Tackling major environmental issues of our time

BY DOYIN ADEOYE
“What about sunrise;
What about rain…
What about killing fields…
Did you ever stop to notice;
The crying earth the weeping shores?
What have we done to the world;
What about flowering fields…
What about animals…”

When pop legend, Michael Jackson released the track, ‘Earth Song,’ in 1995, which overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare, not many envisaged that a time would come when environmental issues would be at the fore of global discourse, and attract a major global concern. That time is now.
Two decades after the release of the song, the situation has deteriorated, with global environmental issues becoming more alarming as the years go by.
Over four decades after the first Earth Day in 1970, there still exist many environmental concerns for communities around the world to address. From global warming, to overpopulation, water and air pollution, waste management and deforestation, among other issues, our environment is constantly changing.

Overpopulation
With human population growing like never before, overpopulation is probably the most pressing environmental issue the world is currently facing. The list of problems associated with this increase includes shortages of resources, war and social conflict, overcrowding, as well as the health and survival of other species.
“As of July 1, 2015, the total number of living humans on earth was 7.349 billion,” the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division reported. Nigeria, for instance, has a population of over 170 million people.
Overpopulation, no doubt, triggers most of the other environmental issues. As human population increases, so does the demand for natural resources. While tackling inaccessibility to clean water remains a global issue, addressing water pollution from individuals, factories, open mines and other sources is also a major concern.

With the population growth is also an increase in the demand for food production and since the arable land in many of the overpopulated regions is limited, farmers then begin to cultivate nutrient-poor areas that are not very suitable for farming. In other cases, deforestation occurs as forest area is burned and converted into pasture.
A study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Environment Outlook which involved 1,400 scientists and five years worth of work to prepare, found that “Human consumption had far outstripped available resources. Each person on earth now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the planet can supply.”

Pollution
Air, water, soil and noise pollution are issues that cannot be overemphasised as they create a great deal of global threat. While air pollution occurs when there is an emission of gases and toxins into the air we breathe, water pollution is caused by oil spills or waste products being released into lakes, rivers, and other water bodies.
Noise pollution on the other hand, occurs when sound goes beyond the recommended limit. Noise from aircraft, vehicles and even religious centres, among others, are harmful to the environment.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), seven million people across the globe died as a result of both indoor and outdoor air pollution in 2012, with one in eight of total global deaths, a result of air pollution exposure.
The UNEP estimated that more than one billion people are exposed to outdoor air pollution annually, with urban air pollution linked to up to one million premature deaths and one million pre-native deaths each year.
“Urban air pollution is estimated to cost approximately two per cent of GDP in developed countries and five per cent in developing countries. Rapid urbanisation has resulted in increasing urban air pollution in major cities, especially in developing countries. Over 90 per cent of air pollution in cities in these countries is attributed to vehicle emissions brought about by high number of older vehicles coupled with poor vehicle maintenance, inadequate infrastructure and low fuel quality,” a UNEP report said.

Deforestation
With forests covering about 30 per cent of the earth’s land, if the current rate of deforestation continues, it will take less than 100 years to destroy all the rainforests on the earth.
Creating a global concern, many forests have been destroyed in order to make the land available for other uses. Between 1990 and 2005, the rate of deforestation has averaged about 13 million hectares a year, occurring mostly in tropical countries.
“We are now losing about 200 square kilometres, an equivalent of 18,100 soccer playing fields, daily,”    the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN REDD) said.
“The loss of forests releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The forestry sector, mainly through deforestation, accounts for about 17 per cent of global greenhouse emissions, making it the second largest greenhouse source after the energy sector,” it added.
An estimated 18 million acres of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Besides resulting in the loss of habitat for many species, deforestation also aids climate change, because trees absorb the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, so cutting down trees in the forests, in turn aids global warming.

Waste Disposal
Besides the diverse health effects associated with improper waste disposal, the threats it poses to the environment cannot be overlooked, as waste management activities across many nations, especially the developing ones are just emerging.
From solid to organic and industrial waste, waste that ends up in water bodies negatively change the chemical composition of the water. According to a report in January 2016 produced by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the world’s oceans may have more plastic debris than fish by the year 2050.
Consistent waste disposal on some sites also harms plants when they take up the contamination through their roots.  Besides this, when humans eat plants and animals that have been in contact with such polluted soils, there can also be negative impact on their health, hence, the spread of some diseases.

Global warming
Climate change has grown to become the defining challenge of our generation. Occurring as a result of a rise in global warming due to increase in temperature of atmosphere by burning of fossil fuels and release of harmful gases by industries, Africa is basically at the receiving end of the impacts of climate change.
Given the continent’s geographical position, coupled with the limited adaptive capacity,
Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 projected that by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people in Africa are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change.
In the same year, yields from rain-fed agriculture in some countries could reduce by up to 50 per cent, and this in turn would further have an adverse effect on food security in the continent.