EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background of the Study

Geographers have over the years noted regional imbalances in warning trends that seemed to render the term “global warning” invalid. While annual temperature averages unquestionably continued to rise through the late 1990s and early 2000s, over-heated areas in the Northern Hemisphere often were matched by excessively cool regions in the Southern Hemisphere (Blij, Muller, Williams, Conrad and Long, 2005).

             The discovery and extraction of natural resources has brought different consequences to countries that are endowed with such resources. While some of these nations have become economically strong and self sustaining, others have being drawn into serious economic hardships and conflicts due to the atmospheric influence of man and his activities while man through his various actions deliberately or inadvertently influence weather and climate which brings about climate change refers to an increase in average global temperatures.

             Natural events and human activities are believed to be contributing to an increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). Nigeria is experiencing adverse climate conditions with negative impacts on the welfare of millions of people. The climate of an environment or a region are usually explained in terms of the prevailing climatic elements of temperature, rainfall or precipitation, relative humidity, evaporation, solar radiation etc. The description of these climate element or parameters in any region is known as climatic characteristics of what region. Among all these parameters, the most widely used measure of climatic description is the temperature, rainfall or precipitation and relative humidity (Oguntoyinbo, 1983 and Ayoade, 1992).

          Over the years, studies of climatic characteristics have been limited to the micro scale known as micro climatic characteristics (Efe, 2002; Oguntoyinbo, 1981; Ojo, 1988; Figurola, 1995; and Efe and Aruegodine, 2003). Human activities have much effect on the climate of Abraka as most of these climatic parameters are being altered by the numerous activities of human in the region. Some of these human activities are the method of farming, gas flaring within the environment or neighbouring communities, transportation, fumes from factory buildings, illegal oil bunker, fumes from generator sets, improper waste disposal, deforestation etc.

          Lately the heat wave all over the country has been unbearable. Even with rain, the heat is still unbearable. Have you ever wondered why the sun is so hot? The heat is caused by global warning. Global warning is the rise in the atmosphere. This is called the Green House Effect. A Green House Gas (sometimes abbreviated GHG) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the green house effect.

          The primary green house gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. The effect of global warming include extreme weather conditions, heat due to the depletion of the ozone layer by the greenhouse gases, flood, shortage of water due to climate change.

          However, in Abraka, urbanization has also resulted in massive increases in problems such as obesity, township life, especially in modern urban slums of the developing world, are certainly immune to neither pestilence nor climatic disturbance such as floods, yet continue to strongly attract migrants. As an area is getting urbanized, there is the need to study climatic characteristics before they are completely militated by the modern trend of human population explosion, human and industrial activities as well as to get acquainted with its rural environmental conditions in relation to its rural surrounding centers. It is against this background that this research attempts to examine the effects of global warning in Abraka.

1.2     Statement of Problem

As the natural geographical setting and landscape of Abraka and its environs is rapidly being replaced by an agglomeration and clustering of both planned and unplanned building structures, its attendant consequences are enormous. The geometric increase in population, vehicular emissions from exhaust pipes, industrial discharges and increased use of power generating set due to erratic power supply by Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) all these lead to appreciable disturbance in the in the natural ecosystem of Abraka region, which in turn adversely affect the climate of Abraka.