Are climate change campaigns bearing fruit?
Tuesday July 27 2021
Richard Lichan Lekuterer, 60, sits in a boat as it glides above what used to be his homestead where only the ridge of a thatch roof of one of the four buildings that stood in his compound remains above water after his family was displaced by the encroaching waters of Lake Baringo at Salabani village near Marigat, Baringo county on the Kenyan Rift Valley, on October 5, 2020. PHOTO | AFP
Every newspaper is carrying news on climate change. It could feature transport, agriculture, forestry and environment, energy, marine, health and other sectors that contribute to climate change directly or indirectly.
Hollywood is challenged to come up with movies and TV shows featuring climate crisis scenes to inform the world how grave the situation is and why we need to act.
Climate Story Lab Africa looks at the impact of film as an intervention.
Much to our advantage, many of the young generation watching films spend most of their leisure time watching movies. It will be interesting reaching the current and future generation to instill the knowledge they need about the deteriorating environment and practices required of them to save the world.
Creating a sustainable environment for a healthy nation, green employment opportunities, food security and improved trade relations needs some investment.
CUTTING EMISSIONS
Climate emergency, pollution and ecological crisis situations are time-sensitive. The world is working towards reducing carbon emissions. Advancement in technology, low-carbon renewable energy, among other resilient practices, seems to be appealing in different sectors especially the energy and transport sectors.
Wind power, green hydrogen, tidal power, solar energy, and biofuels, are some sources of energy that most industries are working towards. It is sad to see that use of charcoal is still embraced despite the dangers to health.
A new study reports that nearly one out of five deaths globally are caused by burning of fossil fuels.
Yes, that is how bad the situation is. Global warming is causing abnormal rainfall in many parts of the world. Germany and some parts of China have recently been facing crazy amounts of rainfall, causing uncontrollable floods and killing people and animals.
Researchers are studying various facets of climate change and are warning of more detrimental impacts of global warming.
Developed countries have set standards in ensuring that by 2050, electric cars are the new normal.
Even though there are unsettled issues on the sustainability of the electric vehicle batteries, especially with the conservationists saying the search for battery materials will hurt biodiversity, efforts are being made to ensure that the transition is seamless and ecological to cut down on the emissions by conventional vehicles.
A REBRAND
Total, the French firm known for its oil and petroleum products, is rebranding to TotalEnergies to incorporate the usage of renewable energy into their system as that is where the world is headed.
Ideally, this is the very picture that not many are seeing. As the world prepares for the COP 26 conference of climate change in Glasgow in November, bringing parties to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, governments are working day and night to meet their end of the deal in terms of reducing carbon footprint and emissions below pre-industrial levels and adapting ways of curbing climate change earlier.