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Cuthbert Mavheko
Environmental problems are a hot topic worldwide and one would not be totally incorrect to conjecture that the challenges will worsen in the future if something is not done now to solve them.
There is consensus among some scientists and world leaders that unless there is a collective effort by all the nations to combat environmental degradation, mankind’s days on mother earth may be numbered.
These gloomy prognostications cannot be without some justification. In most parts of the world today we have polluted seas, oceans, lakes, dams and rivers, rapidly disappearing forests, wide-spread land degradation, leaking toxic wastes, a climate-changing green house effect and the destruction of the earth’s protective ozone layer.
This has culminated in violent cyclones, hurricanes and tornadoes battering coastal regions and leaving a trail of death and destruction.
For many years now, alarm bells have been ringing all over the world, warning mankind that global environmental degradation poses a grave threat to civilisation.
“The earth is slowly dying, and the end of life on this planet is becoming a frightening reality,” warned Mrs Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister of Great Britain in a closing address of the Saving the Ozone Layer Conference held in London on March 7, 1989.
The World-Watch Institute in Washington DC in the US constantly monitors the earth and proffers an annual physical examination by checking its vital signs. One of its reports titled — “State of the World”, which was released a few years ago, revealed that humanity is heading towards “ecological cosmocide”.
According to the report, the earth’s forests are shrinking; its deserts are expanding and its soils are eroding at imagination-defying levels.
Over and above this, each year thousands of plant and animal species are becoming extinct and the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects us from ultraviolet radiation, is thinning.
Scientists and environmentalists warn that the ozone “blanket” that surrounds planet earth, and which makes life on the planet possible by screening out the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, is being depleted by certain chemicals, the major culprits being chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Chlorofluorocarbons are used in air conditioners, refrigerators, cleaning solvents and plastic foams. In some countries they are also used in aerosol cans, but a number of countries have since banned their use.
Research has shown that CFCs destroy molecules of ozone, an oxygen-like gas which is naturally found in the upper atmosphere. When researchers, a few years ago, discovered that over Halley Bay, Antarctica, a 40 percent loss in ozone occurred at certain times of the year they concluded that CFCs were responsible.
Methane gas, which mostly comes from decomposition in rice paddies, swamps, the stomachs of cows and wood digestion in termites, is also believed to be a major cause of ozone depletion. Scientists say methane gas destroys ozone by aiding the formation of ice clouds, which act as catalysts to help CFCs do their destructive work.
The State of the World Report further indicates that the temperatures of the earth are rising phenomenally, causing heat waves in many countries. This, according to the report, is causing a threat of unknown dimensions to virtually all the life-support systems on which humans depend.
Scientists are today convinced that unless humanity stops polluting the air with gases like carbon dioxide, CFCs and methane gas which trap solar heat in the atmosphere, we can expect our climate to get hotter, causing massive crop failures and, as polar ice caps melt, major coastal flooding.
What we mostly read about the greenhouse effect is that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising considerably because in some parts of the world people are using fossil fuels. They are cutting down trees, burning them as firewood and discharging large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
It is insightful to note that carbon dioxide acts like the glass in a greenhouse. It traps heat, leading to a significant rise in world temperatures.
This, in turn, melts polar ice caps, raising worldwide sea levels and causing dramatic changes in global weather patterns.
An opinion survey of 14 countries, which was conducted for the United Nations’ Environmental Programme a few years ago, found that 90 percent of leaders in these countries felt that preserving the environment and protecting the land, oceans, rivers and the air for future generations should be the priority of governments the world over.
The World Heath Organisation (WHO) reports that approximately seven million people worldwide die from air pollution every year, with about four million of these deaths occurring in Asia Pacific. And nine out of 10 people the world over are exposed to levels of air pollution which exceed those deemed safe by the WHO.
Scientists also warn that industrial gases emitted especially in developed nations like the US, the UK and others, are depleting levels of ozone in the atmosphere.
As I have already said, the ozone is a gas that screens out the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Some researchers predict that we may witness a 5 to 6 percent increase in skin cancers for every one percent decrease in ozone. It is crucially important to note that more than half of the world’s approximately 4, 3 million annual deaths from cancer occur in developing countries.
Authorities estimate that 30 percent of the cancers are caused by tobacco and 20 to 35 percent are thought to be caused by faulty diet.
The other major causes of cancer are believed to be those related to occupational or environmental hazards, including over-exposure to sunlight.
WHO reports that most of the approximately 1.8 billion people living in the world’s urban centers breathe heavily polluted air.
It just cannot be overstated that caring for the environment is every government’s responsibility. Action by scattered individuals is just not enough to solve the host of environmental problems that we face worldwide today. As I personally see it, it is the prime responsibility of governments the world over to co-ordinate efforts in their respective countries in order to solve the massive environmental challenges that dog the world today.
Sadly though, very few governments appear to have the will, desire and zeal to implement comprehensive strategies to combat environmental degradation in their respective countries.
President Mnangagwa has shown keen interest in fighting environmental pollution in the country. Since assuming the reins of power in November 2017, President Mnangagwa has led from the front in addressing environmental challenges facing the country. One of the things that he has done is to introduce the National Clean-up Campaign.
The thrust of this campaign which is conducted on the first Friday of each month is to mobilise, educate and enlighten the general populace on the need to keep their environs clean in order to stop the spread of diseases.
President Mnangagwa has also thrown his weight behind the National Tree-planting initiative, which encourages Zimbabweans to plant more and more trees in order to replenish the country’s dwindling forests.
This program was introduced in the country out of the realisation that trees are part of the natural systems that sustain and regenerate the world and should therefore be preserved.
λ Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance journalist living in Bulawayo. Contact details-Mobile phone number: 0773 963 448; email [email protected]
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