Her mood swings and climate change

from the fence

‘‘For Nigeria, climate change is not about the perils of tomorrow but what is happening today. Nigeria is committed to net zero by 2060.’’ This was President Buhari’s statement while delivering his speech at the COP26 Leaders’ Summit, in Glasgow, Scotland. The speech is a very welcomed one though it sounds quite ambitious in lieu of the body language of global leaders towards tackling climate change; it appears nobody wants to take active measures towards this right cause.

While pondering and researching on the many reasons why the climate is changing rapidly and dangerously too, the female folks come to mind, not that they are the cause of climate change, maybe it was more of a distractive thought on the female emotions and their celebrated mood swings in particular.

The female folks are such wonderful people; their sheer presence and aura inspires. They have this therapeutic touch (something close to an anointing) and needless to say; they are beautiful as the clement weather.

They are sweet until the revered mood swing comes. It is said that hell has no wrath like a woman scorned, the problem with this is that sometimes it could be just a wrong perception of being scorned on her part and all hell is let loose; she becomes bitter, vengeful/scheming and destructive.

Men too experience mood swings, but not like the women do. To give a simple definition in context of mood swing here, it means ones mood changing from happy to sad, active to sober, in a matter of seconds, for no explainable reason. When women experience mood swing it is difficult to help them at times, the husband or anyone for example could stay besides her, asking her as romantic as possible what the matter is and yet she will be unresponsive. Sometimes they even go as far as blaming people who have no hand in their ordeal through emotional blackmail and using every damning arsenal they can muster.

This bad handling of mood swing through unresponsiveness and emotional blackmails never provide solution to the cause of the problems. At best, the situation remains the same until there is a swing to another direction by default and time.

When we consider that these mood swings are not the making of the women at times, but are results of menstruation, menopause and other issues peculiar to the female gender, then we cannot but hold them in reverence and sympathy.

There are similarities between mood swings and climate change. Climate change could be a natural phenomenon just like mood swing, yet it has been heightened by industrial activities of man in burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. It should be pointed out that though it sounds bogus, climate change is not as complex as mood swing. In fact from details regarding climate change, it is easier to solve the problem of climate change than that of mood swings.

There has been extensive medical research into mood swings and therapy sessions for people who go through it, yet emotions will never completely fit into textbooks and formal education.  For climate change, we know the cause (not neglecting the inevitable factor of being a natural occurrence) and we know the way out. All that is needed is the willingness by nations around the globe – developed and developing – to make great sacrifices to tackle the scourge of climate change.

Yes it is sacrifice that is needed to solve climate change. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, in one of his speeches before the COP26 began said “As the title of this year’s report puts it: “The heat is on.”  And as the contents of the report show — the leadership we need is off. The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap”.

The issue of climate change must not be politicized in any way; it should be faced with all seriousness of purpose because it is real and will not succumb to gimmicks of any kind. More than a woman would want her period pain which is no fault of hers to go away, we must work to mitigate climate change which is mainly our fault. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder has committed $2 billion already to a greener world, he deserves huge commendation while we hope others will follow suit.

Heatwaves have been on the increase, the glaciers are melting, there is 90% drought in Lake Chad, sea levels are rising, and the climate which gave us food and succor is threatened and threatening with gloom and emptiness.

There are just two main hindrances to tackling climate change; following the Paris agreement and other such resolutions, for developed countries, it is the willingness to put their vows into action by actually working towards ending hazardous emissions and providing finance and technical assistance to developing countries on the road to achieving zero emission. For developing countries it is the simple work of shunning corruption by using resources, both theirs and aid from developed countries and blocs for the purpose which these resources and funds are meant for.

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