Hello everyone...
In a bid to tow the line which my educational pursuits have set for me, I will be releasing a weekly series tagged "Environment in Bits" #EiB This is to enhance our understanding of what we have always known, prick our consciences into fighting for the environment in our own little ways, question the neglects our local environment has suffered in plain sight and most especially to strive to make our environment cleaner than we met it. In the coming series, I will try to be as factual as possible, dropping information that are scientific and which by the most means are not misleading. I'd hope for your audience and literal contributions. Thanks for your anticipated audience.

GREENVee
Environmental Enthusiast.

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ENVIRONMENT IN BITS
#EiB

INTRO:

For some impulsive reasons, I have of recent frequented the National Library in Jos Town, Plateau state. I have gone to douse myself in the stream of knowledge, to have an understanding of what must have been, should have been, might be and will be – what we have been doing wrong or have totally neglected. Naturally, I was drawn to the history, geography, ecology and tourism section, but, one text have ever since held my attention –

Environmental Science: Towards a Sustainable Future by Richard T. Wright and Dorothy F. Boorse. Pity i can't borrow, buy or download it.

I have since had the inclination to do something about the state of things in my immediate environment, to make it cleaner not just to the eyes but for our health as well, if not today, tomorrow. I have tried plotting little schemes, little projects to embark on, but I’d have to wait, maybe a little too long. So, let me do what I can today, let me ignite in you that consciousness to what holds our existence as humans, supposedly ours to dominate – The Environment.

Daily, as millions of Nigerians all over go about their lives, in search of their daily bread they put to neglect the little things which affects their well-being in ways greater than they can immediately comprehend. Apart from some parts of major cities, which the federal government have decided to lay emphasis on, due to their importance to her economy, you will hardly pass any street in any city/town in this country without

- seeing some sort of indiscriminate litter/refuse dumps comprising of recyclable materials, food wastes, human wastes, animal wastes most especially cow dungs.

- passing by at least a great number of apartments with generators releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Heck! Every now and then you hear about a family that gets wiped out by such fumes, out of their own carelessness you might say, but at what point should a citizen be totally reliable on carbon emitting generators as a source of power?

- Seeing, though in lesser numbers, medium scale enterprises which conduct activities that shouldn’t in any perspective be heard of in a residential area. I Once lived in an area that was so polluted constantly by noise emanating from generators and other machinery from such industries, when things quiet down a little you will feel deafened and the weirdness of the sudden quietness makes babies to start crying from all corners of the street.

A lot more of the things which we embrace daily as part of our lives, which in retrospect shows how uncaring we are to our basic life support, will be broached in the coming series.

The major aim of this series “Environment in Bits” is to educate myself to educate you to educate others to educate others, the chain goes on and on. Per series we will look at the environment in a bit of it, learn a little with respect to what is obtainable here in Nigeria, as time goes on and as life favours us I will take this scheme beyond the confines of my keyboard.

According to Einstein, the environment is “ANYTHING THAT IS NOT ME” there are wide variety of things that are not us; living and non-living things. All the natural resources and natural services which the earth provides for us. With this in mind, as a Nigerian do you still have to ask “what is my environment?” well, it is anything you can lay your eyes on at the moment and those you just cannot see, anything that occupies every inch of the space surrounding you, above or below you, be it any form of gas, liquid or solid, plants, water, solar energy; it is an exhaustive list. Basically, your environment is same as that of every other person all over the world, the differences lying in the various alterations pushed on by various human activities. Anthropocentric activities which in itself, if we look critically into, we will consider as selfish.

Nigeria as a nation have not, in the lay sense of it, laid any major focus on sustaining its environment strictly for the sake of sustenance without looking at the financial benefits obtainable from adhering to a sustainability program. Let us take the OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP as a case study, been over a year the remediation of Ogoniland was commissioned, have anything been done on ground No. A project long budgeted for at $1bn, yet not a single drop of oil have been scooped out, even more recently a major oil company have had motives to resume oil production in this messed up land, leaving its inhabitants to an unscheduled date with ill health.

I am not saying that as individuals we should set out to clean it up, no we cannot. As individuals we should focus on the little things we can do to make our environment livable for our descendants while making the most judicious use of it. We should be able to understand that for every action there is a reaction, our actions today will determine how our interaction with every other component of our ecosystem could be evaluated. We should be able to learn from the mistakes of the more developed countries which we have for years tried to achieve the half of what they have achieved, China is developed, well advanced technologically but what has their atmosphere to tell about their development?? If not pollution, pollution in many cities. Their government is trying so hard to remedy the mistakes made, this is also true of many other countries that focused strictly on their economic, financial, technological development without taking a major look into the sustainability of their environment simultaneously. There are vast areas of lands scattered all over the world which have been declared uninhabitable due to environmental pollution. Luckily for us here, the damages we have caused so far on our environment are amenable, an easy puzzle that will be put together with timely intervention and enforcements.

As an individual reading this, make a contribution to your descendants today by
- disposing wastes properly place waste bins in your street if your local waste management board will be able to take them out on a scheduled basis. For every-time you about to pour some solid wastes into the drainage ask yourself if you have in anyway contributed to the floods that occurred in your area, are you about to contribute to another?

- minimizing the use of energy,
- planning out your rental apartments in such a way that your tenants can breathe properly, while living out enough space for leisure

- planting trees which as much as they are aesthetic and provide cool shades will also sequester carbon

- educating any who cares to listen on the need to give our immediate environment just a little more attention

- eating healthy, using healthy products so that you will live long enough to teach your children’s children what you did right

- not killing what you won’t eat and which won’t harm you, pity we don’t have active animal protection service that will cull from the streets, animals that have wandered off the wild.

I envisage that if we the assumed leaders of tomorrow should start now to understand the little things that make a country great, if we understand the concept of natural capital and natural services which our environment offers to us without a fee. Then we should be able to take care of earth in such a way that we won’t have to severe the business partnership it has with us, by playing pawn with her components, harming her in the process. The earth got feelings too, when it hurts so great, it backfires.

As youths we should have a different outlook on things than our current politicians do, we should be able to tell what really matters. The politics of the day is so centered that it continuously robs Peter to pay Paul, continuously. We should understand what nature has in stock for us, by scientific researches creating more avenues to understanding our environment. If the mantle of leadership should be handed over to us, let us bear it in mind that the environment is a BIG DEAL.

P.S:
Most of the statements in this series will be biased,tilting towards the favour of the environment, towards “Appropriate Use” philosophy. Hence, I call on any whose interest is piqued to quickly point out their disagreements with any point they consider invalid in the comment sections or to validate any point they feel is not sufficiently buttressed. Also the next series will be more precise and centrally focused on particular topics, helping us understand our environment in bits.

Appreciate Nature! Live for tomorrow.

GREENVee (Environmental Enthusiast)

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ENVIRONMENT IN BITS

#EiB

BEING ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS - an individual appeal

"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little" - Edmund Burke (philosopher)
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Does the public understand that there are things that which if not done rightly, will give an immediate backlash that will be momentarily felt? Yes.

Does the public understand that there are things that if not done rightly, will take a slow approach in exacting its cruel repercussions? Yes.

Does the greater percentage of this same public really care about such future repercussions? No.
~~~
Nigeria is a country that thanks God everyday for the fact that it does not experience such natural disasters, as are seen in some foreign countries all over. Predicting that her government won’t have the resources to take care of her citizens nor to quickly revive an area, if such and such are to occur. The little preventable disasters that come our ways, are those which could have been curtailed or which immediate response will put under control.

The happenstance comes and passes, we count our losses, bury the dead, give motivational speeches, devise means to curb such situations in the near future – throw it in the trash can. Then continue our lives as jolly good fellows, create some new jokes about the recent past, laugh it off. We are the proverbial dog that goes back to its own vomit, it is a vicious cycle. A cycle that makes a slow meal out of our precious health, our life, our environment...

In order to be environmentally conscious, I should foremost understand that the environment is not some abstract entity, nor some wilderness far away from me. It is not an ambiguous word being used to confuse me, it is in fact everything and there is no way I can ever be independent of the environment. For all that is known, I am just a major unit of the environment, whose roles in adjusting the environment cannot be denied nor neglected. Being conscious of the truth that the situation of my immediate environment will always tell on me even if subconsciously, should drive me to be motivated to take care of it the way I would my health, finances, loved ones – but in this case more selflessly. To be conscious of the environment, in such a way that I will want to take out my time to do what I think will be best for us, the generations to come and nature, is in itself a moral stand. It takes a pure heart to be selfless; to stand true to oneself, to deny myself ethical vices that have over the years been seen as normal and to carry out any tasks knowing fully well that I might not be benefiting directly from it, and yet demand no pay.

Latching on to religious appeal, being environmentally conscious is a way of thanking God for His wonderful creation, letting Him know that I will try my best not to displease Him anymore, by not contributing to any form of pollution or adversity in the environment. Paying regards to the religious belief that all was to perfection after creation, even some creatures whose intricacy have forever remained a mystery, I doubt their usefulness. As a nation, we are largely religious most of us put religion above every other thing. This a call to serve God more selflessly, to make good the environment for more of His children that are yet to come. Some of us have felt that our selfless service to God ends with going to church folding up our trousers to cut the grass and pack the dirt in the church surrounding. While forgetting that our religious teachings have taught us that God is everywhere, so what you would not do to mess up the church environment, don’t do that any other place. What we would do to make the church surrounding look better, replicate the same in our surrounding. Otherwise, our actions might as well be termed as eye service. We should as Christ served us, serve others through our selflessness.

In our communities, a call for environmental consciousness is a call for all to become one in union with nature. A call to set aside all tribal differences and come together to carry out projects that will make our communities stand out, understanding that we don’t have to be living in an estate before we can enjoy a healthy environment. Waiting for the government in most cases never solved anything, rather it has increased our chances of being lethally dealt by the cause we await government to take care of. A call to please our eyes and enjoy cool evenings in laughter and merriment, having tapped into the aesthetic and air-cleaning tendencies of plants. It is True that the greater percentage of the population unarguably fall within the low income earners circle, poverty in itself is a difficult situation to be in – it does not give one the room to focus on any other things nor persons. Denies one the ability to think strongly, above what they think has always been obtainable in their environment. Hence, to such persons if there is a dumping ground right in the center of their street – if it is not a normal sight to behold it is some other persons business not theirs. Not withstanding, we cannot give our all, let us give part of us in developing our communities in ecologically safe lines.

As an individual being environmentally conscious makes me a steward of the environment, I come to the understanding that I have an ethical responsibility to serve the environment and all of mankind. To Be sympathetic to any course that will favour everybody as well as nature, push that selfish interest aside, understand that there's none greater than the other in matters that appraise the environment, for every little thing that I do, nature will either frown upon or appreciate. This stewardship is a term I can adopt bearing in mind the “ prevention better pass cure” philosophy. I don’t have to wait for something disastrous to happen before I acknowledge that I could have prevented it somehow. Being a servant of the environment is not a far fetched ideology, not something I have to be a millionaire to be able to participate in. From the foundation, what does it cost one to dispose wastes properly? Almost nothing.

We should appreciate the environment for everything it provides for us as well as it's intrinsic values, as a lay man one might not have a scientific understanding of the consequences of our individualistic actions on the environment, but

• we understand that dirt smells, and is an eye sore.

• We understand that if the air we breathe gets messed up, we have nasal congestion and we might be at risk of infections and other health concerns.

• We understand that when we carry our faulty cars out on to the road, we release smokes which might choke or blind momentarily the driver behind us. We should also understand that these smokes when inhaled gets absorbed into the lungs, slowly feeding on our health.

• We understand that even if our major concern is that we make money and take care of our family - a dirty environment gives room to infections, malaria, typhoid, cholera etc. Which will eventually eat deep into our pockets guised as hospital bills.

• We understand that trees and flowers make our surrounding to look more appealing

• We understand that there is a need to make sure that our children have a better life than we do

A clean environment might not be the absence of disease nor does it imply impeccable health, but it reduces the chances of falling sick by a good percentage as well as attaining a stipulated life expectancy as an individual.

Most of the problems which the environment disperse every now and then, are not without human backings, it has only been patient enough to hold back its torments for the sake of the few good approaches which take to appease it. These in part, is a result of our direct individual doings, while largely dwelling on the public's attitude to general environmental concerns.

In conclusion, the struggle to create a healthy and decent environment is but one part of the struggle to create a decent world for all. The major concern for the environment judging from a moral ground is to care for the earth and all of its inhabitants – all living things – giving room for selflessness to control the immediate self interest that harms others, and living daily in hopes of causing no harms to our environment. By working for the environment, we should understand that we are also working for the rest of humanity, building a consciousness in us that transcends our personal interest and light up our love for others and all good cause.
Today, I want us to look around and ask “What’s the littlest act I can perform to make the environment just a lil more better?”. A service to the environment is undeniably a huge investment.


GREENVee
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