The Daily Times
BY Marshal Madise
09:19:29 - 23 July 2008
At
a time when the world is grappling with profound problems such as
epidemics, wars, skyrocketing food prices and many other problems,
climate change is yet another global cause for concern and if left
unchecked could send the world into a further abyss of catastrophe.
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that says greenhouse gas
emissions lead to climate change. Climate change has far-reaching
effects on human life and it affects all people in the world regardless
of how one uses the US dollar in a day.
In simple logic, a subsistence farmer in Nambuma could pay the price of
climate change created by someone using an automobile in Arizona,
United States of America.
Climate change affects temperature, rainfall and water availability,
which in turn could lead to drought, floods, storms, hurricanes and
many other undesirable consequences. This could have adverse effects on
food security, ecosystem and human health that could further lead to
malnutrition in under-five children, a majority of these, already dying
of Malaria in sub-Saharan African countries. This could inevitably
impede on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Countries in the Sadc region, Malawi inclusive, have had their fair
share of climate change effects. Early this year, there were floods
that wrecked havoc in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Here in Malawi,
floods that killed four people and left 70,000 homeless reared their
ugly faces in the Shire valley early this year. Cases of inadequate
rains and severe droughts are the order of the day in some parts of the
country.
However, the question to think about is, what are we doing as Malawians
in fighting climate change? It is disheartening to note that we are not
doing enough in fighting climate change despite government commitment
to combat climate change.
The government in March 2006 came up with a course of action called the
National Adaptation Programme for Action (Napa), which strives to
address the issue of climate change. The government is also
implementing the National Sustainable Renewable Energy Programme
(NSREP), which focuses on giving renewable energy sources to rural
households. The government also established the four-month national
forestry season with the aim of planting more trees in the country.
However, what is worrying is that much as the government is putting in
place several mechanisms to mitigate climate change, the trend has not
yet changed among many Malawians. It seems we have not yet changed the
way we produce and use energy despite the efforts on the part of
government. Many Malawians are still felling trees for charcoal and
fuel wood without replanting them and this has made Malawi to have the
highest deforestation rate in the whole Southern African region. Many
Malawians are still finding it hard to embrace renewable sources of
energy such as solar, wind, biogas, and gel fuel just to mention a few.
Nowadays, there are also vehicles that are driven using ethanol instead
of oil to avoid carbon gas emissions but Malawi is lagging behind in
embracing these state of the art vehicles.
The other worrisome development is that our development partners are
not giving us much technical as well as financial support to assist us
in combating climate change. However, when all is said and done, they
are the ones that shoulder the blame on the effects of climate change
happening now because they emitted many green house gases during
Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, their countries have many cars and
industries and this translates into more greenhouse gas emissions.
Finally, I want to agree with UNDP’s Human Development Report of
2007/08, which says climate change is a global problem and everyone’s
responsibility. Let me also applaud the G8 leaders for showing
commitment to fight climate change as demonstrated by the recently
occurred summit. Time has come for us to lead a responsible life to
create a free-problem environment for future generations. Otherwise, we
would be manufacturing a time bomb that could one day have disastrous
consequences on the globe.
MARSHAL MADISE, lILONGWE
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