Sincerely Yours Earthly...

Instead of the usual style of writing a long article, I decided to publish this awareness about wetland protection in a more compelling way that will attract more attention and will cut across several audiences. The wetlands are underappreciated, yet they do so much in supporting the global ecosystem. We have a lot to lose even as humans if we do not step up on actions towards protecting them. Sincerely Yours Eartly Bamidele Oni

I t’s the first day at the much-anticipated United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 23, also called ‘Pacific COP’ with regards to Fiji, the host country of this year’s summit. Fiji, an island state, has been grappling with the adverse impacts of climate change. Cyclone Winston ravaged Fiji in February 2016, taking the lives of 44 people, destroying homes, uprooting families, and inflicting serious damage on the nation’s sugar crop, a foundation of the Fijian economy 1 . Bonn, a historical city in Germany, serves as the host venue for the approximately 25,000 participants at COP this year. As always, the event is attended by national governments, UN specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs. A rather innovative concept of having to rename the former Green and Blue Zones as the Bonn zone and Bula zone (Bula means hello in the Fijian language)- A number of words from the language have been notably...

The word GMO is not new to most of us. However, only a small percentage of the world's populations understand the in-depth meaning of Genetically Modified Organisms aka GMOs. In developing worlds where there is lack of information, people fear to eat GMOs because they fear potential carcinogenicity or simply due to consumer perception.  How are GMOs made? GMOs are plants, organisms or animals produced through genetic alterations to enhance or silence certain characteristics at a molecular level. This is done through gene amplification, recombinant DNA or gene silencing. Gene amplification refers to an increase in the gene copies of certain characters and this leads to overexpression of those traits, for example, overexpressing carotene genes in tomatoes to increase the antioxidant capacity of tomatoes in our bodies. Antioxidants are very important in our bodies in maintaining the redox balance in the body fluids to prevent diseases such as cancer (accumulated DNA m...

N ature in its entirety is so complex to contain, let alone understand. Recent events have proven again how ambiguous nature could be with the best of our present knowledge and level of preparedness. This shows how vulnerable we are to the compelling power of nature. So, despite the acclamation that man has conquered nature, it is more the obvious that nature is still far more superior in complexity than we think we know. There has always been the question of what man would do when nature fights back and most times the responses have always been vague. Often, we place our chances on a few emergency plans formulated by years of supposed preparedness. However, this idea of preparedness would only work in certain parts of the world while the rest would rely on uncertain eventualities. That, on its own paints the big picture of global inequality, that is, the wide gap that exists between the global north and south. In a more simpler language, man would only prepare for as much ...

It's June, a month often noted as the peak wet period in the part of the tropical world I reside (South-western part of Nigeria). The Month is usually associated with a rather unannounced pattern of rainfall which could last for several hours or days. However, this pattern of rainfall should not be confused with the monsoon rainfall of the Indian sub-continent. But then, this part of the world does have its own fair share of endless wet days and that says a lot about nature and its amazing ways of replicating itself in the most conforming way that would best suit the conditions of relative biomes. Aside from being a very wet month, June is the host month of the World Environment day. The world Environment day is the biggest and the most celebrated eco-awareness day worldwide with a dedicated objective of influencing a collective act to do something positive for the environment. This Year’s theme is “I am with Nature”. This time around, in the view of celebrating nature, I f...

C an planet Earth be appreciated enough? Considering the fact that despite the many human induced problems, she still functions in many ways to ensure the continuous survival of every dependent life form from time immemorial. Perhaps, the situation would have been a lot different if man had over time learnt to moderate his relative ecological footprint on the planet. Alas, man had and still has been busy exploiting greedily and without remorse the abundant resources embedded in the Earth by providence. It is a lot reasonable to commend the Earth for a job well-done in sustaining and maintaining a still appreciable level of balance in her system despite a great deal of disorderliness that has accumulated over time. The earth’s system has however been a reciprocal one such that whatever fed to it in action yields back in just the same measure to either fuel a disastrous event or provide a means to survival. Such has been the case with the Earth’s current responses to the many...

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