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Vang uard, TUESDAY, MARCH 15,2011
Environment WATCH L
AGOS Commissioner lor the Environment in Lagos State, Dr. Adeyemi Banire has raised alarm over the devastating ellects 01 Climate Change on Nigeria. In an address on Climate Change at the commissioning of 'Building Nigeria's response to Climate C hange organized by Nigerian Environment Study/ Action Team, (NEST) . He said in 2010 alone there were 373 natural disaster, economic loss 01 US 4110 billion and 300,000 people lost their lives and 207 million people were affected. According to him, "The frequency 01 disasters around the globe has been increasing in an unprecedented manner in known human history. Climate Change is here with us and incontestable evidences abide that the globe is warming. The laster we realize this and act the better lor us. Agreed that African countries contribute less to the devastating scourge of Climate Change, they are bill to suffer the most. " He noted that belore the independence in 1960, Nigeria conservation foundation was 30% but now it stood at just 4%. ''Today, Nigeria is known to be in the region 01 the most vulnerable c ountries to the climate change disasters. Desertification is ravaging 11 states including Katsina, Kano Borno, a damawa, Kebbi, Zamfara, Bauchi, Sokoto, Gombe, Jigawa and Yobe. The Increasing loss of vegetation has brought abo ut intense heat resulting in meningitis, heat rash and heat wave. Soil erosion occasi oned by heavy rainfall is tembly degrading arable lands in the South east, causing gullies and destroying lives and property. S tates of the West are inundated by flooding while those abutting the Atlantic Ocean like Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Delta, Cross Rivers, Rivers, Akwa [born have been grappling with coastal erosion and flooding." Meanwhile, the "death toll in Japan's earthquake and tsunami wil1likely exceed 10,000 in one state alone, an official said Sunday, as millions of swvivors were lelt without drinking water, elec-
•Nuclear plant explOSion In Japiln
-Sbips wrecked by tbe Tsunami
Climate Change: Banire raises alarm as Japan count co t of quake , tsunami BY LAIDE AKlNBOADE tricity and proper food along the pulverized northeastern coast. "This is Japan's most severe crisis since the war ended 65 years ago," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.According to the prime Minister, "the nation's future would be decided by the choices
made by each person and urged everyone to join in their determination to rebuild the nation. as the quake is country 's worst since World War II . There are fears Second nuclear reactor explosion as 22 people confirmed to have radiation poisoning following lirst blast. At least 1.4 million households had gone
without water since the quake struck and some 2 .5 million households were without electricity. Large areas of the countryside were surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed and people were running out of gasoline lor their cars. According to officials, more than
Catholic church campaigns for safe environment BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE
scrutinize our government about our natural resources. We critically examined the diHerent natuHE Catholic Church in Ni ral resources lor the integral hugeria will on Sunday in Benin man development. The emphaflagged-off the 2011 Lenten sis on Nigeria especially in the Campaign with the theme, "Susarea of oil and gas and how this taining Our Environment for Inhas impacted on the people, partegral Human Development". ticularly on the lives 01 the peoThe Benin Province Coordinaple in the production line of Nitor, Justice Development and gerians in the Niger Delta rePeace/Caritas Commission gion". (JDPC), Rev. Father Fidelis "For your information, there is Arbedo, wbo disclosed this yesno state in this country that hQS terday in the Edo state capital, no natural resources but the atsaid the Church has chosen the tention 01 government is on oil environment as the locus 0/ this and gas. The people in the zone year Lenten Campaign so as to 01 production have been impovprevent lurther damage to the erished and abandoned. The ofearth, particularly in Nigeria. licers of the govern. Besides, he "In OllI focus on the environdisclo~ed that the issue 01 Agriment and climate change, we
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culture and Food scarcity will also be focused upon during the campaign and lamented that Nigeria has neglectedAgriculture loll owing the discovering of oil in the seventies. Saying that there must be a conscious effort to promote and preserve lood production in the country, Rev. Father Arhedo attention should be given to the e/Iect of forest degradation and lorest migration as a result of climate change, adding that, "we must pay attention to dangers inherent in delorestation and proper effect should be made to prevent them" . He further disclosed that the Campaign will address the issue of water scarcity in the country as its wastage or misuse has resulted in the spread of common diseases such as dysentery, cholera among other,.. -
• Pope Benedict XVI
1,400 people were killed - including 200 people whose bodies were found Sunday along the coast - and more than 1,000 were missing in the disasters. Another 1,700 were injured. However, police said the deatlt toll was likely far higher in the prefecture 01 Miyagi alone. Miyagi police spokesman Go Sugawara said Sunday that the prelecture's police chief told a gathering of disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths in the prefecture was more than 10,000. Miyagi was one of the areas worst aIIected by the earthquake and tsunami. Nuclear fears. Adding to the countly's woes, there were fears that a second nuclear reactor a t the Dai -ichi power plant would explode Sunday and problems wi th three reactors at another power plant. O n Saturday, Japan's nuclear safety agency reported that ra dioactive cesium and lodine were detected near the Dai-iclu power plant after one of its reactor exploded. Authorities Said the blast did not damage the containment structure surrounding the reactor. Japan's Meteorological Agency Said it had upgraded the magnitude of Friday's catastrophic earthquake to 9.0. The agency earlier measured it at 8.8. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at 8.9 The quake was already the biggest to hit Japan since recordkeeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.