Episode 61
Health, Climate Change, Black Soot in Nigeria and Campaigning
Episode Summary: In this episode, Olanbanji and Inma talk about the relationship between the environment and health
According to a UN study, the direct damage cost to health incurred by climate change is estimated to be between 2 to 4 billion per year in 2030.
Inma and Olabanji discuss the bittersweet memory of when the sky appeared clear all over the world from covid lockdowns that caused everything to suddenly slow down.
Olabanji shared how the community successfully campaigned when black soot was all over his city. Faced with public discontent, the politicians had no solution other than implementing adequate measures to end pollution from black soot.
This proved that lobbying and campaigning could trigger public response and politicians to find solutions.
So get involved! No matter how big or small is your contribution, get involved because your voice matters.
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Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!
You can find out more on pages 81, 114, 147, 149 and 154 of the Carbon Almanac and on the website you can tap the footnotes link and type in 357, 586, 063, 589 and 252.
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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Olabanji Stephen and Inma Lopez
Olabanji is from Lagos Nigeria, he’s a Creative Director and visual designer that helps brands gain clarity, deliver meaningful experiences and build tribes through Design & Strategy. He founded Jorney - a community designed to help people stay productive, accountable, and do their best work.
Imma is from Cádiz in the South of Spain, living in Aberdeen, Scotland. Imma is a sommelier, a poet, a podcaster, a mother, a slow food advocate, and an animist activist.
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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Emma.
Speaker:I live in his colon.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Jen and I'm from Canada.
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INMA:Hi
OLABANJI:Hi, I'm Ola Vanji and,
INMA:We are talking about health today.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:Health and climate change.
OLABANJI:How bad is this?
OLABANJI:How bad is getting,
INMA:Yes.
INMA:How it's affecting us
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:How is it affecting us?
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:And, uh, that's an important conversation to have.
OLABANJI:You know, a, a UN study says that the direct damage cost to health, um, is
OLABANJI:estimated to be between two to 4 billion per year in 2030 by 23rd, which is,
OLABANJI:which is a few years from now, uh, know.
OLABANJI:In addition, it says that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected.
OLABANJI:To cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year from,
OLABANJI:malnutrition, diarrhea, heat, stress, and, and a few other factors.
INMA:And, and the, the quality of air is also.
INMA:Clearly.
INMA:What I remember when, when the lockdown started in a few weeks, the quality
INMA:of air just went really up because we stopped doing a lot of activities that
INMA:HA are car, they have carbon emissions.
OLABANJI:Yeah, that's, um, that was hard not to notice.
OLABANJI:I mean, everywhere was calm.
OLABANJI:We moved less, we did factories less.
OLABANJI:We did everything less, and it helped us in a lot of ways.
INMA:yeah, the impact in the environment was,
INMA:was uh, amazing.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:I remember we in River State here in Nigeria, there was a time.
OLABANJI:That there was black suit everywhere.
OLABANJI:I mean, if you wipe your windows, you look at it, it's black, and you
OLABANJI:go out and you, you get back, you go wash your hands, the water is black.
OLABANJI:It's just obvious that something is wrong.
OLABANJI:Something was wrong with the air.
OLABANJI:I, I stepped out to the gym, uh, I, good workout very early in the morning.
OLABANJI:So I stepped out and I saw the clouds.
OLABANJI:I saw the air.
OLABANJI:It was visibly,
INMA:Wow.
OLABANJI:it was really intense.
OLABANJI:We started campaigning, um, a lot of people came together,
OLABANJI:you know, the government, they had to do something about it.
OLABANJI:So they started shutting down illegal refineries, uh, , carbon, uh, demanding
OLABANJI:activities and all the other stuffs.
OLABANJI:And within two, three weeks in that space, it got really.
OLABANJI:Things started clearing up.
OLABANJI:The air was better.
OLABANJI:It was obviously better because we could see it.
INMA:Yeah,
OLABANJI:We could see it.
OLABANJI:And that was scary because I mean, if I could see it and I'm
OLABANJI:breathing this air, then oh my God,
INMA:yeah.
OLABANJI:that was, that was scary.
OLABANJI:People fell.
OLABANJI:See, you know, and, and stuff, but just the action of campaigning, people coming
OLABANJI:together, you know, hashtag everywhere.
OLABANJI:Stop the suits, you know, stop doing this, stop doing that.
OLABANJI:You know, they got the, police involved , within the space of
OLABANJI:two, three weeks, things started clean up and it got really better.
INMA:Yeah, I, I do remember.
INMA:That's just, that's amazing.
INMA:I think the call to action today is, is exactly that campaign because
INMA:one person alone cannot do much about how to change the impact that.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
INMA:The carbon emissions have on, on the health, on our health,
INMA:on the health of the planet.
INMA:So the call to action, definitely there is lobby campaigning with everyone around you
OLABANJI:Yeah.
INMA:around us to close factories, to to reduce
OLABANJI:yeah.
OLABANJI:To find, to find greener ways of doing some of these things.
OLABANJI:To
OLABANJI:reduce the carbon heavy.
INMA:it's a complex, situation because there are people in the community who work
INMA:in those factories and maybe they don't want the factory to be closed, but we need
INMA:to, we need to put some creativity and really be aware of what is the best for
INMA:the community
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:I, I totally agree with you.
INMA:and it's so clear that, well, I remember the picture of, uh, LA when,
INMA:when the, when covid, uh, it was vital.
INMA:One picture of LA before Covid and one picture of LA and the, the sky of LA is
INMA:never, is, never, apparently I haven't been there, but it's never clear.
INMA:How that works in your body.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:You know , , we usually don't see some of these things as urgent
INMA:exactly.
OLABANJI:and, and that's what makes us think we can do it later.
OLABANJI:Ah, it's not that bad.
OLABANJI:People will fix it, right?
OLABANJI:I have to go get business with something else.
OLABANJI:But it threatens the very thing that we need to exist in safety.
OLABANJI:I mean, clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, secure shelter.
OLABANJI:. I mean, the air is threatening.
OLABANJI:Water is threatening.
OLABANJI:Food is straightened because this affects the soil.
OLABANJI:Secure shelter is threatening because of natural disasters
OLABANJI:and all these other things.
OLABANJI:So why not?
OLABANJI:Why not lend your voice to the cause?
OLABANJI:Why not?
OLABANJI:Uh, why not say something every now and then on Twitter, on Facebook and get
OLABANJI:people moving because this has to be.
OLABANJI:it has to be addressed.
OLABANJI:And we were talking about this earlier, that if every community in the world
OLABANJI:have, I mean, no matter how small, where you live, if the community can
OLABANJI:come together and ask this simple question, what are we doing that
OLABANJI:is carbon heavy in this community?
OLABANJI:Forget about the next community.
OLABANJI:Just pay attention to your community and ask that question, what are
OLABANJI:we doing that is carbon heavy?
OLABANJI:What can we do about it?
OLABANJI:How can we change it?
OLABANJI:What alternative, you know, can we employ to, to fix this?
OLABANJI:Because if every community did that, then we will tremendously fix things.
OLABANJI:We will do that , on large scale.
. INMA:Yeah, totally.
. INMA:Uh, if every community move toward a healthier way of living in
. INMA:every single aspect at the end.
. INMA:The push to the government to do things about it will be, will be crucial.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:And, and if a government official is campaigning, tell them, we
OLABANJI:want this in your manifesto.
OLABANJI:, tell us what you are going to do about the earth.
OLABANJI:You know, tell us.
OLABANJI:We
OLABANJI:want to know that we.
OLABANJI:We can demand that as well.
INMA:Yeah.
OLABANJI:Okay.
OLABANJI:This has been a lot of fun.
OLABANJI:So
INMA:Yes.
OLABANJI:get your community involved.
OLABANJI:I think that's, that's a great one to wrap up.
OLABANJI:Get involved.
INMA:Get involved
INMA:and
INMA:And
OLABANJI:Yeah.
OLABANJI:make a contribution no matter how small.
OLABANJI:Let it be big, but we don't even mind, no matter how small,
OLABANJI:make a contribution.
OLABANJI:Yeah.
INMA:Thank you
OLABANJI:Thank
OLABANJI:you
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