Recent occurrences of environmental hazards with devastating blows and tolls on the people of planet earth are alarming, and they desperately require interventions, with immediate actions taken to check the natural disasters threatening the entire global space. It is no longer child’s play to be handled with kid’s gloves any more, considering the devastating blows being dealt on the peoples of the affected communities of the world. This horrible experience is spreading fast like wildfire, and it is felt more among the inhabitants of the coastal communities and regions dwelling along the coastal lines in almost the entire locations of the world. There is no longer any selective exception among the affected victims. They are the ones that suffer the effect of the rising sea level most. It, therefore, calls for global attention beyond what is presently being done. The climate change environmental scourge requires an urgent application of nature-based solutions as nature’s barrier and conservative measures to controlling the impact. Rising sea level and ocean surge are washing off soil (soil erosion) as currently observed in the traumatised Derna community in Libya (with dead bodies littered everywhere; where flash floods have killed over five thousand people).
The ecosystem, no doubt, has been badly disrupted and irreparably devastated, as the causes and effects (the impacts) of man’s actions by the provision of energy needed to run daily living and drive the economy are being looked at and audited carefully on the environment. Ecologically, the damaging impact on geographic areas in all the continents where the natural habitats for man, animals, plants and other living organisms exist, presently need to be aggressively tackled to reverse the trend of further environmental deterioration that has affected the weather conditions and the entire landscape. The earth needs protection, and it is the green actions that ought to be taken. They are the feasible tools for the needed global solutions for environmental sustainability. These actions involve the daily practices and habits exhibited by man that leave little or no impact on the environment after every organically handled and performed activity is proactively carried out, and is certified to have maintained the environment. The green actions could be enumerated as follows: sourcing; production; consumption and utilisation of energy efficiently; reusable and recyclable, low-carbon emitting cleaner-energy products (may necessarily not be fossil based cleaner energy products).
Ultimately, impacting green actions on climate could efficiently be implemented by initiating a natural-based solution with the technique of neem tree planting (especially on African soil, where hi-tech methods of carbon neutrality and carbon balancing for carbon emission reduction may not be financially affordable). African poorer nations need to deploy the meagre resources towards this raging battle for survival of man on the planet. In Libya alone, over one thousand, three hundred (1,300) lives were lost just in one incidence of natural catastrophe that struck on 13th of September 2023. Assessing the damaging impact and the ensuing consequences of the ecological devastations that occur in all the habitable locations; coupled with the tragic costs and very unfortunate losses that involve human lives, agricultural produce, properties and corporate infrastructure in every economy that is affected; wasting further time before this fight against the adverse impacts of natural disaster is suicidal. Nations, peoples of every tribe and tongue need to sweep into action, as a matter of urgency!
Reckless actions taken as part of man’s efforts in economic activities like sand mining will pose a threat in the nearest future, to the neighbouring coastal communities along the coastlines in places that are localised in marine environments. The trending heavy rains and flash flooding cannot spare and will not show any atom of mercy to such affected areas (if natural disaster occurs). The environmentalists and agencies that are responsible for regulatory policies on environmental conservation like the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) need to be handy and also sweep into action without delay, by implementing some of these rules and enforcement of the green initiatives that support green actions like the ‘neem’ tree planting, as part of the environmental regulations, laws, guidelines, policies and standards. The Nigerian government should not lose sight in implementing this initiative that can help in saving many coastal communities from the incidences of life threatening flooding as being witnessed in Libya currently. Many other economies of the world need not wait any longer in searching for trees that have high absorption capacity for carbon dioxide (CO2) in the process of photosynthesis that releases oxygen (O2) in exchange. These are the simple, cheap and cost effective means; reforestation could be cheaply applied in the global warming mitigation actions. The situation demands quick interventions that might not be capital intensive, as already suggested, to save lives and communities that are prone to imminent climatic devastations. Â
