By Andrew Kuchonjoma - Songea
Fighting against Global Warming in Tanzania is to enhance environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation of the country and its people who scrambling for better life because most of them live below poverty line.
When I interviewed a former Minister of State Vice President’s Office (Environment) and also she was the President for African Ministers Council for Environment (AMCEN) Dr. Terezya Luoga Huvisa said the government of Tanzania should effectively adapt to climate change and participate in global efforts to mitigate climate change with a view to achieving sustainable development in line with the national efforts and development goals.
She explained that subsidizing new fossil fuel projects is to boost global warming in the country and to the world in general. So the governments of United Republic of Tanzania should stop giving money to new fossil fuel projects to mitigate global warming for better life of living creature (Fauna and Flora).
Because global warming is a results of human activities including coal, gas and oil extraction due to scrambling for better life, unknowingly that fossil fuels are very dangerous to ozone layer because produces atmospheric and industrial gases which absolve by sun rays and cause ozone layer depletion.
“Warming of the earth is the result from chemical changes in the stratosphere by both atmospheric gases and industrial gases, so the government of Tanzania which is in progress of industrial economy should be aware of that matter” she said Dr. Huvisa
She said during her positions, participated in different National, Regional and International conferences about environmental issues and found that fossil fuels contribute a lot in global warming and no one scared about it especially in developing countries.
Dr. Huvisa narrated that, most of developing countries termed energy produced by fossil fuels is a fundamental energy which can run industries permanently because the raw materials are available in their countries which is bad notion.
She said the meteological report in Geneva December 2002 says for the past 14 years 1998 was the hotest year. For the past 24 years, the global warming rate is raising whereby in Africa including my original country Tanzania is experiencing unusual heavy rains and in central Europe is experiencing unusual floods.
This is due to in the stratosphere there exist atmospheric gases which are very normal such as Nitrogen, Oxygen, small amount of carbon dioxide and a thin layer of ozone. The report said.
All the atmospheric gases have a natural “greenhouse effects” that has kept the world warm for example; the stratosphere allows sun’s rays through to the earth surface then trap some of the heat by absolving an increase of gases in the atmosphere produces in green houses and effected by reflecting back to the earth then coming in radiation causing warming of the earth.
She said according to report, human activities have added gases to the atmosphere by deforestation which produces carbon dioxide (Co2) whereby fossil fuel projects produce more nitrous oxide (N20), the deposited of rice fields and dumpsites which produce more methane and more industrial gases – Chrolofluoro Carbons (CFCs).
So, Dr. Huvisa said that, according to the meteological report in Genever December 2002 says Chrolofluoro Carbons (CFCs) is one among of contributor to greenhouses gases by 15%, others are Carbon dioxide (Co2) by 50%, Methane 20% and Ozon 12% which cause the consequences in the world such as themal expanssion, melting of glaciers or floods, melting of polar ice, rise in temperature and rise of sea levels
The report says ozone layer is a thin layer blue in color and very toxic gas, it is part of stratosphere, it helps filter out Ultra violet radiation from the sun before it reaches the surfaces earth.
The hole in the ozone layer is caused by industrial gases mainly by Chrolofluoro Carbons (CFCs) and halons produced in industries when making Aerosol propellant for cooling Refrigerators, air conditions, medical sterilant, microchip solvent and polystyrene insulation for buildings, packaging for eggs, burgurs and fire extinguishers.
Also she said, According to the report of depletion rate done by European Satellite which has global ozone monitoring instrument for forest depletion and vegetation growth, Marine changes and Ozone content says that, in 1987 and 1989 over the Antarctic the size of the ozone hole was 2 times the size of the USA. However ¼ of its size of the USA had a hole.
Ozone thinning, greatest over Alaska, Scandinavia, North Siberia, China, Japan, North America, Russia and Western Europe.
The effects of ozone depletion on human increases risk of cancer especially for people with fair skins, increases of eye diseases (cataracts) and Extensive exposure leads to blindness.
In USA study for every 2.5% increase in CFCs use 1 Million extra cases of skin cancer (20,000 cancer deaths occur in the USA alone. For every 1% increase in ozone is thought to blind 100,000 people through cataracts.
“What happened in the developed countries about global warming is what happening now in Tanzania whereby we experienced heavy rainfall and flood this is due to climate change caused by human activities”. Said Dr. Huvisa.
Above picture is for the aid of National Environmental Monitoring Council (NEMC) in Tanzania.
Dr. Huvisa said that, the report from the Vice President’s Office in the government of United Republic of Tanzania, which is reported on March, 2003; said that, an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in Tanzania was developed in 1993 to 1994 based on United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines of 1991. The inventory is based on data obtained from1988 to 1990.
Activity data was based on data survey and statistical information, where records were not available default data compiled by International Energy Agency (IEA), OECD, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the IPCC was used. Default emission factors in.
IPCC guidelines have been applied except for the estimation of methane emissions from municipal waste water treatment.
Direct greenhouse gases Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous oxide (N2O) as well as indirect greenhouse gases Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Carbon monoxide (CO) has been covered and CO2 estimates from international bunker fuels have been excluded.
Estimates of CO2 emissions from biomass fuels or biofuels have also been excluded from the inventory. It is assumed that the annual carbon released from biofuels combustion is part of the natural carbon cycle; hence it does not result into net emissions.
She said the major sectors addressed in the inventory include energy, agriculture, industrial process, waste management, forestry and land use. For each of these sectors an estimation of CO2, CH4, N2O and other gases has been done. The energy sector consists of combustion and non-combustion sub-sectors.
The availability of activity data has not been easy for many of the sectors except for the commercial energy data, whose records are normally kept by Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO). Activity data on land-use, land-use changes and forestry is outdated and not continuously recorded necessitating interpolation/extrapolation in order to get the missing figures.
Agricultural activity data is crude and is based on the interpretation of cash crop yields, fertilizer imports and annual exports. Activity data on waste management is scattered in different institutions, much of it is neither updated nor regularly collected. Limited surveys have been undertaken to assist in updating the available information and data for calculating emissions.
Combined cycle plants have relatively high fuel combustion efficiencies of about of 57 percent as compared to 35 to 40 percent for the simple cycle. In addition, combined cycle plants have short lead-time and very low emission levels of NOx the exhaust gases consist of typically 3.0 to 3.5 ppm CO2 (by volume).
Also she said in Tanzania we face the problem of Industrial pollution which produces pollutants; natural and synthetic pollutants; chemicals and bacteriological pollutions which are more stable and persist in the environment for a considerable period with the potentiality of causing long-range environmental hazards due to presence of lead, iron, mercury, fluoride, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and oxides of oxygen, pesticides, detergents, petrochemical used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. This is according to the report of National Environmental Monitoring Council (NEMC) Tanzania.
She said National Environmental Monitoring Council (NEMC) in Tanzania said end use Energy Intensity reduction has been studied in the tobacco and cigarette, food and beverage, iron and foundry, aluminum, rubber and plastics, cement, glass, chemical, pulp and paper, textiles, leather, petroleum refinery, brick making, fish smoking and sugar sub-sectors.
Below are some figures shows the emission of harmful natural gases into the atmosphere which found in Tanzania and have been reported by National Environmental Monitoring Council (NEMC).
Above figures are some pictures of natural gases in Tanzania: for the aid of NEMC in Tanzania.
NEMC reported that, Global Warming Potential (GWP) for direct greenhouse gas emissions in 1990 with a 100 year time horizon has been calculated in accordance with the IPCC guidelines. As per the IPCC.
Guidelines nitrous oxide has the highest GWP of 310 followed by methane with 21. Using the GWP CO2 emissions have the largest share of (61 percent) of the inventory followed by methane (38 percent) and nitrous oxide (1percent).
Above pictures reported by NEMC to show the Emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere Found in Tanzania.
The president of United Republic of Tanzania Dr. John Pombe Magufuli said Tanzania is not a poor country because have a lot of natural resources including minerals such as coal, gas, oil, diamond, Tanzanite, Uranium and others. That is why he said in his slogan ‘Tanzania ya Viwanda’.
According to his slogan, he opened the door to the investors to establish new industries in the country in order to uplift the economic growth of the country; so, increased industrialization is one of the factors in driving growth of energy demand.
Ernest Nyanda and Silvin Majenga who were Lecturers of St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) in 2003 at the environmental Journalism workshop conducted at SAUT in Mwanza, they said there is relationship between poverty and environmental problems because if you want to eradicate poverty, you have to utilize the natural resources to the maximum so that to uplift the economic growth of the country in order to enable the government to improve the standard life of its people.
“Poverty is living below poverty line, the indicators of it is being less income, consumption and expenditure; so it does not measure the capacity to obtain access to different resources or assets, take account of household size and of the allocation of income or household budget, value home production or extra income earned and it does not consider the different needs and costs of different places but it based on demand given approach”. They said Nyanda and Majenga.
They said to give enough money to the poor such as Tanzania to cope with their needs, it does not necessarily means they will cease to be poor or people in poor neighborhood with substandard housing do not cease to be poor with new housing.
Poverty is complex and mult-dimensional problem, linked to inadequate income, social, political and environmental dimension; so reducing poverty demands more than a single sectoral solution and if you deal with it perpendicularly, automatically you will end up with environmental disaster.
They said in Tanzania environmental problems are key dimensions of poverty and unequal distribution environmental costs and benefits reinforce social and economic inequalities. For example; the poor concentrated in high-density areas, characterized by overcrowding and substandard housing or in unplanned settlements with illegal tenure.
In population terms, these settlements have a high susceptibility to mobility and mortality caused by environmental factors lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality rates, premature births; they suffer from a higher exposure to environmental hazard.
Nyanda and Majenga said that, the poor country such as Tanzania or people cannot be expected to put the conservation of the environmental; their struggle to survive from day to day, so they cut down trees, cultivate and live on steep slopes, exploit fossil fuel (coal, gas and oil), use poison to fish or over stock whereby for them environmental sustainability is a secondary concern; the primary one is to get their daily bread for their survival.
For example; Tanzania is estimated to loose 400,000 ha of forest every year through deforestation also all forest near urban centers are gone due to charcoal making. On average one needs 1ha, to produce 1 ton of charcoal and others they burn forests purposely for hunting. For example as it is shown below.
Above picture for the aid of National Environmental Monitoring Council (NEMC) in Tanzania.
Dr. Terezya commented on how Tanzania can prevent Global Warming by first of all, to alert donors from developed countries to stop giving support of money for new fossil fuel projects to the developing countries and themselves I mean developed countries to stop enhancing fossil fuel projects inside and outside their countries; because by so doing, is to promote global warming.
Also conserving the energy so as to reduce the use of fossil fuels which produce greenhouse gases such measures can be taken by using public transport to reduce the number of motor vehicles on the road and using cars that consume a little fuel, Minimize the use of deodorants, as they contain CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) that contributes to the ozone depletion, which in turn gives rise to most destructive effects, Planting more trees (a-forestation) and avoiding cutting down trees (deforestation) carelessly.
This is because forests play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide, thus reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Furthermore, encourage the use of renewable sources of energy like wind, biomass, solar, and geothermal energy. The use of solar power and biomass should be installed widely, and to raise awareness! Educate people about global warming and its disastrous effects also to share various solutions to stop global warming.
The most important renewable energy options identified are hydropower generation, mini-hydropower, biogas, and solar energy. Intervention in large-scale power stations development includes advancing investments in planned hydropower plants so as to phase out the old thermal plants. Although investment costs will be higher than thermal options, hydropower generation has lower operation and maintenance costs and a high CO2 abatement potential. She said this is according to report released by NEMC.
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