Many people frown
when it comes to calls for the holistic respect of the rights of nature.
By respecting the rights of nature and understanding that we can do
well to work with it and not against it, we will be on the road to
achieving the systemic changes needed to halt humanity’s march to the
cliff-edge.
We shall be paying
some attention in this piece to the challenges and opportunities for
action presented by climate change. The rising tide of impacts demand
that attention be paid to public participation and local knowledge in
decision-making processes. The situation in which policy makers move
from idea to implementation in a rather top-down manner often fails to
effect real and wise contributions to the public good.
With crazy weather
patterns and disruptive events, the risk of non-action to tackle global
warming becomes more perilous by the day. Unusual floods and freak
weather conditions are more or less turning to be the norm. Nigeria is
peculiarly challenged by climate change in ways we may think are
distant. The threat of desertification attracts attention and we witness
annual tree planting exercises in the eleven “frontline” states.
Whether the trees are natured to survive is an ongoing challenge to
local peoples as well as to both government and non-governmental
agencies.
On the southern belt
of Nigeria coastal erosion is a major problem. A lack of shoreline
protection leaves gapping areas where land loss to the lapping sea is
huge. The Bar Beach in Lagos has attracted much attention because it is
in the public view. It has swallowed huge sums in disappearing sandbags
and in other efforts to halt the surge of the ocean that has proved
rather difficult to handle over the years.
The Lagos State
government has pressed on with the idea of building an extension of
Lagos into the Atlantic Ocean in a bid that is promoted as the ultimate
solution to the encroachment of the ocean on parts of the shorelines of
the state.
Environmental and
social impact studies have obviously been made and examples have been
shown on how the so-called Eko Atlantic will not have negative impacts
and will withstand the results of sea level rise and other related
risks.
Particularly
attractive may be the fact that the new city, if eventually completed,
will be the new playground for the big boys and girls with deep pockets
and perhaps helicopters with which they can hop away if the ocean
decides to go into rage mode. This is going on at a time when degraded
settlements in this mega city are crying for upgrading.
Recent weather
events in countries like the United States and Australia with extensive
shoreline defences should inform our leaders that the Eko Atlantic
adventure is a clear example of working against nature in a manner that
would not likely have the same ending as the story of David and Goliath.
We have not
forgotten the impacts of the Katrina floods. If anyone forgets that, we
do well to pay attention to the current Mississippi floods.
It reminds me of a
conversation I had with Derrick Evan in Taylor Creek, Alabama, in August
2010, in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Derrick explained
the situation of living in the Mississippi delta in these words:
“The region is
vulnerable because of ecology, climatology, poverty and the chosen and
preferred industries that are set up here in the form of economic
activity. This is the most engineered part of America. It is constantly
vulnerable to disasters and over engineering. This is a very low-lying
wet area. It is the delta, the bottom of the basin that drains 38 of the
50 states of the USA. It is the kidney of North America.
“Everything drains
through tributaries of the great rivers that then drain through the
Mississippi River and everything drains through here. The highest
percentage of the lands here, naturally are wetlands and are low lying
and prone to flooding. To accommodate economic growth and development,
it has been over engineered.”
As the case of
Mississippi, so is the case of the Niger Delta, the kidney of Nigeria.
Indeed, the entire southern belt of Nigeria is low lying and it is
estimated that a 1-metre aggregate sea level rise may see up to 90
kilometres from the coastline going under water. Lagos is not exempted.
Eko Atlantic is a
huge investment in suspicious engineering of an already severely
degraded ecosystem that will benefit from rethinking. This is the time
to build resilience into existing structures and not build sand castles
in the path of raging waves.
Certainly, common wisdom enjoins us to work with nature and not to fight her.
