Lima Climate Change Agreement: Advances the Durban Platform and Ends Historic North-South Split

UN climate talks held in Lima, Peru between December 1 -12, 2014 wrapped up in Peru with a modest agreement about the building blocks of a deal due to be agreed in Paris next year.

I am currently studying the contents of the agreement. I will try to interrogate and situate Africa within the framework of the agreement. I will surely post my cogitation here on this blog.

To get a pdf copy of the agreement, please,

click here. 

Rethinking the paradoxes of Greenhouse Effects in Nigeria by Sesan Michael Johnson

Today, as I was driving my Premiere SLX Nissan automobile on my way to work, I was greeted and tormented with a mammoth cloud of carbon dioxides oozing out of the various ill-cars on both sides of the road. It was so worrisome for me because the very commercial bus in my front beclouded my vision with its gargantuan noise and smoke from its silencer – the silencer refused to be silent this blessed morning. It was not until when my six years old daughter (Ayomide), referred to this scenario as ‘hell’ that it dawn on me that the driver or should I say the devastating bus is contributing to the accentuation of the effects of the greenhouse gases thereby eroding the ozone layers – causing global warming.

With no opportunity to escape the ‘hell’ being emitted by the bus in our front, since there is already traffic gridlock along our path or route (Akobo Ojurin road, Ibadan, Nigeria), I seize the opportunity to educate my two daughters (six and four years old)  on what are greenhouse gases, what are their significance and effects?  

For the delights of the readers of this blog, I am auspiciously doing a recap of the dialogue or discourse:

No doubt, life (plants, animals, human beings, etc) on earth depends on energy released from the sun. Scientists had proven that about 30 percent of the sunlight that beams toward the earth is deflected by the outer atmosphere and scattered back into space. The rest reaches the planet's surface and is reflected upward again as a type of slow-moving energy called ‘infrared radiation.’

The heat caused by infrared radiation is absorbed by "greenhouse gases" which slows its escape from the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses include water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane. The greenhouse gases make up only about 1 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, and significantly, they regulate the earth’s climate by trapping heat and holding it in a kind of warm-air blanket (the ozone layer) that protects the planet. This process is what scientists referred to as the "greenhouse effect."

Hence, on one hand, greenhouse gasses are very essential to the survival of lives on the mother earth. 
Nevertheless, on the other hand, an extreme proportion of the greenhouse gases are injurious tearing or wearing out the ozone later. The paradoxes inherent in the greenhouse effect is that while the greenhouse effect is an essential environmental prerequisite for life on Earth, there really can be too much of a good thing. The problems begin when human activities distort and accelerate the natural process by creating more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than are necessary to warm the planet to an ideal temperature.

The climate has warmed and cooled many times during Earth’s history. However, the global increase in mean temperature we have observed in the last decades has been both rapid and large. It translates to warmer land temperatures and warmer sea water almost everywhere on Earth. This increase in temperatures has led to increased melting of most of the world’s glaciers.

Human activities have been releasing in the atmosphere many molecules that create a greenhouse effect.  

Therefore, man must beware of his activities that are accentuating the effects of greenhouse gases.  Some of the ways humans contribute to the Greenhouse Effect include: the burning of fuel (petroleum, diesel, etc), coal and oil. Evidently, this raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Without mincing words, the roads of African states, Nigeria for example, are plied by automobiles with bad engines emitting more carbon dioxide than expected. There is a great need to gear up efforts that will ensure Nigerians go for new automobiles instead of ‘second hand’ or ‘tokunbo’ cars. Road infrastructure should be improved upon too.

Also, bush burning and some other farm practices combined with some land-use changes increase the levels of methane and nitrous oxide. This is typical of what is obtainable in most African states where the prominent means of survival in still agriculturally based with crude methodologies. Modernisation and environment-friendly global best practices in agriculture should be pursued aggressively.

Industrial gases discharge by companies in Nigeria must be done appropriately. Heavy industrial discharge contributes significantly to the enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming. In the same vein, deforestation – cutting of trees - also contributes to global warming. Trees use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen in its place, which helps to create the optimal balance of gases in the atmosphere. As more forests are logged for timber or cut down to make way for farming, however, there are fewer trees to perform this critical function.

I agree with Larry West, the greenhouse effect often gets a bad rap because of its association with global warming, but the truth is we couldn't live without it. Ultimately, more greenhouse gases means more infrared radiation trapped and held which gradually increases the temperature of the Earth's surface and the air in the lower atmosphere.

The Social Media: Amplifying Engine for Deliberative Democracy in Nigeria by Sesan Michael JOHNSON

No doubt, the Social Media as a communication model is a phenomenon that can never be denied considering its infinite usage all over the globe. Its usage in African states is increasing at an alarming rate, particularly in the areas of politics and process of democratisation. The New Media or Social Media have proven beyond doubt that they have the capacity to trigger over-communication, not only as a push media but also as pull media particularly within the frameworks of its strong interactivity attributes. It is evident that both traditional and New Media offer opportunities for political interrogation, nonetheless, in Nigeria Internet use and penetration in the political engineering processes is drastically increasing. Reportedly, by June 2012, there were about 48 millions of Internet users in Nigeria. Internet World Stats credited Nigeria with a total of 45 percent of Africa’s Internet users by December 31, 2011.

In January 2011 when President Goodluck Jonathan removed the Fuel Subsidy, which led to increase in fuel prices, the agitated political reactions that greeted this government policy became accentuated through the aggressive political advocacy that characterised the mainstreams Social Media sites such as the twitter and facebook.

In Nigeria, not long ago, the use of the Social Media for political reporting during the Osun State Governorship Election was overwhelming and phenomenal. Likewise, the campaigns of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and President Goodluck Jonathan for 2015 Presidential Election are aggressively exploring the use of the Social Media platforms.

The Social Media and technologies are promoting political participation in Nigeria, thereby serving as catalysts for the amplification and accentuation of deliberative democracy, political dialogue and yellow journalism.  The ever emerging politically based Social Media sites and blogs are seriously promoting censorious analysis of burning political issues in Nigeria

Globalization & the New Media versus Education in Africa by Sesan Michael Johnson

It is no gainsaying that the new media: the Internet, DVD, etc, had tremendously aided education through the adoption and usage of e-learning by some African states. There has been an increasing use of the new media, especially, the Internet by African universities and other educational institutions. Admission and examinations are now being conducted online and African students now make active use of e-library as well as the use of search engine optimization in carrying out their research works. The degree of importance of the applicability of the new media to improve education in Africa is exploding and expanding daily and continually. Globalization and the new media have further increased the level of interaction and collaboration between and among African students and lecturers and their counterparts in Europe, the Americas and other parts of the world.

However, it has also been observed that over indulgence in the use of the new media by the active African youths had detrimentally affected the quality of education and performance of students in Africa. Precious times are wasted playing around with mobile phones, and browsing the net. Students are no longer patronizing the library to read and to conduct research, whereas, this accounted for the demise of the reading culture in Africa.

Another negative aspect is the use of abbreviations in text messaging (SMS) on mobile phones and chatting in virtual places such as Facebook. This had eaten deep into the fabrics of the students to the extent that it has been observed that most students are no longer writing correct spelling and good grammatical structure in their examination essays again. They make use of the online abbreviations that they are accustomed to. It is not an exaggeration that this is predominant in most Nigerian universities and it is worrisome.

In April 2010, Kenyan media reported that the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims had banned the satellite broadcasting by DSTv in Mandera town, North Eastern Province. “Also outlawed are video dens, blamed for eroding moral values among the youth and causing poor academic performance.” 13

The concept of a media culture has evolved owing to the increased volume, varied and importance of mediated signs and messages and the interplay of interlaced meanings. At present, the global media culture is a pedagogic force that has the potential to exceed the achievements of institutionalized forms of education. Henry Giroux succinctly puts it this way: “with the rise of new media technologies and the global reach of the highly concentrated culture industries, the scope and impact of the educational force of culture in shaping and refiguring all aspect of daily life appear unprecedented. Yet, the current debates have generally ignored the powerful pedagogical influence of popular culture, along with the implications it has for shaping curricula, questioning the relationship between the culture of schooling and the culture of everyday life.”14

End notes
13 Daily Nation (Kenya), April 27, 2010.

14  H. Giroux, Impure Acts: The Practical Politics of Cultural Studies (New York and London, Rutledge, 2000), 32

The Effects of the New Media and Globalization on African culture. - By Sesan Michael Johnson

With the fancy and all the frenzy about globalization, it is evident that globalization is not new, however, as a great phenomenon; its influence cutting across all facets of life are continuously being experienced by nation-states of the world. The multitudinous influence of globalization is also being accentuated by the proliferation of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), especially, the ever emerging new media which in all characterization has turned the world into a wholesome entity with high interrelatedness and interconnectedness between and among varied civilizations, culture, and communities of the world. Hence, through the instrumentality of globalization and the wide currency the new media had attracted and according to Marshall McLuhan the world had turned to become a global village. For instance, the ongoing Arab Spring characterizing some of the countries of North Africa has been tagged “Facebook Revolution”. Decisively, this article sets to do a critical assessment of some of the effects of globalization as well as that of the new media on Africa culture.

No matter where Africans turn to, through mobile phone and internet application devices, they encounter the new media, It is evident that globalization and the new media are like two Siamese twins. They are highly intertwined and inseparable. Indeed, in the recent time the new media is seriously accentuating globalization and sky-rocketing its potency all over the world.

Reportedly, 2003 World Youth Report on Youth and Information and Communication Technology hypothesize that “two major assumptions underline the role of the new media: the first is that proliferation of the technologies is causing rapid transformation in all areas of life; the second is that the new media function to unify and standardize culture.”[1]

In its entire ramification the new media just like globalization is creating a global system of culture for the international system. Importantly, with economic, social, cultural and political interaction between and among states in the international system, there have been cross fertilization of ideas and culture in particular. Through cultural diplomacy which is orchestrated by globalization, nation-states of the world are interacting culturally at the highest level through conferences and events such as cultural festivals and carnivals as well as during sporting events.

The exploding new media realities and globalization are sensed as both a gift and a threat especially to African culture. The new infomedia technologies have created new spaces and new contexts for the emerging new virtual and cyber communities where amalgamation of varied cultures of different civilizations and races is taking place. Significantly, African culture is not an exception.

There are many Africans today, who only perceive the media realities as a fear-provoking threat, especially considering the ways African culture is being polluted and bastardized with the so-called western civilization which had formed the major component of the new media or global culture being subtly imposed on African youths.

African youths are daily experiencing the bombardment of images, sounds, and words through bursting of the new media technologies that screeches out to capture the imagination of people today. As said earlier on, western culture has become the de-facto culture of the new media or globalization. Which according to some scholars has no redemptive values to African culture and by its nature is distracting, manipulative and oppressive to Africa thereby subjugating African culture as inferior and barbaric which is in line with the spirit of neo-imperialism and/or globalization. Globalization has generated a lot of controversy with regard to the rise of a global culture. Western norms and practices are gradually being transported across the globe as the acceptable way of behaviour. In view of this, rich and dynamic African culture has been diluted.[2]

By definition, what globalization does is to make all other cultures local. According to Jeremy, globalization is a declaration of war upon all other cultures.[3] There is no doubt that with high intensity, globalization and the new media have dragged African culture into disrepute and cultural doldrums.

The new media also riffles the fabrics of African social networks. In a typical African traditional setting or community children are expected to keep company with the aged or the elderly who would then impart the wisdom of the land to the younger generation, however, this is becoming difficult when the children spend most of their time surfing the net or bubbling with mobile devices. To most African youths nowadays tales by moonlight is a myth or fiction.

It is suffice to say here, it is not all aspect of the media culture that is detrimental and sententious to African culture, however, generally speaking, the new media culture had negatively affected African culture within the context of ethical values, socialization, dressing, religion, relationship, sexuality, etc. Absurdity and anomalies such as nudity, homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography, etc are being passed on to African youths in particular as major strands of western civilizations symbolizing global culture.

However, it must be said at this juncture that globalization and the new media have opened African peoples’ lives to other cultures and all their creativity and to the flow of ideas and values. Since, in anyway, no culture is superior to others and characteristically all cultures have their positive and negative strings. The new media have eased interaction among Africans and peoples of different cultures. Also, some inhuman cultural practices directed especially at women, for instance, female genital mutilation (circumcision), widowhood rites, trokosi, etc are being addressed and modified. [4]

Additionally, the new media is working well for African culture. It is gainfully being deployed to connect families. By sharing pictures and video of family events with members in the Diaspora, families are able to overcome the challenges of time and space and get together, which is part of the community style of living of most Africans.[5]

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[1] Youth and information and Communication Technologies (ICT) (World Youth Report, 2003), 2

[2] Yeboah, Kwame. The Impact of Globalization on African Culture. Odense: University of Southern Denmark.

[3] Jeremy S, “Localizing Cultures,” Korean Herald (Korea), January 13, 2004. 2004)  page 6

[4] Jeremy, S (2004) Localizing Cultures. Korean Herald: January 13, 2004.

[5] Andrew Limo, “Information Ethics and the New Media: Challenges and Opportunities for Kenya’s Education Sector,” University of Botswana. (September 2010)