Nigerian governor calls climate change the biggest war of our time

The Nigerian Tribune: Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has described the ravaging climate change as the biggest war of our time, stressing that “no war in human history has claimed as many lives as climate change has.”

Fashola stated this at the ongoing 5th Climate Change Summit in Lagos, with the theme: Vulnerability and adaptability to climate change in Nigeria: Lagos State transportation, housing and infrastructural sectors in focus.” Fashola added “it is a war we need to fight together and I am sure that if we fight together, the human civilisation will win, climate change is not new, what is new is our knowledge about it and what we do about it.”

....Governor Fashola also said that the government was adapting to climate change in the housing sector, with the adoption of new housing estate development schemes which involve the use of aluminum and ceramic materials for roofing of houses, so as to eliminate artificial cooling through airconditioning units and conserve energy.

... “Similarly, in the infrastructural sector, we have upgraded various existing networks of roads across the state. Work has commenced and still ongoing on expansion and development of new ones. All these efforts are geared towards reduction in travelling time and cutting back carbon emission from vehicles plying our roads,” he said.

The governor emphasised that the state government’s commitment to ensuring the protection of the citizenry from the effects of climate change, led to the construction, lining and dredging of more drainage channels to mitigate the occurrence of flooding. He also noted that the state government’s efforts in maintaining drainage infrastructure paid off last year, when several parts of the country were heavily flooded, while Lagos State was the least affected...

The local government areas of Lagos, Nigeria, map by Bohr, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license