The World: Fire, Fire, Everywhere

By Uche Mbah

During the recently concluded G7 meeting in Paris, world leaders rose to the conclusion that the global climatic change is happening faster than predicted by even the most pessimistic scientists. Though the president of the United States, Donald Trump, maintained stoic opposition to affirmative action against climate change in favor of corporate greed, the Amazon fires dominated the discussion, even with conspiracy theorist insisting that it has an apocalyptic outlook.

The Amazon fires are said to be massive, both in its land mass and political implications. Already the G7 has decided on financial help for the affected Latin American countries, which was flatly rejected by Brazil. On second thoughts, Brazil made a U-turn, with the proviso that they ought to be allowed to determine how the funds must be utilized.

While the world is facing Brazil due to its obvious strategic impact-the smoke has all but shut out the sun and the carbon emission is becoming out of this world-it is only a small part of what is being experienced worldwide, as virtually every continent-and country for that matter-is insulated from the covetous glare of Vulcan. Angola, Congo, Spain, Greece, Alaska, and Siberia, and other countries besides, are all reeling under the heavy burden of fire, some even more devastating than the Amazon. Surprisingly, turgid areas like the arctic region is taking the lead, with over a hundred fires reported in the region. “Unprecedented #wildfires in #Arctic. Over past 6 weeks @CopernicusEU #Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) has tracked more than 100 intense fires in the Arctic Circle. In June alone, these fires emitted 50 megatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere = Sweden’s total annual emissions”, the World Meteorological Organisation, WMO, twitted, using the handle @WMO. In recent times, over 21,000square miles of forests have been devastated by fire. The fires have no boundaries: the Greek island of Evia, Alaska, Greenland, Spain’s Canary Islands (9,000 people were forced to evacuate). Spanish gran Canaria lost 46,000 square miles this year alone.

The biggest fires in the world, however, are in Angola.

These fires have been turned into political weapons by the world elite, and there appears to be little chance that anything could really be done, except for some platitudes.

It becomes worrisome, however, when juxtaposed to the incessant flooding that is currently ravaging Asia and other countries. Though these things are of annual occurrence-as recently experienced here in Adamawa, Nigeria- the exponential rate of increase is rather alarming. This, compounded by reversal of weather-the surprising cold bouts in the tropics and tropical hot temperatures in the temperate zones which, juxtaposed with the melting of icecaps, are bringing home uncomfortable thoughts of human extinction. And the corporate world go dancing on their own graves blinded by greed and lack of love.