Earth day. A four minutes read.

The world earth day. You are probably asking yourself how this concerns you, as an African or a Nigerian, truth be told it sounds like a white man thing. A white man thing? No, for it is a global thing. It affects us all and race has nothing to do with it. 

Was the movement founded by a white man? Yes, to be precise, it was founded by a united state senator that goes by the name Gaylord Nelson in April 22, 1970. Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22 every year, the events are worldwide and held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally and celebrated in more than 193 countries each year.

On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris agreement was scheduled to be signed by the United States, China, and about 120 other countries. This signing satisfies a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft of the climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris; Nigeria included. 

The purpose of the earth day celebration was to create engagement and awareness on environmental protection and conservation. The environment is degrading every second globally, most especially in Africa as it has no incentives and active functioning bodies to combat environmental offenders.

The goal and intent of the Earth day celebration is to reach out to a wide audience on matters like pollution, climate change and global warming, to educate you and i on the need of sustainable development in our environment.

Over the years the earth day has evolve to a global phenomenon observed by so many. Forty-six years ago, rivers were degraded because of industrial pollution. Today our entire planet is on fire because of carbon pollution.  2014-2015 was the hottest years on record. Temperatures over land and ocean surfaces has increase drastically all over the world as a result of global warming. Strange weather has made headlines around the world. Ice-caps have melted, sea level increase, acid rain, extreme drought in many areas in Africa, and not to forget flooding — in a warming world, they say there is need to expect the unexpected.

In 1970, the industrial revolution was at its highest. Garbage were dumped into rivers and streams, sewage flowed straight into the oceans, and toxic chemicals from factories and leaded gasoline exhaust from cars, trucks, chimneys were polluting the air, environmental chaos was the order of the day.

Sea level rise, ocean acidification, species extinctions, extremely hot weather events, decreased agricultural yields, harm to human health and lower working productivity, and all this are real and consequences of climate change. It is time that we systematically reclaim a cleaner green motivated environment in Africa and the world at large, it’s time we promote positive and green innovative environmental ideas. We owe it to generation unborn. If you find this post educating, remember you can always share using the social media icon below. Until your next read, enjoy.