CLIMATE CHANGE: THE TICKING TIME BOMB WE ARE REFUSING TO SEE.

If you have ever watched any American action movie, you will realize that people don’t joke with a bomb at all. No matter how strong the protagonist is, immediately he sees that the antagonist has in possession a bomb, he begins to flee for his life. That only gives whoever is watching a fair idea of how dangerous a bomb is, even if you have never seen or had an experience with one before.

The same way we fret and become and anxious when we hear of bombs, I believe we must that feeling when the issue of climate change is raised. Yes, climate change is a ticking time bomb, that can explode at any moment if caution is not taken. I hate to use the calamity that has befallen people as cases to buttresses my points in any submission but I don’t think what is happening to Australia is an example I can run away from.

Australia is enduring a bushfire crisis that has left three people dead, razed more than 150 homes and prompted warnings of “catastrophic” danger. Australia just like the United States of America is known for its stern opposition to climate change and its related issues. Considered as the World’s Second Largest-largest exporter of coal power, it became a concern to the whole world when their prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull pulled out of the Paris climate agreement in 2019 arguing that using energy policy as a means of reducing emissions is “madness”.

Even though Australian leaders still deny that what is happening to them has anything to do with climate change, an article titled “how climate change has intensified the deadly fires in Australia” on CBS News Website, among others, analyses as to whether or not climate change is the cause of Australia Bush Fires.

How is the Australia situation any similar to Ghana?

This is a question; every Ghanaian will ask after reading the first four paragraphs of this article, I am going to answer that, with a question, “Are Bush Fires not on the rise in Ghana off late?

Even though some people will argue that bush fires are occurring because we are in the dry season and it has nothing to do with Climate Change, I will like to draw our attention to the intensity of this years harmattan period which is causing a stir on social media with people making all sorts funny comments like, “God we asked for harmattan, not harmattan X,  “the angel holding the AC remote in this harmattan season should reduce the temperature among others.

What are Ghanaians not doing?

I believe Ghanaians, are not giving climate change the attention it deserves. The conversation on climate change has gone on long enough where the ordinary Ghanaian should be able to tell you what climate change is about. But unfortunately, that’s not the case, some journalists in this country when invited to cover events organized on climate change, at the end of the day, tell their stories with the focus on some unpopular comments made by speakers at the event and forget about the main issue.

Ghana, unlike Australia, has a lot of policies on climate change like the National Climate Change Policy, but the challenge is how those policies are been implemented. Not too long ago, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo -Addo delivering his speech at the just ended climate Chance Summit held in Accra last year, reiterated that climate change is the biggest threat to the implementation of the 17 sustainable Development Goals.

The Way Forward

A lot of education needs to be done on climate change. Journalists especially must be trained intensely on the subject of climate change, to enable them to share their knowledge with the public.

The government must provide funding to Civil Society Organizations who are working on Sustainable Development Goal 13, like 350 Ghana Reducing Our Carbon and Youth in Natural Resource and Environmental Governance to go to schools and public places to train and educate people on climate change and its Impact.

I commend the Government, developmental partners like United Nations Developmental Partners (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Bank Group, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Civil Society Organisations, not forgetting the media and all other stakeholders for their contribution towards the achievement of the SDG’s specifically goal 13.

But as America Baseball Legend, Yogi Berra once said, “It’s not over until it’s over”. Until the World is able to win the fight against climate change, the work continues.