With Saikou Suwareh Jabai
Welcome to yet another edition of your weekly Student’s Voice. We feature stories, articles, poems, etc, from students and teachers alike. We encourage other students to contribute and get their writing skills developed. The column is open to all and sundry in the education milieu in of The Gambia. Sit back, relax and enjoy these fascinating pieces.QUOTATION OF THE WEEK
“One man’s meat is another man’s poison,” unkown THE THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH IS WHAT IS CONFINED IN THE CHANGING CLIMATE Climate change is now taking the position as the greatest global concern of our time. This has shown threats to our environment, health, social and economies. It is debatable by people who are not ready for attitudinal change but is undeniable to everyone because we all have noticed changes within our own surroundings. For this reason experts have stated that, it has features that do not explain or portray a better future when viewed from today’s perspective with the already encountered effects and disasters that are attributed to be the course of climate change. It is the destruction that the combustion of excessive fossils fuels has produced with other local activities such as bush burning and deforestation. We are caged in a lot of health risks as global warming accelerates. The obvious impacts that are noted are the rising of the sea levels that forces people to loose their properties .The lost of properties and lives during migration can cause increment in frustration(stress) to some people which tends to pose abnormality in the mentality of affected people lasting for almost through out their life time (neurodistability). The reduction of the purity of atmospheric oxygen needed for human and other biotic organisms during respiration determines the increment of cardiovascular (heart related) and respiratory diseases such as asthma which is very dangerous to children or old aged people. This tends to worsen during hot seasons which are as a result of greenhouse gases that trap a lot of heat in the atmosphere. Heat waves also tend to increase excessively during summer and have always been claiming lives in different continents. Heat waves can lead to heat stroke and dehydration .Young children, older adults, people with medical conditions, and the poor are more vulnerable than others to heat-related illness. Over this century there have been massive earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, landslides, tsunamis, which are all attributed to the global warming (human-causing climate change) and other these have connection to health in the aspect of injuries, food shortage, infections and organ failures. As acid rain continues to fall on our agricultural lands which are caused by rainfall from the sky reacting immediately with harmful gases in the atmosphere, it is clear that hunger will get its increment course soon. This is because there will be a severe reduction of food supply at global level as produce from agricultural lands fall in quality and quantity and can result to malnutrition which is a major health concern especially in developing countries. Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, are excessively contributing to high quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with the increment of temperature, there could be a lot of ground ozone which has the tendency to affect the lungs when we breath and this can trigger a lot of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, and congestion. It has the tendency to reach more complicated conditions like bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. Ground level ozone also jeopardise the ultimate lung function and inflame the linings of the lungs. As long as greenhouse gases are retained in the atmosphere temperature rise is inevitable and this will continue causing disturbance to the lives of human and other animals. Temperature rise has resulted to wild bush fires/forest fires killing a lot of animals in the bushes/forests that have offset the balance of the global ecosystem and this will make a deficit of the oxygen-carbon dioxide balance needed interdependently between plants and animals. Rising sea levels will cause flooding and increase standing water, which can serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes causing malaria and other pathogens. It is inline with these that diseases like cholera may increase as human needs water for consumption and other domestic activities. Floods with water displacement will also increase coastal erosion and destroy people’s homes in coastal areas. Higher temperatures also increase the rate of evaporation of which causes a reduction of moisture for both the soil and its micro living organisms resulting to the dryness of the land hence subject the place to desert or unproductive agricultural land. ]]>
