad.
Given these realities, what are we in Ghana doing? The future of our grandkids and their children is in danger and the early we sit up and approach the problem of climate crisis with the seriousness it deserves, t
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