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n. Council, RITa sign MOU on Environmental Health Officers training programme to enhance the training environmental health offi· EofFKJRTS cers have begun, with the signing of an agteement between Environmental Health Officers Registration Counal of Nigeria (EHORECON) and Federal Unive"ity of Technology (RJID) to advance study of environmen· tal sdence in tertiary institutions inthpcountry.
ng at the ceremony. the \.. .1 Registrar, Mr. Augustine Ebisike revealed that the move was to advance the study of environmental health practice nation wide and advised those with HND in Environmental Health to cash in on the g"lden opportunity to obtain.:) !3i1cheIor of Science in
the prof ]mme rather than to wait fm government to make pronouncement that HND is equivalent to B.Sc. Ebisike made this statement in his office in Abuja, when a group of students led by Mr. Celestine Onah from the Department of Environmental Health, Federal University of Technology(FUTO) Owerri paid a courtesy visit to show their appreciation in the Council's efforts to making the programme a reality. The Registrar reasoned that what the Council intended to achieve in this Memorandum ofUnderstanding(MOU)was to make sure that even when the university was on strike, it would have no effect on the progress of the programme. The progtamme is not a strike driven programme, he said. According to Ebisike, in 2009, the Council made it clear that by the year 2011, people who would not have held a mini· mum of Bachelor of Science
Professional study and advancement of the build environment sector recently got a support boost by way of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) and Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri. degtee would not be allowed to
register as
environmental
health officers. The registrar, however, said that the Council's decision on this, still stood, it had not been
~~hd~~~~~n'h~~at t~asw~~'t. extremely haIti lO ensure that this program~e came into existence. Ebisike said that the faith of the programme was in the hands of God and declared, "as far as we are concerned, the programme had started and we are not going to stop midway." The registrar revealed that other universities in the country were also on line to signing a similar MOU with the Council for the programme to com· mence nationwide. Earlier, the student leader from the Department of Environmental Health of the institution Mr. Celestine Onah thanked the registrar for the Council's efforts at making the progtamme a reality. He, how· ever, pleaded with tile registrar to prevail on the university authority to bridge the dispari. ty in the years of running the progtamme.
U.N. talks seen missing
climate plan deadline A PlAN by almost 200 countries r\to step up efforts to fight Pimate change is set to miss a Marrh deadline for Starting work on a green fund to help developing nations,delegatessaid. Groups of Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries have yet to decide who will gain ear!l influence in design· ing the Green Climate Fund" by attending 40·nation U.N.~ed talks due in Mexico City on March 14 and 15, according to Reuters. The fund, under which aid flows are meant to reach $100 billion a year by 2020 was agreed by governments in December as part of a deal that the United Nations said, reignit· ed "a beacon of hope" for tack· ling global warming. lohn Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, who represents the Latin American -and caribbean group where \4 countries are vying for seven seats in the fund planning committee, said that .it looked unlikely the matter could be resolved by mid· month. "Proceeding with the meeting would be a taU order" if all nom· ine.es were not in place, he told Reuters. The Asian gtoup has said it would be unable to pick its seven delegates before April. "It may be difficult to have the meeting," Artur·Runge
Delegates from developing nations have warned about delay and possible jailing to meet a set date to actualise a climate green fund under which aid flows are meant to reach $100 billion a year by 2020, agreed to by governments in December last year. Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, told Reuters. Europe's eight delegates had been decided. The last UN. talks in cancun, Mexico, agteed in December to set up the fund as part of a package including steps to protect tropical forests and to limit any rise in temperatures to below two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrialtimes. Among the few firm deadlines set in the cancun Agteements was that a "transitional committee" should meet by the end of March 2011 to start designing the fund. Rising aid is meant to help developing nations curb theIr greenliouse gas emissions by shifting from fossil fuels toward-renewable energies and to help them adapt to the
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Mud volcano erupted in Indonesia in 2008. Deadly volcano to erupt for 28 more years according to scientists
Lagos, experts urge action on clilTIate change lllitigation plan he EnVironment By Tunda Also ,-0 further address the
1 menace of climate change and the necessary mitigation measures, the Lagos State government has tasked the teachers in Lagos schools to support the initiative of the government in their respective schools. Lagos State Commissioner for the EnVironment, Dr. Muiz Adeyemi Banire charged the education sec· tor at a seminar organised for principals and teachers of scnools in Lagos last week The seminar was part of attempts to impart on the younger generations the negative impacts of climate change and ingrain in them its causes and their role towards a sustainable envi· ronment. A guest speaker at the semi· nar, Professor Babajide Alo of the University of Lagos and Consultant to Ministry of the Environment in his lee· ture, entitled "Overview of the Causes and Impacts of Climate Change", said that during the earth's history, global climate has always been subjected to change adding such variations in tile earth's climate had however occurred in very different time scales in tlie last 500 million years . The scientists worldWide now, according to Alo, adopt· ed a consensus after a series of research studies and mod· eling tha~ this mar be attributed to Increase In coneen-· tration and variety of these green house gases (GHGs) penetrating the atmosphere
The idea behind the seminar was to inculcate into the mind of the students/pupils, the implication of climate change and the mitigation initiatives that are capable of preserving their environment on one hand and their responsibility to the environment as the leader of the future as a result of varied human activities. To him, understanding the impact/effects of climate change is an essential start· ing point for discussions on the Governance and the Environmental Sustainability of Climate Change. "Scientifically, climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world including Mrica. It threatens access to water, food, health the ecolo· gy, land use and the environ· ment". 1"I1l!refore, he advocated the inclusion of future genera· tion into present day deci· sion making saying that the planning of today must take cognizance of taking care of tomorrow. Besides, the seminar aimed at reminding the school administrators and the pupils/students about the importance of not only fighting climate change but also know the essence of involv· ing school children whose future is being threatened by the effects of global warm· ing. In his address earlier, Banire added that the Lagos govern· ment was concluding arrangement to handover the Climate Change Clubs (CCC), to school authorities.
Expressing his believe on the project, the Commissioner said: "I am convinced that our school advocacy teams have done their part in starting the clubs and nurturing them in many of our schoofs and the time is ripe to hand over the clubs to the leadership of the schools for sustenance". He reiterated the resolve of the present administration in Lagos to contribute her quota to the fight against global warming because of the vulnerability of Lagos in particular, and Nigeria as a nation, to the consequences of climate change. The CommiSSioner, while lamenting that Nigeria is threatenea on all fronts by the consequences of climate change, noted that the Southern part of the country, such as Lagos, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Cross Rivers and Rivers States and a host of others are vulnerable to flooding and coastal erosion, just like Chile and Haiti that were recently experienced earthquake. According to him, "it is important to understand that we will need both science and economics to inform policies aimed at slOWing and eventually bringing a stop to humaninduced climate change. It Is also understood that reduc·
ing the expected impacts of CC is both desirable and fea· sible. Hence, there have been two main responses to c1i· mate chan&e: mitigation and adaptation Mr. Ayo Tella, a guest lectur· er at the seminar described 2010 as the year in which the earth struck back He made reference to disaster in Haiti, Pakistan flood, China mud· slide, Australia flood, Sri· Lanka flood, and Brazil flood and in some parts of Nigeria. While reacting to questions from the participants, Permanent Secretary, Ministryofthe Environment, Dr. Titi Anibaba, said that the ministry had planted over two million two hundred thousand trees in three years. She emphasized the need to conserve biodiversi·
ty. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo, said that the gathering of teach· ers and principals was to extract the needed support from all and sundry especial· Iy the education sector to actively participate in the global fight against climate change.
Prof. Alo