An environmentalist, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, on Thursday, September 15, 2022, said that the adverse effects of climate change, notably floods, rising temperatures and drought, are due to the abuse of the rights of nature.
The environmentalist described climate change as nature’s way of reacting to human activities that distort its dynamics and balance.
Bassey, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), who spoke at a virtual forum entitled “Conversations with Nature”, attributed the current climate crisis to the dependence on fossil fuels.
He noted that nature has been resilient and endured several decades of destructive human activities in the extractive industry.
The industry has been in search of fossil fuels which emit green house gases that hurt the ecosystem.
Bassey, who holds a national honour of Member of Order of Federal Republic for Environmental Activism, co-hosted the conversation with Mfoniso Antia, Lead, Ikike Desk, the learning organ of HOMEF.
The environmental rights activist recommended that diversifying the energy sources and shifting away from fossils hold the key to solving the problems of global warming, distorted global ecology, amongst others.
“The world has carried on as if there is just one source of energy. Beyond fossils, there are so many sources of energy that do not destroy natural resources and they are renewables.
“To get out of the climate crisis starring the world in the face, we need to switch to renewable energy sources and stop ecologically destructive activities.
“We need to go back to ‘Eti Uwem’ which stands for the good life in Ibibio language. It encompasses communal and cooperative living as opposed to individualism.
“From recent developments and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have come to realise that we are all interconnected and hence the need to reverse the extractive paradigms that destroyed natural biodiversity,” Bassey said.
He called on world leaders to end gas flaring so as to put an to the emission of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.
The forum, an initiative of HOMEF’s School of Ecology, drew participants from the group’s volunteers in all states of the federation and outside the country.
By Nathan Nwakamma
