The Egyptian desert is set to host the African continent’s first vertical forest!
again, it is always late at night that i discover things that sparkle my writing interest.not so long ago, i was scrolling my Facebook around 2am in the morning because i had insomnia and was too tired to study till i came across an article that made my eyeballs expand and heart race from excitement and at the same time the frustration of not having the freedom to scream or dance it out because my roommates were asleep and i was not ready to be baptized with sarcasm if i dared to wake them up with my noise😂
it was an article posted by World Economic forum with the the following title written in BOLD letters
Africa is set to get its first vertical forest!
my heart skipped a little..okay am lying,it was actually racing but not in a bad way as it does when am anxious. i was genuinely happy because this has been one of my biggest fantasies,..well other than than that of having a girl’s camping trip in the amazon rain forest itself and touring biosphere 2 in California desert.
*if you know me, you know that other than science and a good hamburger with double cheese am obsessed with nature and every boring stuff about conservation and the complexity of the universe.
so, back to our topic of discussion;
The Egyptian desert set to host the African continent’s first vertical forest!
this is a huge accomplishment and milestone in the fight against climate change because first of all new trees will be planted in large numbers thereby promoting reforestation and increasing the amount of CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere while simultaneously producing Oxygen which then equals to cleaner air and less asthma cases for all of us and less work for the World Health Organisation. fair enough
and the good news is that the trees are not planted on horizontal ground as traditional forests but in vertical forests taking up less space on the environment which can be used for wildlife habitation or human civilization.
with the introduction of vertical forests, Cairo is set to grow from severe overcrowding, traffic congestion and air pollution into a smart and green city🥰
meanwhile, a similar project Liuzhou Forest City is under construction in the Southern Chinese and is estimated to have more than 40,000 tress and 1 million plants growing on the city’s buildings.
dear diary,
you were right all along
it turns out there is still hope for a green oasis.
With cyclone Idai flooding Mozambique, fires raging in the Amazon, and hurricanes ripping across the Atlantic, our planet and mother nature are sending us a message that we cannot afford to turn a deaf ear to: Climate change is here and it is no longer a matter of the future but NOW. therefore, We can no longer continue with business as usual.
Scientists worldwide agree that global warming is happening, and that human activity causes it.
The evidence is overwhelming. Record-breaking temperatures, humidity, and sea level rise, along with many other indicators, show that the Earth is warming fast, and that all the heat-trapping emissions we release into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is changing our climate.
As ice caps melt,wildfires rage and shifts in the geographic ranges distribution of some plant and animal species, scientific assertions that climate change is occurring at a rate faster than formerly expected have become manifest in locales around the world.
Many of these changes pose serious risks to human life and property. forest fires, for instance, are a threat to different animal species and indigenous trees that are responsible for sucking at least 40% of Co2 from the atmosphere.Exposure to extreme drought, heat, rainfall, and coastal inundation are projected to worsen in many parts of Africa and around the world.
bitter pill to swallow is the fact that Humans emissions and activities have caused around 90% of global warming and climate change the least we can do is take action to combat climate change or invent solutions to adapt to the changing climate.
In the spirit of writing about my continent, Blog 4 Climate Action is a series and social media campaign with the aim of leveraging the power of storytelling to document the realities of climate change, raise awareness, create dialogue and demand for immediate action from the African populace because we are the only continent still living in denial of the fact that our climate is changing even though we continue to live in the realities of rising temperatures.
so it is true that climate change is real and is affecting all of us weather we chose to believe it or not. the real question is what are we doing as a globe to save our already dying planet? dispose plastics in the oceans and burn fossil fuels young people, conservationists and climate activists continue to sing the climate crisis song?
funny fact : it is no longer a matter of the future but now, therefore, instead of calling our strike “Fridays for the future”, we will instead call it “Fridays for today” because we are fighting for two generations, the present and future.
our only wish is that our governments and leaders actually understood that investing in reforestation and other conservation projects aimed at restoring our broken planet is as important as building schools and subsidizing vaccines because trees play a vital role in human survival, health and national security .looking at the state of our planet today and the rate at which we continue to emit carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, it is only right to advocate for climate justice to be added to our constitutions as a human right.
“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago,” said climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has garnered international notoriety for weekly climate strikes outside her school in Sweden, during a speech at COP24 conference.
Thunberg said that she was not asking anything of the gathered leaders but only asking the people of the world “to realize that our political leaders have failed us, because we are facing an existential threat and there’s no time to continue down this road of madness.”
you see, i am also forced to believed that science or artificial intelligence is not what will wipe out all humanity as we have been manipulated to believe, but rather our ignorance and failure to understand our planet’s precarious position, how we are contributing to the problem and most importantly how we can all be part of the solution.
just a friendly reminder that droughts, floods, wild fires and daily load shedding has become a lifestyle in Africa because apparently there isn’t enough water in our dams and rivers to generate electricity
maybe we should spend less time on the streets with posters written “Save the Amazon” urging world leaders and governments to barn logging and illegal mining in the forest because sweetheart, you and I both know that these people have always ignored us in the past and will continue to do so no matter how many times or how loud we sing the climate crisis song.
Climate change, wildlife conservation, climate justice, global warming, environmental conservation, carbon footprint….the list goes on.
lets face it, these things are as boring as they sound, complicated and controversial as they look. and for people like my grandmother in the village, the English is just too deep to understand.
don’t get me twisted, i am a passionate conservationist but am sure you all agree with me that conservation or climate change is not the sexiest words people want to hear in the middle of a conversation about a football match in which Lionel Messi scored real Madrid within the first 10 minutes of the match. or during a girls’ talk about who is the most beautiful and richest Kardashian.
Forget Real Madrid, the point I am trying to make here is that conservation education or climate change awareness is not a walk in a beautiful and green park but again it is also not a volcanic mountain to climb.
And the good news is that conserving wildlife, ecosystems, the environment and restoring our planet back to its garden of Eden form is possible.however, each and everyone of us has a role to play as our climate activists are always reminding us.
but the questions that keep recurring are “what exactly is conservation? what on earth is climate change? let alone climate justice🤷♀️Carbon footprint..really?? do you mean to tell me that that carbon dioxide has escaped from the atmosphere and is now walking the face of the earth as it leaves its footprints behind?
“oh and this global warming you keep singing about is nothing but a conspiracy. I mean, first you told us that the sun is a ball of fire and now that heat from this fire is warming the earth, you want to falsely accuse us of causing global warming when clearly it is a result of the radiation from the sun”
this is an open letter to earth scientists, climate activists and advocates, conservationists and all guardians of the earth..
first of all, no amount of words will ever be enough to thank you all for the work you are doing. I am personally amazed and inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of young people across the globe taking action to combat climate change and protesting for our planet.it simply shows that there is still hope to regain our green oasis. we appreciate you all and encourage you to keep up with the good work.
to my fellow activists and advocates,
it is my prayer that we don’t get caught up in the protests with all the attention we are receiving globally and forget about why we started this fight in the first place- to protect, conserve and restore our planet, with or without world leaders.
in our fight, let us therefore remember to be inclusive and engage all the parties affected by this crisis. this includes each and every human being on earth, from the isolated village in the deep ends of the amazon rainforest, to the Masai village in Kenya. what I mean is that maybe we should spend less time on the streets with posters written “Save the Amazon” urging world leaders and governments to barn logging and illegal mining in the forest because sweetheart, you and I both know that these people have always ignored us in the past and will continue to do so no matter how many times or how loud we sing the climate crisis song. but what they don’t know is that change is coming whether they like it or not.
so, why not shift this energy that we have on the streets for unresponsive leaders to rather engage with our own communities and amplify the voices and abilities of young people that will join us in the fight because the truth is that we can’t do this on our own. the crisis is so detrimental to a point that not even science can retrieve it on its own.
I am sorry to disappoint you but protesting and striking will not bring back the trees we have lost and continue to lose while we are on the street… I know I do it too but i am just reminding us that striking is not the solution to our problem. what we need right now is what we call ‘ubuntu’, a word that originates from the beautiful continent of Africa that means and I quote “the quality of being human.” … To the observer, ubuntu can be seen and felt in the spirit of willing participation, unquestioning cooperation, warmth, openness, and personal dignity. in other words we define ubuntu as “I am because you are” as it encourages unity and cooperation.
Ubuntu is calling us to unite as a globe and take serious and immediate action out of the love we have for one another and for our planet. forget about world leaders, they will only care the day their own state or white house catches fire or is washed away by a cyclone.
I am therefore encouraging you all to keep the fire burning, however let us dedicate more time to empowering and sensitizing our own people who in one way or another are living in the aftermath and causing climate change but still ignorant of what climate justice or global warming is. educate them in ways and words they can understand because at the end of the day, it will take a farmer whose livelihood depends on cutting down trees to burn as fertilizer for a good harvest to end deforestation in Zambia once he is educated.
Yes our house is still on fire and we refuse to be silenced !
leveraging the power storytelling to conserve, restore and protect mother nature
Why Voices of the Wild? the main objective of this blog is to leverage the power of storytelling to promote conservation of wildlife, ecosystems, the environment and planet earth.
personally, i am a self proclaimed environmental and climate advocate, passionate about conservation in all its various forms therefore, i am creating this blog as a public journal to share my passion for conservation with the world and hopefully connect with other conservation enthusiasts.
i will be sharing stories and latest updates in conservation. i am also hoping to connect with other storytellers and conservation leaders or people passionate about our planet(from the forests to the oceans, national parks and so on. if this sounds like you, please follow the blog to stay up to date with the latest stories and science discoveries related to conservation
Voices of the Wild 