'Global Warming, Global Warning!'

Last week, a former student of mine from the Seventh-day Adventist Teacher Training College in Asokore-Koforidua in Ghana during the 80s who is now residing in London, England called me reminded me of an article I published in Ghana’s leading newspaper-the Daily Graphic over 20 years ago. My article was titled, “Global Warming, Global Warning”

Why did my former student bring up a featured article I wrote over 20 years ago for discussion? Our earth has been experiencing unprecedented warming which many environmentalists (including myself) have warned against over the years but has been unfortunately ignored by world politicians and developers at the detriment of all living today and generation even unborn!

It is no secret that extreme heat waves sweeping across the globe from Europe to Asia to North America to Africa and Australia causing widespread bushfires, unhealthy emissions into the atmosphere and, on the other extreme devastating floods are the buildup results of global warming.

As I write some parts of California in USA, British Columbia in Canada and parts of Europe are battling uncontrollable wildfires. In Africa, the Sahara desert is rapidly expanding its territory from the north down south as far as West Africa.

Many other poor countries are hit by drought resulting in food shortages and famine. The Arctic Region is experiencing unprecedented warm temperatures causing drifting of icebergs in the oceans and threat to aquatic life. It is undeniable that, both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.

The Holy Scriptures testify that the earth was created for our use and keep. It is therefore our responsibility to keep and use wisely our environment for development. Greediness and political idiosyncrasies have driven many to destroy the very earth which is the bedrock of human survival.

Global warming or climate change is real! It is on record that, “The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.”

Activities like illegal mining, uncontrolled emission of carbon gases from huge manufacturing industries, irresponsible felling of trees, pollution of rivers, to mention a few, have deprived the earth of its natural cycle of sustainability. Unsustainable development is killing most of our natural resources around the world.

“The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.

“Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with the five warmest years on record taking place since 2010. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months.”-nasa/research/news/20170118/ As I have often said, knowledge without ACTION is useless! Let’s therefore put our knowledge on global warming into action to prevent further catastrophic consequences of climate change. We must join EcoSchools to lead our students in tree planting and protection of natural resources in our local areas.

We must be advocates for the environment and ask the politicians we have voted to lead our countries around the world to fight carbon emissions, illegal mining and unauthorized physical development through enacted laws that seek to protect the environment.

Politicians who defy the reality of global warming must be punished through the ballot box. We must all join hands, wherever we are to fight the threat of global warming, for, climate change is real. Global Warming, Global Warning!