Protect environment if we’re to save humanity
What you need to know:
- National authorities vested with powers to protect the environment must play their part effectively.
The environment – the natural world in which people, animals and plants obtain their livelihood – does in many ways define our own existence. It is crucial for the continuation of life for without it, man cannot survive.
Which is why, messing up with the environment in one part of the world brings about adverse effects that traverses where the destruction is taking place.
A recent report documenting how quickly glaciers have been receding on East African highest mountains – Kilimanjaro, Ruwenzori and Kenya – should be a matter of concern to all.
Scientists explain that global warming is the cause of this phenomenon. At the same time, as glaciers recede, sea levels are rising, thus, submerging some islands and coastlines. Climate change is, therefore, a global concern calling for all stakeholders to take action.
Finding lasting solutions to the challenge is imperative. It requires international tools to handle carbon emissions in the industrialised nations as well as local by-laws to curtail individuals starting bush fires, whether deliberately or by accident.
International bodies, particularly the United Nations, through its environmental organ – Unep – must create awareness and find ways of making the protocols and international treaties signed for the protection of the environment more effective.
National authorities vested with powers to protect the environment must play their part effectively. It means that the relevant laws must be enforced to ensure that those who engage in activities degrading the environment are taken to task. The pace at which Mt Kilimanjaro ice has been melting should be treated as a matter of life and death. The report we cite above notes that already, some plant and other living organisms have started disappearing.
Whenever a species is made extinct, there is always a whole chain of other living organisms that are affected due to interdependence.
It is time we took action in order to protect the environment, for in actual fact, that is the way to protect ourselves.
