Nigerians have been warned against the destruction of the natural  habitant, Mr Abduwahi Aremu, the Director-General Advocacy for Environmental and Sanitation Integrity, an NGO, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Mr Aremu said that tree planting and deliberate efforts to reduce carbon emissions remained the best ways of addressing the effects of climate change in the country.
“One of the best ways to mitigate the effects of climate change is by planting more trees that can absorb and reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
This is because younger trees absorb carbon dioxide quickly while they are growing.     But as a tree ages, a steady state is eventually reached and at this point, the amount of carbon absorbed through ‘photosynthesis is similar to the amount lost through respiration and decay,” he said.
Aremu urged the government at all levels to adopt the best measures and practices that could assuage the adverse effects of climate change on the ecosystem.
According to him, there is the need to always have a healthy and productive environment.     “Even in our mining sector, it is possible to undertake mining without destroying the environment. If people, who lived before us, have destroyed the environment, nobody would have survived thereafter.
‘What we are doing now is destroying the environment and making the coming generation to live in a situation we cannot live in. We cannot afford to do that,” he said.
The ecologist, who advocated the development of new forests across the country, stressed that the forests would curtail the effects of climate change by moderating the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
“When forests grow, carbon is removed from the atmosphere and absorbed by the wood, leaves and soil.
“Forests can absorb and store carbon over an extended period of time, they are, therefore, considered as carbon sinks.