Climate Change: West African coastline in danger

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

The general state of the Earth's climate is dependent upon the amount of energy stored by the climate system, and in particular the balance between the amount of energy the Earth receives from the Sun, in the form of light and ultraviolet radiation, and the amount of energy the Earth releases back to space, in the form of infrared heat energy. Causes of climate change involve any process that can alter this global energy balance. Scientists call this "climate forcing". Climate forcing "forces" the climate to change. The are many climate forcing processes separated into internal and external types. External processes operate outside planet Earth, and includes changes in the global energy balance due to variations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and changes in the amount of energy received from the Sun. Internal processes operates from within the Earth's climate system, and include changes in the global energy balance due to changes in ocean circulation or changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Other climate forcing processes include the impacts of large volcanic eruption and collisions with comets or meteorites.

Luckily, the Earth is not hit by large comets or meteorites very often, perhaps every 20 to 30 million years or so, and therefore their associated climate changes occur rarely throughout Earth History. However, other causes of climate change influence the Earth on much shorter time scale, with changes sometimes occurring within a single generation. Indeed, our present pollution of the atmosphere with greenhouse may be causing the global climate to change. This man-made climate change has become known as global warming. The rise in temperatures will pose serious threats such as: rising sea levels, leading to more coastal erosion, flooding during storms, and permanent inundation, Increased drought and increased incidence of wildfires, Severe stress on many forests, wetlands, alpine regions, and other natural ecosystems Impacts on human health as mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and rodents spread diseases over larger geographical regions.

You also have disruption of agriculture in some parts of the world due to increased temperature, water stress, and sea-level rise in low-lying areas.

It is within this backdrop that a United Nation Conference on climate change took place in Ghana, recently

Expert noted in course of the conference that beaches and coastal settlements along West Africa’s shoreline from Senegal to Cameroon are under threat of disappearance and called for urgent attention while warning that rising sea levels would eventually devastate vast segments of the 4.000-km-long coastline.
While Justifying their fears, they intimated that a 3.000-meter-thick Greenland ice cap was melting at a faster pace than initially thought and that runoffs from the ice cap, estimated at three times the size of the Republic of Nigeria, would provoke rises in sea level of up to two centimeters yearly for the next 50 to 100 years.
With vast portion of the land having been occupied,a German ecologist fears the map of the West African coastline might be offseted by the end of the century.

Stefan Crammer, of the German ecological group, Heinrich Boll Stiftung, presented a catalogue of the most imperiled countries, when disaster finally strikes. The counties include among others; Gambia; Nigeria and Ghana. But, this wasn't good news to other counties along the coastline. Crammer, who is currently conducting probes on the matter in Nigeria, intimated that other countries not mentioned in his map especially those in the Gulf of Guinea, with parts lying below sea level like; Lagos, and Niger Delta, in Nigeria; Banjul, in The Gambia; including some Ghanaian port cities and many others which are already witnessing frequent flooding, will be completely submerged.

The devastation, according to the experts, will be compounded by violent tropical storms capable of creating Tsunami surges of up to three meters high.

It should be noted that a warning signal was registered when a storm off the coast of Lagos wrecked beaches some time last year. It is thought also that, salty seawater will eventually move inland, and damage farmlands and compromise food security and drinkable water. Many believe we can - and must - act urgently if we are to limit and eventually halt the impacts of global warming on human communities and natural ecosystems. The greater the magnitude and rate of warming, the greater the chances are for truly devastating - and potentially irreversible - changes in the Earth's climate system. Even by acting today to reduce our emissions from cars, power plants, land use, and other sources, we will see some degree of continued warming for a period of time because past emissions will stay in the atmosphere for decades or more. But, the window for effective action is closing fast and responding to the climate crisis will take commitment and ingenuity. The actions we take in the next several years will determine the kind of world our children and grandchildren will inherit.