What Is Climate Change? 

Introduction

You likely noticed Harmattan starting in late January when you expected it in December. You might remember Christmas used to be dusty and cold but now it often feels hot and humid. It is easy to think this is just random luck or a weird year. But when you look back at the last ten or twenty years you see it happening over and over again. This is climate change. It is not just a massive flood or one hot week. It is a long term shift in what feels normal. Understanding this shift helps you make sense of why the seasons feel so confused lately.

What is Weather?

Weather is what happens when you step outside right now. It is the rain on your face or the sun making you sweat. It changes quickly. Climate is different. It is the average of all that weather over a long time. Think of weather as your mood today and climate as your personality. What we are seeing now is a change in that long term personality. The earth is holding onto more heat and that extra energy disrupts the usual schedule. The rainy season might start late or end early. The dry season might be hotter than your parents remember. The timing is off.

When people talk about climate change they usually talk about disasters. While disasters happen the real story is in the daily patterns. You might notice that mangoes are ripe at the wrong time or that mosquitoes are around for more months of the year. These are small clues. The heat is not just high during the day. The nights stay hot too. This matters because your body needs cool nights to recover from the day. When the nights stay warm everything feels more exhausting. Buildings and roads hold that heat and release it slowly so the city never really cools down.

Remember the water cycle you were taught in scondary school? Except that now it’s in an overdrive. Heat acts like an engine for water. Warmer air is like a big sponge that can hold more water. When it is dry the hot air sucks moisture out of the ground. This makes the soil dusty and hard. It kills crops and dries up wells. But when the rain finally comes that big sponge is full. The water dumps down all at once. Instead of a gentle shower you get a massive flood that washes away roads and floods houses. This is why you see droughts and floods happening in the same year. The system has too much energy so it swings wildly between very dry and very wet.

The seasons are blurring together. You might find yourself sweating in months that used to be cool. This confuses nature. Plants might flower before the insects are ready to pollinate them. Farmers struggle to know when to plant their seeds because the rains are unreliable. If they plant too early the seeds dry out. If they plant too late the floods wash them away. For you it feels like you can never pack away your hot weather clothes. The consistent rhythm of the year is broken. These changes are the direct result of a warming planet affecting your local area.

Conclusion

You do not need to be a scientist to see climate change. You just need to pay attention to your own neighborhood. You can feel it when the Harmattan is missing in December. You can see it when the streets flood after one hour of rain. You can feel it when the heat at night makes it hard to sleep. Once you stop seeing these things as disasters and start seeing them as a pattern, it all makes sense.

By Adeponle Oluwabusolami/300level Mass Communication UNILAG