The planet is being hurt.

I have been hearing reports of strange changes in weather conditions in the last few years. What I personally noticed was fluctuations of weather conditions to the extent that it became more difficult to predict weather conditions.

I grew up with my father who was a farmer (crop producer). I remember how easy it was for him to act according to his predictions. In those days, we planted grains with the first rain in March and once that was done, there wouldn't be any fear of drought along the line. Everything was always in order as predicted.

At a point, things began to change. I remember planting grains with my father after the first rain in March but the crops would end up dying due to no further timely rainfall. My father used to lament that he didn't know what was happening. In a particular year, we repeated the planting for more than twice due to lack of continuation of rainfall after each planting. That was when I knew that things had changed.

Things continued changing gradually. We began to witness extreme weather conditions. Excessive rainfall, excessive heat and in fact extreme experience of every weather condition.

What I have experienced between last year till present has made the turnout of events more scary. Last year, I farmed bambara nuts (vigna subterranea) on a piece of land in my institution.

Farming is the major occupation that I learned from my father and it is always a thing of joy and fulfillment for me whenever I eat what I grow. I am a proud farmer.

The harvest started in the last week of October. The nuts had dried in the soil. The more it stays, the drier it becomes. The fear of getting spoiled wasn't there. I didn't rush to get everything harvested as a result. Every weekend, I took some workers with me to the farm to harvest some portions.

From the obtainable data and history within the last decades or even a century, rainfall had never been recorded in November. To the surprise of all, rain fell in the last week of November last year. It took farmers, including me, unaware. Many farmers harvested their grains like corn, millet and others and kept them on an open space in the farm for it to get dried naturally. The rain spoilt the grains. About one quarter of my harvest hadn't been done when the rain fell. I lost more than half of the nuts. Some started germinating immediately. Millions of naira were lost due to the effects of that unexpected rain.

That is what I can call the genesis of harsh weather up to the present time. A few weeks after that rain, harmattan started. The harmattan was so serious and lengthy that the people began to complain about how strange it was.

The greatest surprise of it all happened less than two weeks ago. The week began with a very severe harmattan. I was practically shaking by noon of that day at work. I closed from work and returned home with the weather still very cold. Over the night, I noticed some discomfort within my body system. I was hot. I stood up and accessed the body of my 18-month-old son. He was sweating. I have never experienced or heard of a weather condition that transited into another within that short period. In my previous experiences, the harmattan would keep reducing in its intensity. It could take a week or more for the transitioning into heat period to occur. Surprisingly the process happened within hours. As I write this now, the heat is getting out of hand. There is no more gradual process. Everything comes with full force. The heat is worse now than the way it used to be at this time of the year.

The reason for this, to the best of my knowledge, is climate change caused by man's activities. Many actions of Earth's dwellers hurt the planet. Deforestation without corresponding planting of trees is affecting the ecosystem. Some activities like gas flaring, release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere have their negative effects on the ozone layer. The intensity of sun on the planet is getting more severe than before.

To halt the deterioration of the planet, efforts should be made to control human activities that are injurious to the planet.

Many households in developing countries like Nigeria fell trees to get firewood or charcoal to power their cooking. Alternative energy sources should be made available to the people.

Power infrastructure should be improved upon so that people can have access to electricity to cool their homes during extreme heat periods like we are in now.

The existing laws about regulating industries against air pollution should be enforced. Where some legislation needed to be put in place, it should be done sincerely to save the planet from further destruction.

I am sincerely concerned about what could be our fate in the next ten years. It is our duty to save this planet and that duty must be taken seriously.

The pictures are mine unless otherwise stated.