Climate change is a serious global issue and concern that is attributed to change. A change of climate that is directly or indirectly related to human activity, that which alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. There is therefore no doubt that the earth is warming, and the climate changing. Despotism and the rule of despots as agents of democracy has created a rift in the issue of climate change on its citizenry in the southern zone of Plateau State in the area of health, water shortages, cutting meals due to the economic recession in Nigeria. Research has shown that climate change can create a conflict, and it does have a direct effect on scarce resources required to sustain life. Water is at the heart of human existence. Global warming has a major impact on global water cycle, hence on rainfall, soil moisture, rivers, and sea levels. If climate change is not tackled urgently, the calamity will be enormous.
TopIntroduction
Climate change over decades has been a threat globally to environment, health, food, natural ecosystem, tourism, water supply in particular. UNDP (2007) reports shows that over 262 million people were affected by climate disasters annually. From 2000 to 2014, over 98 percent of the people affected are from the developing countries. No doubt the Red Cross since 2006 to date was able to identify that 25 million refugees owed their displacements annually to climate change (Christian Aid, 2006). The issue of water shortage is the focus of this study which needs urgent attention. Water is needed to produce services. Water shortage can be devastating since it leads to drying wells, rivers and the destruction of the ecosystem with the loss of biodiversity and livelihoods, this is synonymous with the southern zone of Plateau. According to Sachs (2008):
evapotranspiration will increase with temperature, so that in hot environments, rising temperatures will make rainwater less available for human use and crop production before it exporates…for some decades, these communities will be threatened by flooding caused by rapid glacier meeting, but after that, the risk will switch abruptly to water scarcity when the glaciers disappear altogether. (P. 89)
The tenet here is the velocity of impact of climate change on water supply and how it poses a massive threat to human life and development and will undermine the international efforts to combat poverty. At this point, rhetorical questions on how the international and national bodies tackle these issues is necessary. It follows with efforts of organisations to tackle the causes, consequences, strategies and implementation of water harvest on the citizens of the southern zone, and enlightenment campaigns for the people of the Southern zone to rise to the challenge through theatre for Development as a tool for sustainable change and development.
TopWhat Is Climate Change
The UN (1992) defines climate change as change of the climate that is attributed to human activity that alters the composition of the atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. Pittock (2009) opines that climate variability is a variability in the average weather behaviour at a particular location from one year to another or one decade to another. This is to say that those changes in the behaviour of the weather over a longer time scales, such as one century to another, is referred to as “climate change”.
Research has confirmed that these climate changes are man-made, or anthropogenic. Seitz (2008) concurs that a change in the global climate is now taking place, because of hazardous burning of human large amounts of natural gas, oil, fossil fuels and coal. Carbon is released into the atmosphere as gas, carbon dioxide. Accumulated gases in the air create the green house gas effect.
Global warming is caused by the proliferation of greenhouse gases in the air as the intergovernmental panels on climate change IPCC (2008) are of the view that most of the observed increase in Anthropologic green house gas concentrations is responsible for climate change.
The Paris Agreement (2016) is of importance and beneficial to the continent. In 2016, one of the biggest headlines on the G20 summit was held in China (2016). The announcement of china and United States of America was significant because China and United States of America are the world’s two biggest polluters. China is responsible for 20.09% of global emissions and United States with 17.89%. The world Economic Forum’s Global Risks report (2016) named it as one of the biggest risk faced by man. In recognition of these reports, 179 countries and European Union spent two weeks in December 2016 in parts to find solutions to the global temperature increase well below 2c and better still below 1.5c. On 11th December 2017, one planet submit was held in Paris with Nigerian president in attendance to address the challenges of the global warming.