Every year when June 5 comes, we mark all over the globe ‘the World Environment Day’ and it is easy to reckon that no other day may be more important for us to observe with due concern than the World Environment Day. The way we keep, conserve and protect our environment, the way we take care of our environment decides our existence on this earth and the existence of life itself.
World Environment Day is a day for everyone, everywhere. Since it began in 1972, global citizens have organized many events, from neighbourhood clean-ups, to action against wildlife crime and reforestation.
We may be distracted by a number of other social, economic and political issues that really challenge the current world in many ways but nothing seems more pressing and urgent than to engage in a global manner how to keep our environment safe and pass it on to the coming generations. We need to control what we do to avoid its destruction and to engage in rectifying the kinds of man made errors we subjected it to several decades. Particularly, with the emergence of the Industrial Age or the Industrial Revolution, there have been intense and irreparable damages to our environment.
Scientists have been telling us that there has been serious effects on earth since the reckless use of resources such as coal, carbon, fuel, uncontrolled deforestation, emergence of large metropolis and the innumerable constructions.
The level of deforestation and replacing wide natural forests and green areas with housing development projects, infrastructure and industries shows us easily how much we have affected the environment without even bothering the consequences on global ecosystem.
There has been increasing heating of the earth and progressive change in the overall climatic cycles that has caused what scientists have come to call the ‘El Niño effect’ and several other names such as “la Nina” as well. The dangers of a total disruption of the climatic cycles that we have lived with during centuries can be felt even in our own country. By looking at what sort of environment we once had, one can witness the climate changes at the local level.
In Ethiopia, not only have farmers been directly and severely affected by the aberrations but even ordinary people have definitely been affected.
Unusual rainy seasons and over flooding that we never knew before and, the extended drought that was once experienced within several decades of interval has now become recurrent. The effects have become disastrous on the life of entire populations.
In a recent radio interview that I happened to come across, I heard the host of the programme expressing her surprise on seeing the waters of Lake Abayata diminishing so rapidly during even the time she saw it a year ago that she felt really sorry about it. I personally remember the level of Lake Haromaya full of large vast of water when I was a small boy and passing along the road from Dire Dawa to Harar. One would have admired the view of the water and the entire areas full of greenery. Today, the water has dried up and the place has not even a drop of water and that is a clear result of the kind of man-made activities undertaken.
Even currently, Ethiopia is undergoing through one of the worst drought seasons of its entire history and the government is trying to minimize the ill effects of such phenomenon by getting itself ready in time with risk management staff to react with vehemence and thoroughness. The economy has been able to sustain the efforts of the government and lives of victims have been saved. Now, millions of people have been affected and unfortunately it is becoming recurrently predictable. The changes in the climate will continue for the worse along the years unless we take serious measures to reverse the current tendencies.
The world was so worried by this phenomenon of climate change that in 2015 it decided to harness all of its resources to come together and work out a viable and long lasting solution to address this issue. The Paris Climate Change Agreement to which 195 countries adhered and subscribed to is the result. Only two countries namely Syria and Nicaragua were reported to have refused to sign this overall international pact stating that it was not thorough enough to address the issues.
Thanks to the concerted efforts of the United Nations Organization and members of the same very important countries such as the US, China, the EU and India, which contribute the largest segment of pollution, the agreement finally succeeded to come to life. These countries have agreed to limit their emissions to acceptable limits and will also engage in the development of green technology, green energy and solar and geothermal power. The levels of heating of the environment would be limited to lower levels than two degrees centigrade. The risk of extinction of life itself due to fundamental changes in the climate is to be averted.
Already the current level of heating of the environment has meant that the large masses of ice are melting slowly and the levels of waters in areas where people actually live are increasing by the day, and the climatic cycles are severely affected. Frequent rains with extensive floods have meant that in many areas around the world there has been severe and catastrophic devastation with lives lost.
In developing countries such as ours the effects of climate change have affected the life of millions. The level of poverty and dependence on the climate and the regular season rains is such that if the rains fail for a couple of seasons the typical subsistence level farmer is forced to running out of all of their resources and become food insecure.
For decades we have been fighting the issue of ‘food security’ as one of the strategic policies of government in the developing world and when we talk about drought and famine and irregular or erratic rain seasons the consequences have been often disastrous and even during the past half a century or so there have been serious consequences that have followed the climatic aberrations of the world.
Here it would be proper to recall the thoughts of the former Prime Minster of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi who was one of the most active promoters of the idea of how climate change, due to what the industrial world did along the years, has affected the environment with serious consequences on our lives and how the agriculture dependent population of the Third World have been affected and that it was time that the advanced industrialized world recognized it and paid reparation or compensation for the damage inflicted on these societies.
This idea was promoted and sustained by the late prime minister and he representing Africa on climate change talks and international conferences successfully sustained it and managed to have allocated the necessary funds so that Africans will not always be at a disadvantage due to what the largest economies of the world have been engaged with to grow fast and come out of poverty. Here, countries such as China and US and the major economies of the world should shoulder their responsibilities for what contribution they have made to change the current tendencies on the climate and the earth.
The Paris Climate Accord is considered by many as a breakthrough because it is the result of a huge compromise between the advanced nations and the poorer ones and accepts the responsibilities of the major industrialized countries in contributing for climate change due to their policies in place for decades and China and the US alone have been attributed to 40 per cent of what happens to harm the climate; and accordingly they were made to bear the burden of duties in terms of advancing new funding and limiting the levels of heating the world due to their extensive development and economic ventures.
The rest of the world as well were given the responsibilities of doing their best to abide by the limits of pollution and use of clean energy so that there will be a reversal of the current tendencies that would lead us inevitably to disaster and unmaking of the earth.
Ethiopia’s green energy and green economy policy has been admired and is even considered exemplary. We are on the right track when it comes to keeping climate change at bay. But there are several areas that we need to engage in a more sustained manner in terms of forestation and keeping the environment clean particularly our rivers. New projects are in the pipeline but we need to engage more because our tourism industry as well is at stake.
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is “Connecting People to Nature”, and the message is that people need to get outdoors and into nature, to appreciate its beauty and its importance and protect the Earth we share. We are part of nature and we intimately depend on it.