The West African Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), has organized an educational outreach for elementary and secondary schools in Ondo State to sensitize students on climate change and its effect on the environment, as part of its 10th-anniversary celebration.
Speaking during the outreach, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Adenike Oladiji, said it was important to teach the younger generation how to protect the environment.
Oladiji, who was represented by the deputy vice-chancellor (development), Professor Phillips Oguntunde, stated that there are chances for young people in Africa to flourish in the field of climate science because it has broad global implications.
She urged the participants to take advantage of the outreach programme and learn new things so that they can also enlighten their peers.
Delivering the outreach lecture entitled ‘Basics on Climate Change and the Environment, the Scientific Coordinator WASCAL Doctoral Research Programme (DRP) in West African Climate System (WACS) FUTA, Dr Ayo Oluleye, said “We have only one place to live. Our survival depends on the health of our environment. There is no planet ‘B’.
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“We interact with our environment to make us comfortable and to create wealth. Thus, when we expand our surroundings, cut down trees for cooking gases, use modern transportation and manufacture goods, we emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”
He said that because these gases control the world’s temperature, their abundance causes the temperature to rise, adding that reducing the number of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and implementing helpful strategies like reforestation and climate adaptation are essential components of attempts to prevent climate change.
Oluleye further stated that in order to prevent climate change, steps must be taken to lower the number of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and implement helpful techniques like reforestation and climate adaptation.
Story was adapted from Nigerian Tribune.
