Why we are planting 200 million trees – the rationale
By Ibraheem Dooba
The urgent and present danger
The world is getting warmer. And when we lose 40% of our forests, the world would’ve reached a point of no-return where we would experience daily natural disasters such as heatwaves, floods and droughts.
We’re already getting there. Already, we lose 10 billion trees every year.
Accordingly, IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports that 97% of climate scientists agree that this unfavourable outcome is due to human activities such as carbon emissions.
Africa Will Die First …
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But Africa contributes only 3% of the global emissions. Yet, out of the 20 countries that are most impacted, only four are not African.
What does this mean?
It means that if the world is ending, Africa will die first.
… starting from Nigeria
The case is even worse in Nigeria where we’ve already lost 60% of our forests cover to charcoal production and other developments.
This means that the destruction of Africa will start from Nigeria. And we’re already seeing the adverse effects of annual floods which lead to the displacement of entire communities and the destruction of farms and crops.
But, most importantly, it also means that we need to save ourselves.
That’s why we’re planting 200 million trees all over Nigeria – within 10 years.
