Climate Change and Africa: Moment of peril

To put it in the words of the former Secretary General of the United Nation, Mr. Kofi Annan ´´over the last few years we have seen concerted efforts to tackle poverty and inequality across our planet; the international community came together to agree on the millennium development goals-to spread prosperity, improve help and put our world on a path towards sustainability, but whiles in many areas we have seen progress, climate change threaten to reverse these improvements and dash our hope for a fairer and sustainable world``.

Ones again, world leaders have arrived in Copenhagen, this time not to tackle issues of economic crisis, terrorism, HIV/AIDS, poverty or trade , but the hottest theme maybe of the century, thus climate change. Many are divided on the peril of climate change, whiles some argue that the danger of climate change is a farce; others think climate change is the greatest threat to our survival. This seems to be the stand point in the debate in Copenhagen.

Scientific evidence abounds for all to see, scientist tell us that we need actions now to curtail the danger of climate change; the most severe impact of climate change would be imminent if we fail to cut green house gasses emission by around 80 per cent in 2050.As the world awaits the outcome of the meetings in Copenhagen, some commitments have being made. But these same commitments were made many years, and yet the issue still persist .Maybe not as bold and decisive as the proposal by the United States of American to commit 100 billion dollars to developing nations in their quest to resist the threats of climate change. But is this the solution to the problem? I will leave this for the discretion of my discerning readers.

For those who see climate change as a threat, it is not a threat it is already happening. Thousands of people have loosed their lives due to floods, many arable lands have become uncultivable, sea levels are rising, and our ecosystems are depleting in a very scary fashion. The world health organization in 2002 estimated that globally, one hundred and fifty thousand people were dying each year as a result of climate change. In a more dramatic fashion, most of these deaths occur in Africa and especially in sub Saharan Africa.

For many decades, Africa has always been at the receiving ends, it is now time for African governments to stand up and take bold and decisive decision for her children. African Leaders must choose the path between fighting for those whose voices are not heard and who are affected most, against dancing to the melodies of the west. Commitments that perpetuate imbalances in this climate change debate should be seriously rejected. The West must take responsibility for larger emission of co2, which has contributed greatly to climate change for which the poor and less developed countries are bearing the heat.

As much as we blame and castigate the west for virtually everything, African governments must begin to purge themselves in a different way than always been perceived. Instead of victimizing ourselves and always waiting and requesting from the west, the time has come for African governments to assume the driver’s seat, to take a leading role, to choose the future over the past, progression over regression, hope over despair and action over inaction. The ongoing summit is already characterized by some kind of politics between the world’s leading nations just for their own interest. The question one may ask is, is the problem going to be solved, when African Governments demand compensation from the West? No. So much money is being pushed into African for development works, yet the people are still very poor. In the same vein, getting money from the west is not a panacea to our climate change problem, because the West can agree to give us the money, but is that going to stop pollution or are the big companies responsible going to completely stop the pollution? My answer is No In order that African governments lead the way in the fight against climate change, Africa must not only wait for western countries. Governments in Africa must make environmental choices, taking our own responsibility would be a chance to show that Africa has decided a destination for itself and her people. Governments must start thinking about making decisions that will have a positive effect in their respective countries. For this to happen, stiffer legislation and mitigation action must be taken to fight the irresponsible destruction of our forest reserve by our own people. Bush burning must stop to extenuate the susceptibility of the continent to climate change, the use of old and exhausted vehicles must be prohibited and last but not the least, traffic on our roads must be reduced to minimum. As long as we see ourselves us victims, we will continue to be eating from other peoples hands. We must stop behaving like the world sees us; African Leaders must stop fiddling while Africa burns for the sake of generations yet unborn. God Bless Africa.

Kamara Fridausu Makama

Student

The Hague University: International Communication Management [email protected]