One of the groundbreaking books I Have is “how to Avoid Climate Disasters” by Bill Gates. It is stratified into twelve (12) chapters: each dealing with vital topics in special ways. Though the book has sparse footnotes unlike other American books I have read, it treats and acknowledges the difficult terrain we are in towards our fight for zero emission. Humbly, the author acknowledged that his expertise is “in software not climate science and an imperfect messenger (page 4). As a medical student and freelance Journalist, I am amazed by his knowledge to combine opposite views and argue for both equally like “the world needs to provide more energy so that the poor can thrive but…provide the energy without releasing any more greenhouse gases” (page 17). Climate change crisis has raised the paradoxical question: how can human beings do their activities without harming mother earth? In Bill’s book, he talked extensively about the contributing effects of man’s activities like: how we plug in, how we make things, how we grow things, how we get around in chapter 4-8. Brilliantly, he proffers solutions to these arising problems. Ever since the industrial revolution, human beings have emitted billions of noxious gases to the atmosphere CO2, methane and others.
The fight to get to zero emission is difficult but not impossible. This will be possible only if we use breakthrough technologies and innovation cutting across various sectors like agriculture, engineering, medical research, waste and energy management through interdisciplinary approach. The author accepted to have diverted all his investment in oil and gas companies as a personal commitment toward zero emission. The author in chapter 3, admitted that green premiums are hard to implement in developing countries (page 60) and when and where such is sustainable is vague. I totally agree with the author’s innovative skills at fighting the climate crises but this is unattainable especially in the African continent where corruption and lack of transparency is the order of the day. Since two decades ago, over $500billion have been spent on the power sector, only minimal effect is felt by the Nigerian populace. Sadly, the Nigerian government both military and civilian – have proved incapable of properly managing the country’s fossil fuel industry due to gross incompetence. Making carbon-free electricity (e.g nuclear, solar and wind) cheaper will go a long way towards a zero emission (p183). Similarly, cheaper and affordable technologies to drive home the march towards a zero emission by 2050 is what we all need. Unfortunately, according to the Nobel winning scientific body IPCC; 2050 is a year of no return towards getting climate change crises out or facing doom. As the author admitted it in reducing and eliminating greenhouse gases (p.113), innovative prototypes like the Bullitt centre have shown that technologies can cut climate change down (page 157). The author, thinking like a businessman, rightly proposed solutions towards zero emission: expanding the supply of innovation and accelerating the demand for innovation.
Some problems:
Despite the author’s numerous and praiseworthy works in Africa and Asia, his bestseller book was mainly North-America or European Union centric, sparsely pointing to the effect of climate change crises in Africa, especially the Lake Chad region. Africa is the least emitter of gases but faces its most dangerous impacts. In his first chapter, the author pointed out the effect of climate change on the Colorado River which in the author’s view “supplies drinking water for nearly 40 million people. Those actions drove me into ecofeminism as a means of fighting for its restoration. This has affected the vulnerable such as women, children and disabled. The Lake Chad basin shrinkage has led to the creation of the largest climate refugee crises with its increasing attendant effect on the farmer-herdsmen conflicts spreading its wings around in North Central Nigeria with several thousands of deaths recorded.
Conclusion:
The rippled effects of climate change are the creation of resource control conflicts. I established the I Lead Climate Initiative movement to fight against global warming especially its political and social effects. The author omits green democracy. We cannot get a green premium without a democratic system that includes green policies and programmes. In the end, the author included the fact that a zero emission can’t be achieved without government support. I am a leading activist for green democracy because I recognized that we can’t achieve zero emission without green democracy. As an advocate for positive change, I have been leading the campaign for the fight against climate change effect like conflicts and wars by establishing a world class website: www.womenandcrisis.com
- Ademola Oladosu is a freelance Journalist and political activist, writes from Abuja.