Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, president of Nigeria, announced in a speech today that the country's annual losses stemming from environmental degradation total nearly $5.1 billion. This loss can be attributed to the constant exploitation of Nigeria's goods, as well as the increased urbanization of the formerly natural land spaces. The above picture of Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, serves to demonstrate the effects these factors can have on the environment.
Yar'Adua spoke at the National Environmental Summit in Abuja, saying that the state of the environment is having a disastrous effect on the citizens of Nigeria, both socially and economically.
"Increased incidences of flooding across the country constitute clear evidence of stress and ecological imbalance in the environment of many of our community’s today,” said Yar'Adua. "Our key environmental challenge is to combat land degradation, deforestation and devastation, drought and desertification, loss of biodiversity, flooding, erosion, urban decay and municipal waste disposal and the adverse effect of climate change."
This news should be a warning to the U.S. that our economy will not be able to thrive unless we begin to invest in more sustainable systems of energy. Without these key ingredients, our business and corporate sectors are likely to collapse under the immense financial pressure of supporting fossil fuels. It only goes to show that our office life is directly effected by the environment, and vice versa.
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