GLOBAL WARMING ... lest Ghanaians forget.

Introduction;

Over the past decades one major issue that has confronted the human race is global warming. This has attracted all the international attention amongst states. A series of global environmental conferences in the 1970s, 1980s, and through to the 1990s culminated in the United Nations Framework of the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and Kyoto Protocol in 1997,started a discussion of some sort about global environmental integrity.

Global Warming is considered to be the progressive gradual increase of the earth’s surface temperature caused by the emission of fossil fuel into the atmosphere. The 'Greenhouse Effect' as it’s popularly called is the result of gases in the Earth's atmosphere that act like a blanket, trapping the warmth of the sun in. Naturally, the more gas there is the thicker the blanket and hence the warmer the Earth. It is an environmental problem that is bedeviling all countries in the world of which Ghana is of no exception. Even though the full rigours of global warming is hard to forecast as is a complex phenomenon, each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages in the American West and rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard, in Florida, and in other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico. It is believed that warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the south eastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts with Forests, farms and cities facing troublesome new pests and more mosquito-borne diseases.

The Nation’s Neglect;

Ghana, just like most developing countries, by their attention and action treat issues of environment with a pinch of salt. The political inertia with which the nation attaches to issues of the environment brings to bear the country’s oblivion to this global phenomenon. One can barely count the number of times in which an environmental issue has become a major national agenda.

The tabloids of the nations print media mostly have political issues as its major news. This problem is worsened as the most electronic media spend most of their productive talk time in discussing what the print media captured. This neglect is quite contrary to the spirit of the Article 41(k) of the 1992 Constitution which seeks to mandate every Ghanaian which is inclusive of journalist to safeguard the environment.

It is an undeniable fact that the climate of the country has changed. Due to education and the seemingly acceptance of the Christian faith, the days when such changes would have been linked to the anger of the gods of the village are over. There are several factors that give merit to the assertion that Ghana is within radius of the global phenomena of warming up.

Climatic changes;

Despite the fact that nature has placed it in such a way that local temperatures fluctuate without any human influence, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts think the trend is accelerating: the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990[1]. This climatic change has also been revealed in the West Africa sub-region; Central Nigeria, northern Ghana, and southern Burkina Faso. This area forms the southern boundary of the driest region of West Africa extending southwards from the Sahara Desert.Fluctuations featured prominently in the 20th century rainfall time series. The future precipitation trends in this region are quite uncertain. The GFDL CM2.0 and GFDL CM2.1 models project a significant downward rainfall trend in the area, with projections by the MIUB ECHO-G model suggesting a significant trend in the opposite direction.[2]

In Ghana study has revealed that day time temperatures rose by 0.9oC in Accra and by 1.2oC in Kumasi for the three decades between 1971 and 2000. Maximum day time temperatures were similar in magnitude and showed almost identical time series for the two cities except between 1989 and 1995 when Kumasi experienced higher temperatures. There are significant increasing trends in minimum temperatures for both cities. Minimum temperatures showed significant warming trends in both cities. Night time temperatures rose by 0.03oC (significant at the p < 0.001 level) per year in Accra and 0.04oC (Significant at the p < 0.001) level per year in Kumasi but the temporal trends were similar for both cities. There is a general expectation that Kumasi should have a higher temperature than Accra because Accra being at the coast, land and sea breezes are expected to play a significant role in moderating the temperatures in Accra compared to Kumasi especially during the night. However finding has shown the average minimum temperature in Accra was 2oC higher than in Kumasi.[3] It must also be noted that developing countries are the ones that will be mostly affected by the global climatic changes. At this year’s launch of the second volume of the UN's Fourth Assessment Report, which addressed the climatic impacts, adaptation and vulnerability Catherine Pearce, Friends of the Earth International's Climate Campaigner, said: "The scientific findings are stronger than ever. This report is likely to confirm that not only are we seeing the impacts of climate change around us already, but worse is yet to come and the world's poorest people are being hardest hit.”

Desertification;

The Environmental Protection Agency whose mission is to co-manage, protect and enhance the country’s environment through its National Action Program to combat Desertification has stated that the estimated percentage of total land area of Ghana prone to desertification is 35% (about 83,489 km2) with the Upper East and eastern part of Northern Region (78,718 km2) or 33% of the total land area of the country) facing the greatest hazard. A recent assessment indicates that the land area prone to desertification has almost doubled in recent times. The percentage total land area in Ghana vulnerable to low, moderate, high and very high desertification was given as 7.47, 48.78, 15.15 and 1.04 respectively. The corresponding land areas in square kilometres are 17,000, 112,000, 34,000 and 2,000, totalling 165,000 km2.[4] These figures are alarming as is highly probable that Ghana will lose more of its forest land in the face of economic development.

The future effect will be in the old adage that as soon as the last tree dies the last man dies. In Ghana, the experience of continuous drought conditions in 1982/83 causing wild bush fires throughout most parts of the country causing extensive damage to farms, forest, flora and fauna and the land has a major factor of desertification.

This issue must be addressed with all seriousness as this phenomenon has an overwhelming impact on our agricultural sector. The sector currently employs about 70% of the rural labour force, contributes 45% of the GDP, accounts for over 55% of the foreign exchange earnings and is responsible for meeting over 90% of the food needs of the country. The sector comprises five sub-sectors, namely: crops other than cocoa (63% of GDP), cocoa (14%), forestry (11%), livestock/poultry (9%) and fisheries (5%).[5]

Deforestation

There is no single day that a Ghanaian wakes up without seeing a truck pulling a log of timber on our roads. One would be living in utopia if he even gets a sentilla impression that these logs are from outside the country

An imperative fuel for most Ghanaians is biomass. It is estimated that around 96 per cent of the population is dependent upon energy derived from plant materials and agricultural waste with 75 per cent of these people burning fuel wood for domestic cooking and water heating. This is by far the most significant type of biomass in use. Currently, it is estimated that each person uses around 1 cubic metre or 640 kg of fuel wood per annum.

Although wood as biomass is often considered as a renewable energy source, this only holds true if trees are replanted. By mass, forest growth in Ghana is less than half of fuel wood demand. By this token, fuel wood becomes an unsustainable energy option despite the carbon neutrality of fuel wood combustion, deforestation in Ghana means the country is a contributor to the Greenhouse Problem.

Exacerbating the problem is the fact that traditional cooking stoves are extremely inefficient. It is calculated that traditional Ghanaian stoves are actually less than 10 per cent efficient. In other words, 90 per cent of the wood and its heat is wasted while 90 per cent of the associated carbon dioxide emissions are the result of human activity that benefits no one at all! [6]

Automobile

It has now become the dream of every youth to own a car. Having a car is a sign of wealth and every Ghanaian especially those in the urban areas of Accra and Kumasi seek to attain that. Transportation is the largest source of air pollution in the urban centres. Our plight is even worsened as most of the cars that are imported into the country do not conform to the environmental standard as they have been used for more than ten years before they were into the country. On the streets of Accra today one can see cars that were used during the welcoming of Queen Elizabeth II in1959.

The rickety nature of these cars is enough evidence for one to come to a reasonable conclusion that the vehicle has outlived its life span and it’s only living on borrowed time. The level of road construction does not in any way commensurate the number of cars in the urban centres thereby leading to huge motor traffic especially in the major urban areas of Accra and Kumasi. However one should bear in mind that a major significant importance of roads is heat captured and radiated by impervious layers of black asphalt, bricks and stones. These have high capacity to absorb and store heat.

What make the road transport dangerous to the environment are the chemicals it produces which is both dangerous to not only the environment but also the health of individual Ghanaians. Cars are major source of anthropogenic heat.Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the primary gas emission of cars on the globe. This odorless, colorless gas is formed by the combustion of fossil fuels such as gasoline. When inhaled, CO blocks the transport of oxygen to the brain, heart, and other vital organs in the body. Fetuses, newborn children, and people with chronic illnesses are especially susceptible to the effects of CO.

Amongst some of the gases that produced by cars is that of Particulate matter (PM). These particles of soot, metals, and pollen give smog its murky color and pose the most serious threat to human health, penetrating deep into the lungs. In addition to direct emissions of fine particles, automobiles release nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and sulfur dioxide, which generate additional fine particles as secondary pollution.

A visit to the major transport stations in Ghana reveals that no agency is checking the gasses emitted by our public transport vehicles who are the worse culprits. It will be a generous statement to state that Ghanaians are living on borrowed time. Our plight is even worsened as a result of the energy crises in Ghana. This is because most Ghanaian houses and industries have acquired generators which similar combustion effect as cars. The proper question that one will pose is that how safe are we.

As the integer of vehicles on the road and the number of motor vehicle miles traveled escalating rapidly, coupled with the number of generators being used in Ghana, we are on the fast lane to smoggy skies and dirty air.

Conclusion;

It is a major principle in environmental law that think globally act locally. This principle therefore call upon all and sundry to undertake measures in their own small way to curb the emission of green house gases. One major problem with the Ghana legal system is implementation of laws. Of what effect will the law be in shaping the social order if it cannot be implemented? Global warming is a global phenomenon, and is only when we take strides in reducing our level of pollution, is then that we will have the moral courage to call upon other nations to do the same. Till then let us see how best we can remove the log from our eye before we think of helping another to remove his log.

--------------------------------- [1] Natural Resource Defence Council (NRCD) USA

[2] www.knmi.com

[3] Andrew MANU, Yaw A. TWUMASI and Tommy L. COLEMAN, USA “Is It the Result of Global Warming or Urbanization? The Rise in Air Temperature in Two Cities in Ghana”

[4] National Action Programme Report, 2002. Environmental Protection Agency ,Ghana

[5] www.ghanagov.gh

[6] UNDP EQUATOR INITIATIVE