Climate change a life threat

Mmegi Editor | Thursday September 25, 2014 17:20

As has become the norm our president, Ian Khama, is not attending the meeting. That is not our subject of discussion today, though we are greatly affected. 

Climate change is a great concern, and a real threat to lives.  This subject matter, which has been an issue for a while, started going up the agenda of such gatherings in the last decade, with the greater focus coming in the past four years.  This was mainly due to the fact that of recent, the human race has started experiencing high temperatures, floods, droughts, and extremely cold weathers.

Rivers have dried up, whilst sea levels are going up due to the melting of what used to be ice lands. According to experts, this development poses a serious threat to world security, particularly among the poor vulnerable nations.

In Africa for instance, there are concerns that water supply may go down, something which might prompt cross border wars over this scarce commodity.

It is also reported that the continent, which has already experienced civil wars in the past and present, may plunge further into turmoil over food and natural resources.

In our country Botswana, which is dry for most part of the year, we are already experiencing the effects of climate change as our national dams are drying up. For a country that witnesses rainfall for a period of only two months in a year, climate change will definitely pose a threat to our very own existence.

It is therefore important for our head of state to show interest in gatherings of this nature, where leaders discuss the future of their nations.

It is also imperative for our President to have attended this meeting where the security threat by ISIS was on the agenda.

It is common knowledge that extremism is a serious challenge to world peace and terror organisations such as ISIS have no boundaries, as they can operate even in places believed to be peaceful.

We would like to caution that our country cannot afford to be isolated when other nations come together to find lasting solutions facing the world, that include poverty eradication, security, and future technologies.

We hope that as we move to the general elections, in just four weeks, the presidency will come back refined and able to note urgent matters that are of national interest.

                                                               Today’s thought

                             He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

 

                                                              —Aristotle