GEO 350 (AFRICA)

CLIMATE CHANGE
Causes, Effects and Solutions
Submission date
10/15/2018

Name: AJIBOLA ABDUL-RAHMAN AKINTOMIWA; Matric number: 200644;

It is important to note that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC],
uses “Climate change” for human induced change, with the term “Variability” for changes due to natural
phenomenon [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC]

CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is caused both by natural occurrences, and mainly by human actions on the
environment. The natural causes of climate change is, as a result of variations in earth’s orbit, variation
in ocean circulation, variation in albedo of the continents, as well as variation in solar radiation. The
human causes are, however, results of deforestation, air pollution, and poor agricultural practices such
as bush burning, excess and wrong application of inorganic fertilizer, burning of fossil fuels, urbanization,

industralisation, inefficient transport system, among others.

Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of
the "greenhouse effect" — warming that result when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth
toward space.

Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-
permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature
are described as "forcing" climate change. Gases, such as water vapor, which respond physically or
chemically to changes in temperature, are seen as "feedbacks."

Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include:

 Water vapor. The most abundant greenhouse gas, but importantly, it acts as a feedback to the
climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth's atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of
clouds and precipitation, making these some of the most important feedback mechanisms to
the greenhouse effect.

 Carbon dioxide (CO2). A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon
dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and
through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels.
Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by more than a third since the Industrial
Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived "forcing" of climate change.

 Methane. A hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities,
including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as

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 well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock. On a
molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide,
but also one which is much less abundant in the atmosphere.

 Nitrous oxide. A powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the
use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and
biomass burning.

 Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Synthetic compounds entirely of industrial origin used in a number

On Earth, human activities are changing the natural greenhouse. Over the last century the burning of
fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This
happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2. To
a lesser extent, the clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased
concentrations of greenhouse gases.

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The consequences of changing the natural atmospheric greenhouse are difficult to predict, but certain
effects seem likely:

 On average, Earth will become warmer. Some regions may welcome warmer temperatures, but
others may not.

 Warmer conditions will probably lead to more evaporation and precipitation overall, but
individual regions will vary, some becoming wetter and others dryer.

 A stronger greenhouse effect will warm the oceans and partially melt glaciers and other ice,
increasing sea level. Ocean water also will expand if it warms, contributing further to sea level
rise.

 Meanwhile, some crops and other plants may respond favorably to increased atmospheric CO2,
growing more vigorously and using water more efficiently. At the same time, higher
temperatures and shifting climate patterns may change the areas where crops grow best and
affect the makeup of natural plant communities.

Specifically in Nigeria, the year 2017 witnessed series of climate-related disasters in Nigeria, ranging
from the increased health risk, declining agricultural productivity, biodiversity loss, drying lakes, famine,
conflicts or social unrest, poverty, worsening food insecurity situation, heat stress, declining soil capacity
for agricultural production, increased natural disaster, extreme weather events, among others.

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 One of the major country-specific effects of climate change in Nigeria is declining agricultural
productivity, which is due to the irregular and unpredictable farming calendar. The usual April-
October rainy season and the October-March dry season is no longer a constant as it has been
for some decades now. Farmers now plant in the midst of great uncertainties, thus resulting in
untold losses, for their investment waste away from lack of rainfall at the right time.
Consequently, this result in decline in productivity, and the income of Nigerian farmers, as well
as a likely fall in the agriculture share of GDP, which stands at 29.15% of Q3-2017 GDP figure
[NBS] and employment.

 Another [indirect] effect of climate change is the issue of clashes between herdsmen and
farmers, which is a serious and prevailing social problem in Nigeria. Due to the problem of
rainfall variability, caused by climate change, herdsmen in the core North, now push down South
more frequently, in order to feed their cattle on farmers’ cultivation. This has mutated over time
in the destruction of investments and efforts, while also attacking outspoken farmers, a
situation for which hundreds of lives have been brutally lost in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Ogun
and several other states, a stat corroborated by the National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA).

Decades ago, pastures were arguably available at reasonable level in both the North and South
of Nigeria, and these clashes were almost non-existent. Evidence is seen from the changing
nature of the nation’s ecological zones. Hence, we see serious clashes result, because these
nomadic herdsmen want to satisfactorily feed their cattle, often at the expense of farmers’
cultivation. This issue needs urgent unbiased action in Nigeria now. The support of the
international community at this point will be valued, as the Nigerian government has not been
able to give satisfactory, non-ethnical and proactive solutions, while lives are wasting away.

 There is also an increasing rate of natural disasters and extreme weather events. Northern
Nigeria is becoming more of a drought-prone area, with an advancing desert, already
encroaching southward, thus making the few cultivable lands of the north, almost uncultivable.
Flooding is no small issue in Nigeria, with hundreds of thousands of people, agribusiness and
property lost in 2017, in Benue State, Kano, Lagos and other states [according to NEMA]. It is
now a robust mechanism for numerous diseases to breed, especially vector-borne diseases like
Malaria [WHO puts Nigeria as the nation with the highest Malaria casualties worldwide]. And
because of drought, children, especially in the North, now stand at risk of malnutrition.

According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria currently has the highest number
of malnourished children, who are under the age of five. The erosion of low-lying coastal and
non-coastal regions of Nigeria is also disaster, which is also causing buildings to collapse, with
attendant loss of lives, while also raising construction cost as its implication.

 Of important concern also are the drying lakes in Nigeria, with the drying Lake Chad, which is at
the junction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger as a valid reference point. Andrew Bamford,
a British investigative journalist, on 14th April, 2006, reported that the lake is now less than 500

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 square miles of water due to global warming. The consequences of the drying of these lakes
include loss of means of livelihood of citizens that borders these lakes, who depend on it for
farming, fishing, drinking and animal husbandry, as well as unrest and forced migration which
places burden on the new location they are relocating to.

 Another very important effect of climate change in Nigeria is the declining soil carrying capacity
and heat related problems on humans, crops and livestock. Due to deforestation, trees which
should serve as cover for soil against the harsh sunshine, are felled indiscriminately, thereby,
exposing soils and reducing soils productive capacity, and thus, creating problems for agriculture
in Nigeria. Heat-related incidents are on the rise, as well as heat stress (hyperthermia) on both
crops and livestock, because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, leading to high losses in
crop and livestock production.

 According to a report compiled in 2010, investigations revealed that over 200 people were killed
by meningitis in Nigeria and Niger Republic in one week. There were outbreaks in 76 areas.
There were 25,000 suspected cases and 1, 500 deaths in the first quarter of 2009. Although
meningitis is a disease caused by an infection of the meanings, which is the thin lining that
surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, experts have found a correlation between the weather
and this disease. It is generally known that the disease attacks more people during the dry
season because of dust, wind and cold nights. There were indications in the past one month that
many people were treated for acute pneumonia in some hospitals as a result of the erratic and
unpredictable weather.

 Finally, climate change has cost Nigeria an increasing loss of biodiversity, from which several
problems have emerged, such as the destruction of marine ecosystem, loss of nature’s balance,
as well as destruction of freshwater resources. This situation currently poses problems for man,
as he cannot live in isolation, but in interdependence with his environment. Failure to protect
the environment is like a death penalty, hence, we must, as a center of focus, ensure that the
protection of the Nigerian ecosystem is not undermined

PROTOCOLS TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is one of the most complex issues facing us today. It involves many dimensions –
science, economics, society, politics and moral and ethical questions – and is a global problem, felt on
local scales, that will be around for decades and centuries to come. Carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping
greenhouse gas that has driven recent global warming, lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years,
and the planet (especially the oceans) takes a while to respond to warming. So even if we stopped
emitting all greenhouse gases today, global warming and climate change will continue to affect future
generations. In this way, humanity is “committed” to some level of climate change.

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How much climate change? That will be determined by how our emissions continue and also exactly
how our climate system responds to those emissions. Despite increasing awareness of climate change,
our emissions of greenhouse gases continue on a relentless rise. In 2013, the daily level of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. The last
time levels were that high was about three to five million years ago, during the Pliocene era.

Because we are already committed to some level of climate change, responding to climate change
involves a two-pronged approach:

1. Reducing emissions of and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere (“mitigation”);

2. Adapting to the climate change already in the pipeline (“adaptation”).

Mitigation and adaptation

Mitigation – reducing climate change – involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere, either by reducing sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil fuels
for electricity, heat or transport) or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such
as the oceans, forests and soil). The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant human interference with the
climate system, and “stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to
adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable
economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner” (from the 2014 report on Mitigation of
Climate Change from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, page 4).

Adaptation – adapting to life in a changing climate – involves adjusting to actual or expected future
climate. The goal is to reduce our vulnerability to the harmful effects of climate change (like sea-level
encroachment, more intense extreme weather events or food insecurity). It also encompasses making
the most of any potential beneficial opportunities associated with climate change (for example, longer
growing seasons or increased yields in some regions).

Throughout history, people and societies have adjusted to and coped with changes in climate and
extremes with varying degrees of success. Climate change (drought in particular) has been at least partly
responsible for the rise and fall of civilizations. Earth’s climate has been relatively stable for the past
12,000 years and this stability has been crucial for the development of our modern civilization and life as
we know it. Modern life is tailored to the stable climate we have become accustomed to. As our climate
changes, we will have to learn to adapt. The faster the climate changes, the harder it could be.

While climate change is a global issue, it is felt on a local scale. Cities and municipalities are therefore at
the frontline of adaptation. In the absence of national or international climate policy direction, cities and
local communities around the world have been focusing on solving their own climate problems. They
are working to build flood defenses, plan for heat waves and higher temperatures, install water-
permeable pavements to better deal with floods and storm water and improve water storage and use.

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According to the 2014 report on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (page 8) from
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, governments at various levels are also
getting better at adaptation. Climate change is starting to be factored into a variety of development
plans: how to manage the increasingly extreme disasters we are seeing and their associated risks, how
to protect coastlines and deal with sea-level encroachment, how to best manage land and forests, how
to deal with and plan for reduced water availability, how to develop resilient crop varieties and how to
protect energy and public infrastructure.

REFERENCES

https://climate.nasa.gov/solutions/adaptation-mitigation/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

https://www.tribuneonlineng.com/130019/

http://wearerestless.org/2015/12/10/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-nigeria/