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Over the past decades one major issue that has confronted the human race is global warming. This has attracted all the international attention amongst states. A series of global environmental conferences in the 1970s, 1980s, and through to the 1990s culminated in the United Nations Framework of the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and Kyoto Protocol in 1997,started a discussion of some sort about global environmental integrity.
Global Warming is considered to be the progressive gradual increase of the earth’s surface temperature caused by the emission of fossil fuel into the atmosphere. The 'Greenhouse Effect' as it’s popularly called is the result of gases in the Earth's atmosphere that act like a blanket, trapping the warmth of the sun in. Naturally, the more gas there is the thicker the blanket and hence the warmer the Earth. It is an environmental problem that is bedeviling all countries in the world of which Ghana is of no exception.
Even though the full rigours of global warming is hard to forecast as is a complex phenomenon, each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages in the American West and rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard, in Florida, and in other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico. It is believed that warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the south eastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts with Forests, farms and cities facing troublesome new pests and more mosquito-borne diseases.
The Nation’s Neglect;
Ghana, just like most developing countries, by their attention and action treat issues of environment with a pinch of salt. The political inertia with which the nation attaches to issues of the environment brings to bear the country’s oblivion to this global phenomenon. One can barely count the number of times in which an environmental issue has become a major national agenda.
The tabloids of the nations print media mostly have political issues as its major news. This problem is worsened as the most electronic media spend most of their productive talk time in discussing what the print media captured. This neglect is quite contrary to the spirit of the Article 41(k) of the 1992 Constitution which seeks to mandate every Ghanaian which is inclusive of journalist to safeguard the environment.
It is an undeniable fact that the climate of the country has changed. Due to education and the seemingly acceptance of the Christian faith, the days when such changes would have been linked to the anger of the gods of the village are over. There are several factors that give merit to the assertion that Ghana is within radius of the global phenomena of warming up.
Climatic changes;
Despite the fact that nature has placed it in such a way that local temperatures fluctuate without any human influence, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts think the trend is accelerating: the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990 . This climatic change has also been revealed in the West Africa sub-region; Central Nigeria, northern Ghana, and southern Burkina Faso. This area forms the southern boundary of the driest region of West Africa extending southwards from the Sahara Desert.Fluctuations featured prominently in the 20th century rainfall time series. The future precipitation trends in this region are quite uncertain. The GFDL CM2.0 and GFDL CM2.1 models project a significant downward rainfall trend in the area, with projections by the MIUB ECHO-G model suggesting a significant trend in the opposite direction.
In Ghana study has revealed that day time temperatures rose by 0.9oC in Accra and by 1.2oC in Kumasi for the three decades between 1971 and 2000. Maximum day time temperatures were similar in magnitude and showed almost identical time series for the two cities except between 1989 and 1995 when Kumasi experienced higher temperatures. There are significant increasing trends in minimum temperatures for both cities. Minimum temperatures showed significant warming trends in both cities. Night time temperatures rose by 0.03oC (significant at the p < 0.001 level) per year in Accra and 0.04oC (Significant at the p < 0.001) level per year in Kumasi but the temporal trends were similar for both cities. There is a general expectation that Kumasi should have a higher temperature than Accra because Accra being at the coast, land and sea breezes are expected to play a significant role in moderating the temperatures in Accra compared to Kumasi especially during the night. However finding has shown the average minimum temperature in Accra was 2oC higher than in Kumasi.
It must also be noted that developing countries are the ones that will be mostly affected by the global climatic changes. At this year’s launch of the second volume of the UN's Fourth Assessment Report, which addressed the climatic impacts, adaptation and vulnerability Catherine Pearce, Friends of the Earth International's Climate Campaigner, said:
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