Some environmental practitioners say tree planting will go a long way in arresting the worsening changing climate.
The environmentalists spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, November 11, 2019 in Lagos ahead of the “Global Climate Strike” to be held Nov. 29 in Lagos.
Ms Omobola Eko, the convener of the Urban Tree Revival Team (UTRT), said that trees remove carbon from the air and purifies it for human intake.
“If the machine that easily removes toxins from the atmosphere is a tree, why can’t we cultivate the tradition of planting trees to help save the environment?
“The forthcoming climate action will focus on people taking it as a tradition to plant trees.
“The rally will come up with messages in different Nigerian languages in radio giggles to reach the target audience.
“The rate at which the world temperature is increasing, especially in tropical Africa should be of concern to everybody.
“We need to balance the rising tide before it causes great damage to human habitat and the natural way to do this is by tree planting,’’ she said.
According to her, the rate of greenhouse emission in recent times with global industrialisation and fumes from automobile exhausts and unrestricted felling of trees contributes to unhealthy weather conditions.
She charged Nigerians not to wait to be compelled before planting trees.
Eko said that personal efforts of everyone at planting trees would be an effective remedy to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Dr Desmond Majekodunmi, the Chief Executive Officer of LUFASI Nature Park, Lekki, Lagos said that the Climate Peer Review Study carried out recently showed that efforts should be doubled in planting trees.
Majekodunmi said that the government should, therefore, regulate felling of trees to prevent desertification.
By Uchenna Eletuo
