Everybody alive today belongs to the last generation of humans that can stop the danger climate change poses to life on earth. This requires a feeling of responsibility so as to reverse the planet from its march on the lane to a catastrophe as there is no other planet that supports life.
Renowned environmentalist, Desmond Majekodunmi, who gave this charge in Lagos on Saturday in his keynote address during the celebration of Earth Hour 2017, noted that this became imperative because the “environment may fall apart if the issue of global warming is not addressed as everything seems to be moving toward a tipping point of no return.”
According to him, the Industrial Revolution in Europe many years ago set the tone for the increase in pollution of the atmosphere which now stands at about 400 points, resulting into an increase in the planet’s temperature to almost one degree which may even increase to two.
“No sacrifice is too much to save the environment because of the future of our children. We have the solution in Nigeria because we’re in the rainforest region,” said Majekodunmi, as he called on the members of the public to engage in tree planting to protect the environment.
The Unity Bank’s Head of Corporate Communication, Matthew Obiazikwor, whose organisation hosted the event at its Unity Towers, said the bank supported the event because of its belief in environmental sustainability and the importance of good environment to human survival.
According to him, “environmental sustainability defines our business and that is the reason for our eco friendly initiations such as electronic approval that we introduced so as to reduce the use of papers in our operations.”
He, therefore, noted that the bank’s activities encourages biodiversity and supports smallholder farmers for the promotion of agriculture and rural.
Earth Hour Nigeria Country Director, Halima Baba, providing the background to the Earth Hour celebration, said the symbolic action started by a group of young men at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and is now in its tenth year and eighth in Nigeria.
She stressed that the emphasis this year is to employ the use of social media to promote climate change and activities that can mitigate its effects so as to call the attention of the younger generation to the issue.
The highpoint of the celebration was the symbolic one hour of darkness from 8:30 to 9:30pm, during which all none essential lights were switched off everywhere the event was celebrated across the globe according to time variations, to call attention to sustainable use of energy.
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