At this rate, with the number of posts I’ve made on this very issue of the massive heat wave that’s hitting my dear country, my blog should be burning hot by now. As a result, I won’t really be talking much about the heat and what it’s doing to me because I’ve made that pretty clear in my previous lamentations.
Because even as I am typing this, I’m already feeling uncomfortable thanks to the heat. It’s never been this hot before and truly it makes me kind of scared of what the rains will be like when they do come. Will it also be in excess this year? Are we going to face a serious case of flooding? Well, what can I say? I just have to live with it in the best way possible.
So, is this it’s time of the year? It is… and that’s the sad thing. Weather-wise, we’re in the dry season and this is usually characterized by the lack of rain and the abundance of heat. However, just as I said before, this kind of heat is one that has never before been seen. It’s rare for the entire country to face such amounts of heat all at the same time.
But then, I think we’re all the problems. Both the people and the government. We don’t have a culture of caring about the environment. Things like climate change and global warming sound like things we only hear of in movies this is because we’re not even in positions where we can act on them if we care.
On a daily basis, millions of Nigerians fuel their cars and generators, burning fumes that pump tonnes of carbon monoxide into the air. Almost every day, trees are being cut down to make way for people can build houses. Even flowers don’t get spared because the landlord wants to have as many rooms as possible to be able to charge as much as he can for the rent.
As if that’s not enough, people still do open burning of refuse, some homes still use firewood. This doesn’t just kill the trees, it also kills the ozone layers as well. And when trees go down, we don’t have the culture of replacing them. Instead, we plump down concrete buildings on the earth, stifling all growth.
But then, what can we do? You can’t tell people not to power their generators because we have an epileptic power supply. Even me that’s writing about this, I also have a generator that I run regularly. Without that, I won’t be able to come online and do anything for that matter because everything about my work is online! I hate the drone of generators, it distracts me when I try to concentrate on my work, but I don’t have a choice. Many of us who use generators don’t enjoy it, but we don’t have a choice. We’ve got to make money to eat, don’t we?
One way to fix this problem is for the government to take an active interest in the well-being of the environment. One way to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide that Nigerians produce is to give them a reason not to power their generators. At this point, I know that a steady power supply is a pipe dream and may never happen. However, they can make renewable sources cheaper and more available to the common man.
Solar energy is so expensive and so complex for the common man, and I’m certain if they wanted they could make it in a way that anyone at all could own it. There was a time in the country when generators were only used by the rich. Now, anyone at all can own a generator. If the same can be done to solar if with as little as #100,000 you can get a reliable solar energy source that will power your entire house, you’ll find that more and more people will purchase and as a result, the amount of fuel burnt on a daily basis will reduce. There are ways to make this happen, I’m sure of it.
And for the cars, the only way they can reduce the number of private cars on the road is by making public transport more attractive. If public transport can be faster, safer, and more comfortable, then people will prefer using it for their daily routine and use their cars for isolated events. We need more BRTs in all corners of the country, and for places where BRTs can’t operate, we need shuttle buses. They’re small and compact, but very comfortable if you don’t cram them with people. Next, we also need subways and trains. This won’t be interstate, maybe a single train that would run through the entire state so that you enter on one end and go all the way to another end.
You’d find that when people realize that they can rely on public transport more, and if it’s cheaper than having to always fuel your car, people will immediately switch. Matter of fact, this will be better for the government because, with more people using public transport, it’ll be a huge source of revenue for the economy.
The problems we face with regards to the weather are problems that can easily be fixed and we need to get to fixing or things will only get worse. Because if this gets any hotter, we just might find ourselves in a Dune-like universe.
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