CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

-with reference to the Rio declaration

Gradually, climate change is inching closer to achieving a status (though unpleasant) of the deadliest phenomenon to have happened to human race and the ecology since the past three-four centuries.

Like it or not – believe it or not, it has wiped away thousands of human and animal species directly and indirectly, leading to something of an extinction of a sort to some animal species.

It is in this regard that a landmark conference was held in Rio – Brazil in 1992, to strategize and develop a blueprint towards improving the situation.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992 has since been described as the beginning of an awakening to the realities of climate change, which scientists predicted about four to five decades prior to the conference.

The two-week Earth Summit was the climax of a process, began in December 1989, of planning, education and negotiations among all member states of the United Nations, leading to the adoption of Agenda 21,a wide-ranging blueprint for action to achieve sustainable development worldwide.

While the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was unprecedented for a UN conference, in terms of both its size and the scope of its concerns, it also sought to help governments rethink economic development and find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of the planet as a result of the climate inconsistencies. 

Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life were drawn into the Rio process and persuaded their leaders to join other nations in making the difficult decisions needed to ensure a healthy planet for generations to come.

The Summit’s message — that nothing less than a transformation of our attitudes and behaviour would bring about the necessary changes — was transmitted by almost 10,000 on-site journalists and heard by millions around the world. It reflected the complexity of the problems facing the world: that poverty as well as excessive consumption by affluent populations place damaging stress on the environment.

It influenced all subsequent UN conferences, which have examined the relationship between human rights, population, social development, women and human settlements — and the need for environmentally sustainable development. The World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, for example, underscored the right of people to a healthy environment and the right to development, controversial demands that had been met with resistance from some member states.

Governments recognized the need to redirect international and national plans and policies to ensure that all economic decisions fully took into account any environmental impact, but twenty years after the first global environment conference, the message has produced results, making eco-efficiency a guiding principle for business and governments alike, but to what end?.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) refers to climate change as any change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.

However, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), climate change is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

The phenomenon may be limited to a specific geographical region or may occur across the whole earth – which is the case in the world today. Climate change which is a long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years.

Scientific opinion has it that the Earth’s climate system is unequivocally warming, and it is extremely likely that humans are causing most of it through activities that increase concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels.

Science is not a house of cards, ready to topple if you remove one line of evidence. Instead, it is like a jigsaw puzzle. As the body of evidence builds, we get a clearer picture of what is driving our climate.

We now have many lines of evidence all pointing to a single, consistent answer – the main driver of global warming is rising carbon dioxide levels from our fossil fuel burning, says John Cook who has been studying issues of the climate and indicators of a human fingerprint on climate change.

With rapid climate change and weather variations, one- fourth of earth’s species could be headed for extinction by 2050, according to scientists, and this has sent governments into deep-thinking and policy redirection to ensure what has been described as a ‘human catastrophe’ , will not see the light of day, at least momentarily.

For thousands of years, people have expected the climate to remain more-or-less the same while the weather varies and seasons sometimes disappoint.

Using forecasts no more sophisticated than these, the human race has prospered.

But are things different now?

For the fifth time, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) claims they are – the difference, the body claims is increased human emissions of carbon dioxide, a colourless odourless gas; a gas that is a by-product of growing prosperity.

The IPPC assumes that a relatively small human contribution of the gas will trap the warmth of the sun and cause dangerous warming in the future.

Other scientists contest that assumptions on the grounds that the effect of the gas is smaller than IPPC assumes, and that the climate is so complex and insufficiently understood that the net effect of human emissions on warming cannot be calculated with any confidence.

Climate change is already beginning to transform life on earth, and it’s increasingly reaching alarming heights – which is hanging around the necks of countries like an albatross. 

Around the globe, seasons are shifting, temperatures are climbing through the rooftops and sea levels are rising beyond imaginable limits, meanwhile, our planet must still supply us – and all living things – with air, water, food and safe havens to live, so you can imagine. 

If we as a collective fail to act towards achieving some kind of freedom from the shackles and vagaries of the climate, the phenomenon will rapidly alter the lands and waters we all depend upon for survival, leaving our children and later generations, with a very different world and posterity will not be kind to us.

Talk of the devastating backlash of temperature variations to human species as well as the ecology of the earth, a lot more needs to be done urgently to arrest an impending global disaster.

A few of the most dangerous consequences of climate change can be discussed ranging from risks to wildlife, increased risk of drought, fire, floods and stronger storms hitting the earth – and to be fair, these are occurrences that will surely impact our lives and places we care about and have evidently ravaged regions in the Americas, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.

Sandstorms in the gulf region, tsunamis in Asia and severe drought in parts of Africa are testament to the debilitating consequences of climate change – at least scientists have proven.

Temperature changes have been scientifically proven to be directly related to
more heat-related illnesses and diseases which may include heat strokes, exhaustions, cramps and rash and Ghana has not been spared some of these cases.

A changing climate thus affects population health: clean air and water, sufficient food, natural constraints on infectious disease agents, and the adequacy and security of shelter. A more variable climate leads to higher levels of some air pollutants and more frequent extreme weather events. 

It subsequently increases the rates and ranges of transmission of infectious diseases through unclean water and contaminated food, and by affecting vector organisms and intermediate host species that harbor the infectious agent (such as cattle and rodents).

As warming proceeds, the severity of weather-related disasters will increase - and appears to have done so in a number of regions of the world over the past several decades. 

Therefore, in summary, global warming, together with resultant changes in food and water supplies, can indirectly cause increases in a range of adverse health outcomes, including malnutrition, diarrhea, injuries, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and water-borne and insect-transmitted diseases. 

A World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health report, points out that disadvantaged communities are likely to shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of climate change because of their increased exposure and vulnerability to health threats. 

Over 90 percent of malaria and diarrhea deaths are borne by children aged 5 years or younger, mostly in developing countries whose annual Gross Domestic Product and income returns are unable to meet the economic needs of these countries.

Other severely affected population groups include women, the elderly and people living in small developing states and other coastal regions, mega-cities or mountainous areas.

Droughts and floods are constantly destroying especially the crops and harvest of farmers in developing countries, leaving them in a miserable situation. In most of the African countries, and in Ghana specifically, the majority of the workforce is working in the agricultural sector (largest income earner) but their contributions are only a little percentage to the national Gross Domestic Product of these countries.

 Most of the farmers live in sincere poverty, struggling with life and are often forced to accept a second or third job in order to survive, yet their farms are not spared the devastation of the climate.

Rain-fed agriculture, which is the most practiced in these parts are greatly affected – farmers are not able to predict correctly the rainfall patterns for similar reasons of temperature and climate variations. These are the harsh realities peasants and commercial farmers have to contend with.

In parts of Ghana, and other African countries, the slightest rains leave magnitudes of flood in their wake, submerging plantations, destroying properties and livelihoods.

Recent reports of floods in the Upper East and Upper West regions are evidences to the worrying trend, which has become an annual occurrence – leaving the country to cough up resources to provide relief facilities to displaced persons in such areas.

A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009, estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $125
billion in economic losses each year, and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries.

It has therefore emerged a necessary evil to discuss the vulnerability of the poor with regard to climate change and possible adaptation and mitigation strategies which have to be developed by all stakeholders in the country, if not the entire West African and African regions.

Climate change is thought to have brought about severe and permanent alterations to the planet’s geological, biological and ecological systems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contended in 2003 that “there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities”. 

These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health, such as extreme weather, ozone depletion, increased danger of wildland fires, loss of biodiversity, stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 160,000 deaths, since 1950, are directly attributable to climate change, and this is desperately unacceptable – to which countries must rise up to.

Till date, a neglected aspect of the climate change debate, has been on the geophysical changes related to global warming, while a lot of the concentration and attention has almost always been on the impacts of climate change on health, food supply, economic growth, migration, security, societal change, and public goods, such as drinking water.

Climatic changes in Siberia, for instance, are expected to improve food production and local economic activity, at least in the short to medium term. Numerous studies suggest, however, that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative.

The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world, who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health, wealth and other factors, and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change.

Patterns of production, particularly the production of toxic constituents, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste are being scrutinized in a systematic manner by the UN and governments alike; with the proposition of alternative sources of energy to effectively replace the use of fossil fuels which are linked to global climate change.

New reliance on public transportation systems is being advocated for, in order to reduce emissions from vehicles, congestion in cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and environment.

And this advocacy is gaining grounds in Ghana, with the imminent introduction of an integrated bus transit system by governments, expected to take effect by close of year.

In 2007, the IPCC published a report of key vulnerabilities of industry, settlements, and society to climate change. This assessment included a level of confidence for each key vulnerability:.

Many think the much talked about climate change and its repercussions are far away from them – but the earlier these groups of people become alive to the realities of the day, the better for them and the nation.

How about if I told you climate change has dire psychological impacts on individuals?

Well, a 2011 article in the American Psychologist Report, identified three classes of psychological impacts from global climate change which directly or otherwise hits the human population.

While the direct may be acute or traumatic effects of extreme weather events and a changed environment, the indirect has to do with threats to emotional well-being based on observation of impacts and concern or uncertainty about future risks.

Nobody can do any decent work in a condition of psychological imbalances – therefore health officials have constantly advocated a new regime of health awareness and health consciousness which will see individuals begin to take issues of their health a tad more seriously.

Climate change may dramatically impact habitat loss, for example, arid conditions may cause the collapse of rainforests, as has occurred in the past. 

A sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35° C, is a threshold at which the resilience of human systems is no longer able to adequately cool the skin.

Not only would the habitats and greeneries of the countries be affected, but also water bodies and other natural resources

And when these happen and rise to exponential heights, human population as well as other living species will die.

Scientists have predicted an extinction of all living races in the coming centuries- but if this must be prevented, it starts from now! 

Human activities, which have long been described as the overriding cause of the variations in climate and weather conditions must somehow be looked at critically.

It is only if serious action is taken in this regard, that we would as a generation potentially spare ourselves of the predicted extinction scientists talk about. 

The Time is Now!

(Kingsley Komla Adom)