What they never say about climate change

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Global warming is one of those topics that are nuanced by conspiracies, agenda-driven information, propaganda and in certain cases, corruption. The leftist movement opinioned that the climate is suffering from manmade activities and mitigatory steps have to be taken to address the matter while the right wing conservatives believe that it may or may not exist and that even if it did, the Earth as an organism is equipped to fix itself, in something similar to Homeostasis that occurs in organisms.

There has been a steady rise in the Earth's surface temperature dating back from the 1800s and while this figure may point at climate change, it may also be depicting that perhaps this rise in temperature is only natural, well only the climatologist know better.

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Leading experts in the field have asserted that there are indeed indicators to show that human activities like emission of greenhouse gasses and other industrial toxins to the atmosphere have actually caused substantial damage to the ozone layer that protects us from the sun's intensity.

Okay so we're killing the Earth and all these gases are going to turn Earth into a living hell right? Well guess again and this is where the topic gets even more interesting. Numerous experts have presented evidence to prove that the Ozone layer is currently on track to full health anywhere between 2030-2060 range and have chucked it down to a reduction in HFC and other Aerosol emissions into the atmosphere. According to this Guardian post published on the 5th of November 2018, the measures taken to fix the ozone layer have largely been successful.

Global warming and climate change is an international issue as it doesn't just affect certain parts but the entire planet. The melting of the ice caps, for example, has been well documented and their knock-on effect is an increase in the water level leading to flooding in just about any coastal area that wasn't prepared. This and many effects of climate change were top of the agenda at the recently held United nation Summit with the goal of the summit to further climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the mean global temperature from rising by more than 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial levels.

The climate action summit held on the 21–23 September 2019 in New York was well attended by members of the United Nations, including the top two contributors(China and USA) of damaging the climate and ironically(or maybe not so) the top contributors to fixing the damage they're causing. These two are also the strongest economies and have a large population that they need to sustain with electricity, housing, agriculture to provide food and numerous industrial activities, which coincidentally are the top sectors damaging the climate as the infographic below shows.

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From this angle, we could say that there's some correlation between global warming/climate degradation and economic development, especially if you consider the fact that 6 out of the top 10 economies are also among the top contributors to climate degradation after comparing this list to the infographics found here and presented below. Other sources give pretty much the same information.

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Looking at it from this angle, one could say that Ozone depletion and emission of greenhouse gases is a "necessary evil" of sorts in improving a country's economic standing and that is the case with my country(Nigeria) that has the 27th largest economy in the world but contributes only a minuscule amount to ozone depletion(roughly 1 percent in 2014 _source).

The effects of global warming are far-reaching and if the details presented above are true then perhaps one could say that smaller countries are victims of the problems caused by the bigger players in the scene. Take the case of the coastal towns in the Niger Delta as depicted in this publication that talks about the threat Nigerians face in economical terms that rolls into the billions of dollars and the lives at risk in the coastal areas.

In effect, Global warming is a problem but let's be honest, it's not our problem or even close to being our problem. We're still battling with basic issues like inconsistent electricity(major cause of global warming, interesting), malaria, insurgency, religious bigotry and worst of all, corrupt politicians who will not pass up a chance to embezzle funds under the guise of fighting global warming, and this is where I find myself connecting with right wing views. Remember them?

In Nigeria, I'm aware of rules and policies that are on paper about gas flaring during oil exploration but that's all for show. In reality, gas flaring is still going on and well, you'll have to take my word for it.

After all is said and done, global warming/climate change is a reality that we have to face head-on and while we may want to point fingers at big corporations and countries(yes I blamed others but it just a little bit lol), I believe sensitization and enlightenment campaigns will be required to let the populace know their role in mitigating climate change. Whether it's by switching off lights you're not using, to changing the type of fertilizer at your farm, any effort put into reducing emission is a win for humanity.

This is an entry to @upmewhale writing contest and you can find information about the contest here