developmental agenda. There is an urgent need to build adequate capacity across the natural resources, management related enforcement agencies and in particular the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Madam Speaker, recently, EPA put out an advertisement asking the public to cooperate with it as they assess the levels of hydro fluorocarbons in the system. Madam Speaker, these are chemicals that further cause the depletion of the ozone layer. They come in the forms of foams, they come in the forms of chemicals that are in our refrigerators, air-conditioners and so on.
And I would plead with the public to cooperate with the Agency because by the year 2030, we should have brought it drastically down and by the year 2015 to 2020, we should not be talking about this compound at all. This requires, again, legislations on what we bring in, in terms of vehicles, in terms of refrigerators, in terms of computers and so on. Apart from the waste management issues, some of the goods that we are aware of, the second hand goods do contribute to health hazards. We are talking here of electronic items that are very difficult to dispose of and the fact that these are also taking up spaces in our environment.
Madam Speaker, plastic waste deserves a special mention. Recently, a colleague professor recommended stoppage to the use of sachet in the sale of mineral water; that is the desperation mood and I do agree. But it is being done because till date, we have no means of checking the levels of these sachets in our streets, in the water ways and in the environment in general. We all know that these sachets are not bio-degradable and hence they tend to stay in places forever and ever; and they are causing considerable damage to our
environment.
Madam Speaker, we either have to enforce the legislations that are available or we have to come out with new regulations on how we keep water in containers for sale to the public.
Madam Speaker, when we are talking about the environment, all hands would have to be on deck, partisan interests would have to be put aside because the environment we have today is always subject to changes. It is going to change by the day and it is the rate at which these changes come about which will determine whether or not we are going to have long life.
Madam Speaker, tomorrow is the World Environment Day and I entreat my Hon Colleagues to join in the crusade to try and maintain this environment at least, the way we are meeting it today for years to come.
On this, Madam Speaker, I hope we all observe World Environment Day tomorrow.
Mr. Clement Kofi Humado (NDC
-- Anlo): Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement made by the Hon Member for Techiman North (Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi) on the celebration of the World Environment Day.
Madam Speaker, indeed, the theme of the World Environment Day for 2009 is “Your plant needs you, Unite to Combat Climate Change.” Indeed, on an occasion like this, I believe that it will not be out of place to emphasize the linkage between plants or vegetative cover and climate change and to show how these two affect the very existence of life on earth.
It appears to me that this linkage is
not getting home to most of us in Ghana and elsewhere and that is why we do not seem to take the issues of climate change very seriously.
Madam Speaker, God in His infinite wisdom and His creation of the world created both the plants and the animal kingdom. The animal kingdom of which humans are part need oxygen for life processes and in the process they turn out carbon dioxide.
Over concentration of this carbon
dioxide as a result of animal life processes can create a problem in the stability of the world. Fortunately, the plant kingdom uses the excess carbon dioxide that is produced by the animal kingdom, turns it round through photosynthesis and produces the very oxygen that the animal kingdom requires to survive. And that is the linkage, that is the interdependency and anything that goes to disturb that interdependency or equilibrium threatens the existence of life on earth. And that is why it is said that, when the last tree dies, the last man does. That is the import of the theme for the World Environment Day Celebration for 2009.
Madam Speaker, to go beyond that,
the over concentration of the production of carbon dioxide is linked to climate change in this way. The over concentration creates a blanket in the atmosphere which prevents the heat from earth to leak into the atmosphere, and as a result, it creates increase in temperature.
That is what we call the global warming. Global warming has various disastrous effects on life, on earth and that is the linkage. Therefore, we need to take the theme of this World Environment Day celebration very seriously because it is something that threatens the very
existence of life on this earth.
Now, at the global level, Madam Speaker, this climate change is resulting in various problems. It either creates floods in certain areas of the world or it creates extreme drought in certain areas of the world. Two years ago, we heard about the floods in East Asia where we have the rice basket of the world. And because of this flood, particularly in Myanmar near Vietnam, the rice stock of the world reduced and it is simply because world prices of rice soared up and that is why we, in Ghana are also suffering from part of those increases in prices of rice.
A year ago in Australia, there was extreme drought, and Australia is the wheat basket of the world and because of that extreme drought, stocks of wheat in the world declined and prices went up. That is why flour for our bread and all the confectionery, their prices have gone up. So these are issues that we must not toy with.
Coming back home in Ghana, there
are various effects of climate change that we see around but sometimes we do not draw the linkage.
In Ghana, we have uncontrolled removal of vegetative cover through bush burning, through cutting of trees for firewood and charcoal and other activities. In my constituency, for example, there are obvious signs of climatic change and global warming. Our coast lines are subject to high tidal waves which are destroying the coast line. Even two weeks ago, I had to rush there to see what can be done.
Some communities that live along the lagoon and river bodies -- the water level is rising. And some of the communities
