The challenge of climate change

By Ada Chinyere Cummings
WORLD leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari,
recently met in Paris, France, where for about three days,
they discussed one of troubling issues in the world. It is
climate change. At the end of the talks, they all agreed
that the issue that brought them together needed a
collective effort to tackle. President Buhari assured the
world of Nigeria’s commitment to reduce gas emissions
by 20 percent in the coming years.
Even though Africa emits just 2 percent of the gases that
have contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer,the
continent bears the larger burden of the problems
emanating from climate change. To understand the
mystery of creation and the existence of man is a task that
cannot be abandoned to mere scientific deductions alone.
Events in time have opened up different vistas of
knowledge that were hitherto viewed with a lot of
cynicism. Man’s undoing has always been his reluctance
to acknowledge his limitation and ascribe omnipotence to
the supreme creator-the Father. It is my considered
opinion that Science should redirect its focus when the
present solutions proffered to climate change fails to yield
desired result.
Many will think it is defeatist but, you will be surprised at
how quick a solution we may arrive at, if only we believe.
Now, consider this. Creation is held firm by invisible pillars
which no eyes can see. Can science explain why the skies
hang above us and on what the sun, the moon and the
stars hang onto?
The intention of the gradual depletion of the ozone layer is
supposedly for man to repent and seek the face of God.
But mankind keeps degenerating from bad to worse, to the
extent of recklessly cavorting over evil deeds which even
demons often commit with trepidation. There are also
accounts in the old testament that give credence to the
event that led Moses freeing the Israelites out of slavery
was as a result of global warming and a volcanic eruption.
But rather than explain this as an act of God, scientists
claimed the plagues can be attributed to a chain of natural
phenomena triggered by changes in the climate and
environmental disasters that happened hundreds of miles
away. Scientists believe the switch in the climate before
the volcanic eruption was the trigger for the first of the
plagues.
The rising temperatures could have turned the river Nile
into a slow moving and muddy watercourse and these
conditions would have been perfect for the arrival of the
first plague, which the Bible described as the Nile turning
to blood. Dr Stephan Pflugmacher, a biologist at the
Leibniz Institute for Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in
Berlin, believes this description could have been the result
of a toxic fresh water algae.
He said the bacterium, known as Burgundy Blood algae or
Oscillatoria rubescens, is known to have existed 3,000
years ago and still causes similar effects today. He said:
“It multiplies massively in slow-moving warm waters with
high levels of nutrition. And as it dies, it stains the water
red.” The scientists also claim the arrival of this algae set
in motion the events that led to the second, third and forth
plagues – frogs, lice and flies. The arrival of the toxic
algae would have forced the frogs to leave the water
where they lived. But as the frogs died, their dead bodies
attracted flies and that would have meant that mosquitoes,
flies and other insects would have flourished without the
predators to keep their numbers under control.
The volcanic eruption is also thought to be responsible for
triggering the seventh, eighth and ninth plagues that
brought hail, locusts and darkness to Egypt. One of the
biggest volcanic eruptions in human history occurred
when Thera, a volcano that was part of the Mediterranean
islands of Santorini, exploded around 3,500 year ago,
spewing billions of tons of volcanic ash into the
atmosphere. Nadine von Blohm, from the Institute for
Atmospheric Physics in Germany, has been conducting
experiments on how hailstorms form and believes that the
volcanic ash could have clashed with thunderstorms
above Egypt to produce dramatic hail storms. Dr Siro
Trevisanato, a Canadian biologist who has written a book
about the plagues, said the locusts could also be explained
by the volcanic fallout from the ash. He said: “The ash
fallout caused weather anomalies, which translates into
higher precipitations, higher humidity. And that’s exactly
what fosters the presence of the locusts.” The volcanic
ash could also have blocked out the sunlight, causing the
stories of a plague of darkness.
The cause of the final plague, the death of the first borns of
Egypt, has been suggested as being caused by a fungus
that may have poisoned the grain supplies, of which male
first born would have had first pickings and so been first to
fall victim. This is wonderful explanation by science, but
it’s 3,500 years now, and none of such plagues has
repeated itself in any city in the world. Is this science or
mystery? I do not think that science has even been able to
explain the source of the hailstorm, the fiery boulders that
came down from the skies upon Sodom and Gomorrah? Or
has science been able to explain the flood that happened
during the time of Noah? Or where the flood water that
covered the whole world drained into? From whatever
angle environmental scientists have tried to explain
climate change, few have cared to look at the Biblical
perspectives.
Now again, science is attributing the depleting of the
ozone layer whose direct consequence is global warming,
to industrial carbon emission. Industrial carbon emission
is only catalytic. My humble opinion is to take a holistic
look at all the causative factors and take a collective,
global action. That’s not to dismiss the decisions taken in
Paris.
Nevertheless, it is cheering news that Nigeria has com­
mitted to a 20% unconditional emissions reduction, post
2020. Thanks to our President .Well, I pray that the world
leaders will adhere strictly to the upcoming agreement that
will be reached and do their best to meet their agreed
commitments.
. Cummings writes via cummingsada@ ymail.com