ODS Programme Officer

Mr Alhagie Sarr, the Programme Officer for Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) at the National Environment Agency (NEA) has said that climate change is the dramatic and unpredictable changes that occur to the world’s climate. He said that it is dramatic and unpredictable because man has no entire control and cannot say exactly when and how the changes are going to occur and look like, with varied lengths of consequences.

Mr Sarr disclosed that the phenomenon of climate change is a global concern because its unprecedented impact affects the globe at large. He noted that man, the basic contributor to climate change, is involved in a lot of activities including the burning of fossil fuel, the driving of old cars, the burning of the forest cover, cutting down of trees, the emission of ozone depleting substances, establishing industries, to name but a few.

“Science has it that natural plants are designed in a way that they absorb the carbon dioxide emitted by humans, and in turn release oxygen which we inhale. It is therefore a simple logic that if the amount of carbon dioxide released is not readily absorbed by plants the excess goes into the atmosphere thereby warming the earth,” he explained.

NEA’s Ozone Programme Officer disclosed that this is a problem not only in The Gambia but also in a number of other countries in the developing world. He said that old cars emit lots of smoke out of their exhaust pipes, which contains carbon monoxide that heats the atmosphere of the earth in which we live.
 
Lamenting the problems of his own field, Sarr disclosed that Ozone is a layer of gases found in the atmosphere that protect life on earth from the harmful ultraviolet B radiation from the sun and can absorb heat that is reflected from the earth, known as infrared rays. Ozone, he said, is found concentrated in the first layer called the troposphere and the second layer stratosphere, but most ozone are found in the stratosphere.

He said Ozone depletion contributes to climate change because the tropospheric ozone absorbs heat from the earth so that if we emit gases that deplete the ozone we are rendering the troposphere useless in the absorption of heat resulting to a heating-up of the earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, he said, this encourages the ultraviolet radiation from the sun to reach the earth.

He however revealed that the ultraviolet radiation of the earth is an invisible light emitted by the sun and that the Ozone layer is the natural cover that protects life on earth from its harmful effects. Some of these harmful effects, he said, can cause skin cancer in humans, damage young plants, disturb marine life, etc.

Sarr said he is worried about the dramatic changes occurring to the earth’s climate because the consequences of the earth’s changing climate are becoming more and more visible in the tropics, the polar regions, and other parts of the globe. The polar regions (north and south poles) are at the extreme ends of the earth covered by ice that is gradually melting, he pointed out.

“People are worried because the melting ice is constantly moving into the water bodies of the earth and as a result, floods are imminent. Most western parts of Africa have Ria or low-lying coastlines that can be easily washed by flood waters. On the other hand, we are not experiencing serious heat waves but I am scared the heat we are experiencing is not the least normal as serious heat waves are experienced in other parts of the world according to international media,” Sarr posited. To minimize some of these problems, Sarr suggested that countries all over the world should gradually change fuel energy to wind, solar and other environmentally-friendly alternatives. He concluded that the world is a global village, and what affects one in The Gambia affects others in other parts of the world. He therefore reasoned that the fight against the causes of climate change should be a collective one.