The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has called on frontline international and domestic environmentalists, heads of states and other stakeholders in the fight for a safer environment for human habitation, business, work and leisure, to galvanise more of the global poor to join in the fight.
Obaseki made the call on the occasion of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, observed on September 16.
According to the governor, “poor people are more in number especially in third world countries and should be galvanised to join in the global effort to preserve the ozone layer and the environment.”
He further said that “the failure to appreciate the crucial role of the mass poor across the globe in our collective fight to save the environment, accounts for the seemingly slow pace in achieving the desired goals.”
Obaseki explained that some of the practices popular among the mass poor of the earth, like bush burning, felling of trees are partly responsible for global warming, with strong link to the depletion of the ozone layer.
He lamented that “several used home appliances and industrial equipment made with chemicals that destroy the ozone blanket find their way to third world countries and are used by poor people who do not have the capacity to destroy them in line with global conventions, when they are beyond repair.”
He maintained that all hands must be on deck in the education and mobilisation of the poor people in the campaign, if measured success can be achieved.
The ozone layer, a fragile shield of gas, protects the Earth from the harmful portion of the rays of the sun, thus helping preserve life on the planet.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer), an international treaty that protects the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion.
