Mega Stories of 2023
Kayode Komolafe
kayode.komolafe@thisdaylive.com
0805 500 1974
In the course of the year, Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa state raised the alarm about some coastal communities in the state being submerged by ocean surge.
Members of the affected communities appeared on television agonising that their ancestral homes and farm lands had been washed away by the Atlantic ocean. The governor spoke of the infrastructural needs to check the vanishing of the devasted communities which include Odioama, Koluama, Sangana, Agge. Expectedly, Diri called on the federal government to come to the rescue of the oil-rich state.
If anyone still needs a proof of the reality of the looming catastrophe called climate change, the doubter should ask the residents of these communities who are living victims. The ecological disaster being experienced in that corner of Nigeria strikes a chord with citizens of many tiny Islands in different parts of the world which risk disappearing soon if concrete steps are not urgently taken to reverse the trend. The Bayelsa communities are as environmentally endangered as islands such as Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Maldives, Seychelles, Solomon Island, Micronesia, Cartaret, Marshal Island, Tuvalu, Torres Strait, Cabo Verde, Tangier and Sarichef Island. Some of these Islands are, in fact, nations flying their flags at the United Nations. Their cries were loud at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28), which was held in Dubai, United Araba Emirates.
Viewed from the global perspective, the tragic stories are more topical in the long run. The stories are about the people whose lands may no longer exist in a few years from now. The real threat to these mostly helpless people is the consequence of global warming. In a fundamental sense, climate change is more topical than the stories of geo-politics, economic competition and man-made disasters such as the Israel war on Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
To solve the socio-economic, political and cultural problems mankind needs a secure habitat to live in comfortably in order to carry out the various activities. The only habitat is the earth, which is threatened in a way that not many people could yet comprehend the gravity of the danger. Despite the racial, ethnic, ideological or geo-political differences humanity is bound inextricably to share only this one common habitat, at least for now. So in terms of topicality, the danger of climate change could only compare with the ferment so far generated by the promise and peril of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Little surprise that the popular London-based magazine, “New Scientist,” declared in its December 16 edition that 2023 could as well be described as “A Year of Two Stories.” The two stories identified by the magazine are about Climate Change and AI. Perhaps not many Nigerian editors would dispute this verdict of the editors of the New Scientist.” This, of course, is because of obvious reasons. What with the transformative impact of AI on material science, chemistry and weather forecasting, the technology may change science itself as we know it as well as human civilisation. On the flip side is the danger that AI may facilitate digital misinformation and manipulation. It would be easier to produce fake videos with AI. The real post-truth age may have just begun in earnest. This dark side of AI should be read within the context of the ethical anxiety about the new technology in general. Experts of various hues are also pointing attention to the ills of excessive automation, intrusive surveillance and the tendency to worsen inequality instead of sharing prosperity. There is also excessive concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants. It is now said that the old capitalism thrived on markets and profits while the new one, dominated by the tech giants, rests on platforms and rents.
Perhaps, climate change may resonate more with the people. July this year has gone down on record as the hottest month ever. The hottest days, according to scientists, were July 3, 4 and 5. Wild fires were recorded in parts of the world with hundreds of lives lost.
It is remarkable that the “New Scientist” draws a nexus between the stories of climate change and the AI revolutions: the decisions taken today on AI and climate change could potentially determine the material fate of billions of people in different parts of the world even in the immediate future. Hence the political authorities should act fast in demonstrating the will to find solutions. It is important to take a long view of history in this process.
To reverse the negative macro trends for humanity, global cooperation is needed among nations rather than the pursuit of blind capitalist competition and the craving for geo-political hegemony.
This is an imperative imposed on mankind by scientific reality.
Given the collective danger posed by the negative mega trends, the differences among nations and peoples naturally pale into insignificance.
This point was demonstrated in a 33-page landmark report of the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that was released in September. According to the report, NASA has taken “concrete action” in the exploration of the Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). In fact, one of the steps is to rename UFOs as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) as part of the change of gear in space exploration. NASA’s administrator, Bill Nelson, admitted that another earth could indeed be in existence given the reality of billions of stars in billions of galaxies. Nelson said: “if you ask me do I believe there is life in a universe that’s so vast that it’s hard for me to comprehend how big it is, my personal answer is yes.” According to the NASA chief, viewed against these possibilities in the space, man might just be like a “speck,” in the system in which all the socio- political and racial differences are of no importance.
Doubtless, the issues thrown up by these mega stories this year should compel greater global cooperation and political will in the coming year and beyond.
