Nigerian Journal of Energy and Environmental Economics
Volume 6, No.2, December, 2014
AFRICA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN IN GLOBAL CHANGE By Paul C. Iregbenu*, Maria C. Uzonwanne & Uche C. Nwogwugwu Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. *
[email protected] Abstract The world is changing and continues to change. Looking around, we observe various advancements in science, technology, climate, arts, culture, economy and politics. These advancements are welcomed especially when the resultant effects are auspicious to us. But, it is the case that these advancements do not totally yield effects that are positive. As a corollary, we are placed in a state of indecision: Are we to opt for these advancements, which propel global change and at the same time, to some extent, jeopardize our continued existence in this planet or do we jettison these advancements and remain in the primitive, which does not on its own, guarantee our continued existence in this planet? Such conundrum is the case for Africa. In the face of global change, Africa, either due to her being unprepared or her lacking of ideas of what next steps to take, has encountered many problems. The most critical of these problems is the one that concerns her natural environment. In truth, Africa has inherited a hazardous-living environment. The question we are left with is: Where will Africans live after the global change? In this respect, this paper tried to examine Africa’s environmental concern as she participates in the global change. To do this, content analysis was adopted. The objective of this paper was to bring to the limelight the many ways Africa could be helped with regard to her hazardous environment as she experiences the fast-moving global change. Keywords: Africa, Global change, Environmental concern
INTRODUCTION: Grappling with the Reality of Global Change There is no gainsaying the fact that the world in which we all inhabit is undergoing change or rather is in flux. This change is easily felt. No wonder, in 1980, a group of scientists led by Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin organized an international programme, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council for Science (ICSU). This programme was set up “to determine whether the climate was changing, whether climate could be predicted and whether humans were in some way responsible for the change” (“Global Change”). As time went on, it was discovered that climate change was a part of a larger phenomenon, global change. Hence, it could be implied that this change that is easily felt, is not just one but multifarious. Still bothered by global change, “in 1987, a team of researchers led, again by Bert Bolin, James McCarthy, Paul Crutzen, 1
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H. Oeschger and others, successfully argued for an international research programme to investigate global change” (“Global Change”). This programme - International GeosphereBiosphere Programme (IGBP), sponsored by ICSU, has eight projects “investigating different parts of the Earth system and links between them” (“Global Change”). Added to these aforementioned two programmes is the International Human Dimension Programme (IHDP) founded in 1996. These foregoing programmes precipitated a much needed science conference that was held in Amsterdam in 2001. The conference, Challenges of a Changing Earth: Global Change Open Science, led to the Amsterdam Declaration which stated, In addition to the threat of significant climate change, there is a growing concern over the ever-increasing human modification of other aspects of the global environment and the consequent implications for human well-being. Basic goods and services supplied by the planetary life support system, such as food, water, clean air and an environment conducive to human health, are being affected increasingly by global change (“Global Change”). The declaration did not conclude without urging that an ethical framework for global stewardship and strategies for Earth system management should be adopted. To make a case for global change, when we look around our environment we will observe that our environment has always been altered by us right from the time we began cultivation about 10000 years ago, which brought a radical change in land use to the event of industrial revolution in 1750. Followed by the 1900s when large-scale manufacture of fertilizers was allowed. Moreover, it was in the 1950s that global change stepped up its gear. “Between 1950 and 2010, the (world’s) population more than doubled” (“Global Change”). As a result, “there was a tenfold increase in economic activity and the world’s human population became more tightly connected than ever before” (“Global Change”). In fact, about 70 percent of the world’s freshwater resource is now used for agriculture. This rises to 90 percent in India and China. Half of the Earth’s land surface had now been domesticated. By 2010, urban, for the first time, exceeded rural population. And there has been a fivefold increase in fertilizer use…Without artificial fertilizers
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there would not be enough food to sustain a population of six billion people (“Global Change”). The aftermath of this is worrisome: we experience high concentrations of important greenhouse gases: carbon-dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The world’s fisheries are over-exploited. Large percentage of tropical rain forests is vanishing. It has reached a point in which man’s continued existence on earth is gravely threatened. At this juncture, in order not to stray from the set-out goal of this paper, it is pertinent to point out that our concern here is about Africa’s position in the global change. This global change we have considered as real and multifarious, how does it affects Africa? It is to this that we shall seek to understand deeply Africa’s place in the global change especially as it concerns the African environment. But before that, a clarification of global change used here, and what constitutes the environmental concern of Africa in the face of global change will be made. CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION Global Change By global change, one refers to “planetary-scale changes in the Earth system” (“Global Change”).This earth system includes land, atmosphere, life, oceans, earth’s natural cycles and deep earth processes. Beyond these, it consists of the human society (“Global Change”). In fact, as a result, one can safely refer to global change as large-scale changes in the society (“Global Change”). In a more complete sense, the term, “global change” encompasses: “population, climate, the economy resource use, energy development, transport, communication, land use and land cover, urbanization, globalization, atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the water cycle and other cycles, sea ice loss, sea level rise, food webs, biological diversity, pollution, health, over fishing, and more” (“Global Change”). Braced with this sense, a search for the possible causes of global change becomes imperative. It has been argued in the past that the main propellers of global change have been solar output, plate tectonics, volcanism, proliferation and abatement of life, meteorite impact, resource depletion, changes in earth’s movement around the sun and transformation in the tilt of earth on its axis (“Global Change”).However, as we can discover, there is an overwhelming evidence that now the chief propeller of global change “is the growing human population’s demand for energy, food, goods and services and information, and its disposal of its waste products” (“Global Change”). As a result of this global change made possible by the growing human population’s demand, we now suffer from ozone depletion, climate change, widespread species extinction, air and water pollution, desertification, and other large-scale shifts. It has reached a stage which certain scientists working on International Geosphere-Biosphere programme referred to the earth, we inhabit, as a “no analogue state” (“Global Change”). 3
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Africa’s Environmental Concern Africa has been caught unaware by this global change. We witnessed the surge in population of Africans in the past twenty years. This situation, earlier welcomed, is now telling on us, Africans. There has been a corresponding rise in human population’s demands. And meeting these demands has brought an untold hardship and hazards to our African environment. There are now cases of environment problems like deforestation, land degradation and fragmentation, desertification, the loss of soil fertility, a dramatic decline and loss of biodiversity, air and water pollution. “These problems hinder Africa from making progress with regard to economic development” (“What are the Major”). Worse still, they threaten Africans’ continued existence on earth. It is also claimed that due to the fact that these environmental problems are not fully construed by Africans, the urgency of rendering a panacea to these problems has been lacking (“What are the Major”). Having said this, we shall now render an account of the nature of these environmental problems Africans suffer as a result of global change. a.
Deforestation The first of the pack is deforestation. For some time now, Africa is not only witnessing increase in human population but also, there has been an increased migration to urban areas from rural areas. And as a result, forested areas have been transformed not just into agricultural areas but also, habitable areas. The definition of deforestation as rendered by De Blij, Murphy, & Fouberg (2007) says it all. According to it, deforestation is “the clearing and destruction of forests to harvest wood for consumption, clear land for agricultural uses, and make way for expanding settlement frontiers.” The reality as we have it now is the constant loss of woods in Africa.
b.
Land Degradation and Fragmentation Ever since the global change, Africa has continually experienced at a fast pace land degradation and fragmentation. In short, every day the African environment is further degraded not only by man-made but also, natural causes. Degradation, according to Mabogunje (1995), is “the temporary or permanent deterioration in the density or structure of vegetation cover or species composition, resulting from the removal of plants and trees important in the life cycle of other species, from erosion, and from other adverse changes in the local environment.” The idea exuded by the term, land degradation here is that the quality of African land or soil has been spoilt or destroyed. “Degradation occurs only where actions lead to damaging alterations to the soil system and to plant cover (“What are the Major”). In fact, "degradation is caused by selective logging and by not replanting artificial or regenerating natural forests" (“What are the Major”). Here, we talk of wearing out of land in Africa as a result of oil drilling and spillage, and the continuous farming on a particular area of land without allowing the land to recover. Added to these man-made causes, we have natural causes like wind and 4
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water, which on its own respectively, induces erosion to the land in Africa. Attesting to this are the dry-land areas in sub-Saharan Africa. The issue here is that African land or soil has deteriorated in the sense that it does account for loss of nutrients and aggravating this, is the fact that this African soil has poor rate of recovery. Pertinent to note also is that degradation could occur to wetlands especially when we build dams and rivers (Mabogunje, 1995). The issue of fragmentation arises from human intrusions in forest areas of Africa (Mabogunje, 1995:7). To accommodate the ever increasing human population and its needs, projects like roads, bridges and houses construction are embarked in these forest areas of Africa. This situation not only leads to loss of native species of animal and plant peculiar to these forest areas but also, exposes the forest edges to increased degradation and further disturbances from man. In truth, “degradation and fragmentation makes up much larger area (in Africa) than does deforestation" (“What are the Major”). ` c.
d.
Desertification Simply put, desertification is the process by which land turns into desert. As DeBlij, Murphy and Fouberg (2007:20) would put it, desertification is “the encroachment of desert conditions on moister zones along the desert margins, where plant cover and soil are threatened by desiccation - through overuse, in part by humans and their domestic animals, and, possibly, in part because of inexorable shifts in the central government.” Most lands in Africa especially in the sub-Saharan, are waterless and with little or no vegetation. Human activities geared towards global change together with the ever changing climate have been traced to as the causes of desertification in Africa (“What are the Major”). African land is becoming arid, why not? In short, De Blij, Murphy and Fouberg (2007) lamented that desertification has hit Africa harder than other continent in the world. There have been a lot of over-grazing, wood-cutting and over-using of land, which engender soil exhaustion. Coupled with these are the harsh climatic conditions we are witnessing in Africa nowadays. Loss of Soil Fertility According to the Forest Development Institute (FDI), the ceaseless burning of forests, mostly by people trying to clear land for hunting (and possibly farming), is hurting the fertility of soils in some parts of Africa (Angola: Forest Burning Damages Soil Fertility). This bush-burning could either be purposefully done or inadvertently done by dropping lit cigarettes on dry grass. The situation this presents is that land in Africa can no longer produce a large number of good quality crops and this in turn, does not help at all in the nourishment of Africans. Furthermore, Metu, Kalu and Nwogwugwu (2014:3) were of the view that intensified rainfall could result to decreased soil fertility. There by, showing that not only bush burning does affect in an adverse manner the soil fertility. 5
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Decline or Loss of Biodiversity Presently, Africa is recording a tremendous decline or loss in the number and variety of plant and animal species that exist in her continent all in the name of global change. Accounting for this, Boateng (2006) noted that in 1957, Ghana had about 8.3 million hectares of forestland, of which she now has 1.2 million left. Stressing further, he feared that African forest reserves have over 700 varied types of tropical trees, 34 plants, 13 mammals, 23 butterflies, and 8 birds which are all now endangered. Mining, an instance of human activities geared towards global change, is carried out in various parts of Africa. While this is done, “tons of the earth’s land is scooped up in order to get to the ore. This process causes the land to lose its biodiversity” (“What are the Major”). For Duru and Chigbo (2014:29), "clearing farmland and open spaces for construction work is a major factor of biodiversity loss." Arguing further, they purported that increase in population resulting to urbanization can lead to land scarcity and depletion of biodiversity values through human activities. Not only the land species are lost, the water species are also lost. Toxic wastes are released into the terrestrial and marine environment from mining and other human economic activities. These toxic wastes bring about the extermination of both water and land species of plant and animal (“What are the Major”). In addition, in our bid to meet our ever increasing wants, we need money. And to obtain this money, we hunt animal species like elephants, leopards, snakes, alligators etc. which we sell. In this way, we lose these animal species. Also, we lose the bird species and this is the most serious of all (“What are the Major” and Duru & Chigbo, 2014:31). This situation leaves us with the question: Does Africa really need biodiversity? Yes. Biodiversity boost productivity of ecosystem. For example, if Africa has a greater number of plant species, it invariably implies a greater variety of crops and not just that, “a greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters” (Shah, 2011).
f.
Air Pollution Africa’s urban population is rapidly growing. Many Africans are migrating to the urban areas of Africa to settle and earn their living. With this growth comes the pollution of the air. “Air pollution from African cities is set to increase dramatically over the next two decades, according to scientists in France and the Ivory Coast” (Cartwright, 2014). The causes of this air pollution are many. In Africa, many households use charcoal or wood for energy and, they emit urban pollutants into the air. Worsening this, Africans, in their quest for energy consumption, cut down trees, which should have aided in the reduction of carbon dioxide in air since they use it for photosynthesis and subsequently emit 6
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oxygen into the air. In short, the greenhouse gas emission effect is on the rise in Africa. Cartwright (2014) warned that “by 2030 the continent's anthropogenic emissions are likely to equal its forest-fire emissions, while its organic carbon emissions could account for 50% of the worldwide.” This is not good for Africa. In the same vein, the rate of carbon monoxide in the air has reached an all-time high in Africa. This carbon monoxide comes from (the imported and non-filtered-exhaust-piped) vehicles we drive as they combust fuel and also, from (imported) generators which supply electric energy to our homes due the epileptic power supply in Africa. When we inhale this carbon monoxide, it combines with the haemoglobin in the blood forming carboxyhaemoglobin, which makes the blood incapable of transporting oxygen to the tissues and this is the cause of death in carbon monoxide poisoning. In all, it remains a fact that “people that live in Africa are exposed to indoor and outdoor air pollution that can cause many different health problems” (“Environmental Issues in Africa”). g.
Water Pollution Accessing uncontaminated water supply either for drinking or cooking is a problem experienced throughout Africa. The water in Africa is polluted mostly by human induced waste. By human induced waste, one talks of defecating and urinating in the water, throwing of waste items into the water and spilling of chemical substances like oil, tin ore among others, into the water (“Environmental Issues in Africa”). On their part, De Blij, Murphy and Fouberg (2007) pointed out that the major cause of water pollution in Africa is the acceptance of solid waste by Africans from the United States, European Union, and Japan. The acceptance of waste, they further noted, is paid for but Africans are not able to properly make it non-harmful to themselves and environment. As a result, we suffer from diseases like typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea, mainly gotten from contaminated water. Reiterating further on diseases caused by polluted water, Ojukwu (2006) was of the view that it would not be presumptuous for one to posit that the cholera epidemic that broke out sometime in the year 2006 in one of the northern states of Nigeria may have been linked to contaminated water. Such is the reality as of today, that is, the easy alignment of most diseases to contaminated water.
From the foregoing, one must have come to terms with the environmental issues bothering Africa. It is important to point out that human (foreigners and Africans) impact on the African environment, which goes well beyond fluctuations in the physical climate, into effects on ecosystems, biodiversity, and the essential goods and services supplied by the environment on which we rely, in response to global change cannot be understated. Yes, in years to come, we may attain fundamental transformation in a number of sectors like energy, transportation, power, 7
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agriculture etc. in our bid meet up with the demands of global change. Yet, the question remains: Of what good is it for the African environment? For as it is now, the terrestrial and marine environments of Africa have declined in nearly all aspects as a result of global change. AFRICA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN: RECOMMENDATIONS At this juncture, having seen the issues that made up Africa’s environmental concern, it is pertinent to note that almost all the continents of the world face environmental problems. These environmental problems may vary from continent to continent, but in general almost every continent on this earth involved in global change is subjected to environmental issues. Having said this, Africa, on her own part, has its unfair share of environmental issues made by the global change. To make the matter worse, these environmental issues are not fully understood by many Africans and as such, proffering solutions to these issues have been delayed (“What are the Major”). Not just that, Africa seems both psychologically and financially unprepared for these environmental issues. Sandon (2006) rightly observed that while these environmental problems are not unique to any region of our planet, they are mainly found in any region where poverty flourishes. This restates the financial unpreparedness of Africa. Africa as a continent is povertystricken. Rather than bemoaning the obnoxious situation Africa finds herself, the following recommendations in terms of a way out of these environmental issues should be, as it is here, our utmost priority. Consequently, to really address this deplorable situation (that is, environmental issues) of Africa, there is the need to heighten the environmental awareness of Africans. Africans need to be enlightened that as they participate in the global change any alterations effected on the earth’s biogeochemical cycles in an unregulated manner attract severe consequences on the African environment. This can be attained if in our schools we are educated on the importance of hazardfree environment; in our media we increased the campaign for hazard-free environment; and, we encourage further research on how to make our environment always hazard-free. In addition, while the heightening of the environmental awareness of Africans goes on, the local authorities in Africa must assume the responsibility of making and executing laws that protect our natural environment. Not just that alone, they have to take up the duty of regularly monitoring these environmental issues- assessing and making reports on their conditions- with the view to resolving these issues. As already stated, poverty is Africa’s greatest challenge. And as such, undoubtedly, Africa needs “the interference of stronger states in the resolution of the (environmental) problems” (Sandon, 2006). World economic power houses like U.S.A., Britain etc. have to interfere by providing Africa the funds to tackle this environmental catastrophe she is suffering. Moreover, Africa also needs them to show Africa the way to handle these issues since they “now have their own global
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change programmes and institutes, for example the US Global Change Research Program and the UK’s Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System” (“Global Change”). Africa’s call for help is also addressed principally to the United Nations. The United Nations, we know, was originally “formed to stop wars and to provide platform for dialogue between countries” and “not to avoid major environmental catastrophe on regional or global scales” (“Global Change”). Yet, Africa needs the aid of the United Nations since there exists under the United Nations aegis several international environmental conventions like Framework Convention on Climate Change, Montreal Protocol, Convention to Combat Desertification, and Convention on Biological Diversity, and two bodies charged with coordinating environmental and development activities, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (“Global Change”). If the recommendations of these conventions and the efforts of these bodies are made visible in Africa, the many environmental issues of Africa will, if not entirely tackled, be reduced. CONCLUSION From the foregoing, one must have come to terms with what global change is all about and how it affects Africa adversely. It is pertinent to note that what has been done here is not an outright rejection of the phenomenon, global change but an emission of caveat on how Africa should be involved in global change. This was the case here with the view to enhancing our continued existence on earth as we vigorously carry out various advancements. Not that meaningful changes should not occur in Africa, these changes are not to occur at our expense. The natural environment is what Africa has and making it unsafe and hazardous all in the name of global change is highly unacceptable and non-negotiable. This thus, informs the position took and championed by this paper. Therefore, as global change thrives, the African environment should at the same time, be made safe. This is a work for all (Africans and foreigners).
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REFERENCES Angola: Forest burning damages soil fertility. (2006). Retrieved from http://allafrica.com/stories/200610021259.html (Access 04/08/2011). Boateng, C. (2006). Ghana: Mining takes heavier toll on Ghana's biodiversity. Retrieved from http://allafrica.com/stories/200609270627.html (Access 04/08/2011). Cartwright, J. (2014). African air pollution is spiraling. Retrieved from http://www.environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/56625 (Access 21/09/2014). De Blij, H., Murphy, A. & Fouberg, E. (2007). Human geography: People, place and culture. 8th Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Duru, P. & Chigbo, C. (2014). Conservation of biodiversity in rural environment: Study of some Fauna and floral species in selected rural parts of Imo state. The Nigerian Journal of Energy & Environmental Economics, Volume 6, No. 1, July, 2014. Awka: Association for Energy and Environmental Economics of Nigeria (AEEEN), pp. 29 & 31. Environmental Issues in Africa. Retrieved from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/environmental_in_Africa (Access 06/08/2011). Global Change. Retrieved from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_change (Access 02/08/2011). Metu, A., Kalu, C. & Nwogwugwu, U. (2014). Controlling flood disaster for improved agricultural productivity and food security in Nigeria. The Nigerian Journal of Energy & Environmental Economics. Volume 6, No. 1, July, 2014. Awka: Association for Energy and Environmental Economics of Nigeria (AEEEN), p. 3. Mabogunje, A. (1995). The environmental challenges in sub-saharan Africa. Environment, 37.4, pp. 4-11. Ojukwu, A. (2006). Nigeria: Risks from water pollution. Retrieved from http://allafrica.com/stories/200610050526.html?mstal=0 (Access 22/09/2014). Sandon, A. (2006). Environmental problems in Africa. Retrieved from http://m.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/environment-problems-in-africa67595.html (Access 08/08/2011).
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Shah, A. (2011). Why is biodiversity important? Who cares? Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/168/environmental-issues (Access 06/08/2011) What are the Major Environmental Problems Affecting the Development of Africa Today? - WolfWikis. Retrieved from http://wikis.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/what_are_the_major_environmental_problems_affecti ng_the_development_of_africa_today%3F (Access 02/08/2011).
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