The Dawn Project has commenced the planting of over 250 carefully selected indigenous trees in and around Lagos as it fights climate change in Nigeria while raising awareness about the dangers of emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere. The program, which is set to donate trees to communities and individuals to ensure a widespread of the tree planting across the state, kicked off recently with Mrs Angela Emuwa, a collaborator of The Dawn Project overseeing the ceremonial planting of the first few trees within LUFASI Nature Park in Lagos. Everyone is to reach out to The Dawn on social media pages to arrange pickup of tree sapling from any part of Lagos.
The Managing Director of LUFASI Nature Park and collaborator of The Dawn Project, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi, revisited the creative work competition that kick started the awareness campaign of The Dawn Project earlier in the year which was anchored on a poem, “A Plea”, by Pamela Ajayi. He emphasised that it is absolutely important that everyone begins to take action to save the earth. “the coronavirus and other natural disasters that we have witnessed recently in different parts of the globe are all warnings and signs of the earth fighting back… the earth is not very forgiving.” he said.
Dr. Pamela Ajayi, revealed that The Dawn Project will host its first ever hybrid Webinar on 26th September 2020, which is also the World Environmental Health Day. The winners of the creative writing competition will also be announced and prizes given on same day. “There is too little discussion and understanding about Zero Emissions as a whole in Nigeria and we hope to use the Webinar to raise a consciousness about environmental issues in Nigeria. Human activity, related to fossil fuel use in cars, factories, generators releases Green House Gases such as Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen etc into the atmosphere. And the quantities released are getting so large it is seriously damaging the environment causing climate change and compromising the health of individuals on the planet. The benefits the earth enjoyed during the Lockdown are rapidly dissipating too.
“In 2019, Nigerians bought 5100 new cars, compared to the UK which bought 2,311,140. In the same year, we imported between 800,000 and 1,200,000 used cars. Unfortunately, most of these used cars have the catalytic converters removed before they are sent to Nigeria or even after arriving here, which makes them more toxic with higher emission levels than cars abroad. It is our collective responsibility to work towards achieving net zero emissions by reducing human-caused emissions so we can create a more sustainable future for the next generation.” she concluded.
On his part, Mr. Stanley Evans, an environmentalist and collaborator on The Dawn Project, said that records show that population of the earth grows by approximately three and half every second but unfortunately, the planet is not increasing, making it absolutely important that man begins to care more for the earth. He also revealed that the competition based on “A Plea” by Pamela Ajayi has received over 1600 heart-warming entries which according to him, “show that the youths of Nigeria do care about their environment.”
