A university teacher, Dr Godson Ana, has urged the Federal Government to tackle the threats posed by climate change.
Ana, the Head of Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Faculty of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, said this in an interview with newsmen in Ibadan, recently.
“We definitely have to take our destinies in our hands and not totally depend on the super powers because every government, every society thinks about itself first before thinking about others.
“We must rise up and strategise, and rally round to get support but we can’t sit back and fold our hands and watch our people suffer.
“Climate change impact is here; we need to devise strategies to mitigate; we need to device strategies to adapt.
“So the adaptation strategies must be on because reducing the scorch of heat, floods, drought and all the upsurge and proliferation of vectors and increase in airborne, food-borne, and water-borne ailments is something that the government of Nigeria must address.”
The environmentalist said that climate change mitigation approaches should encourage tree planting to reduce carbon emissions; penalise people for bush burning and change their lifestyle and encourage them to consumption pattern.
“We need to change practices and modify our consumption pattern and not to be wasteful.
“We need to adopt conservative approaches to the utilization of resources.
“Renewable energy is one of the major ways to combat climate change and it should be used as a job creation avenue; when people go into producing biogas you are creating jobs and sustainable development.
“Carbon sequestration is important in urban environment; the more we plant trees the more naturally these plants will absorb or filter the atmosphere and reduce emissions,” he said.