By Kodjo Adams
Accra, June 7, GNA – Ms Kathleen Addy, Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has marked this year’s Green Ghana Day with tree planting and engagements with students in Senior High Schools in Accra.
Officials of the NCCE, in collaboration with civic education club members and patrons, participated in the tree planting exercise at Accra Girls Senior High School and Achimota Senior High School.
Ms Addy underscored the importance of the exercise in raising awareness, educating the younger generation on emerging environmental issues, and stimulating action on critical emerging environmental challenges.
She said tree planting was one of the measures to tackle the devastating climatic change that had become a global threat, including flooding.
The Commission, she said, was ready to intensify education for the youth towards restoring the environment to its natural state.
She encouraged the students to spearhead the fight against environmental degradation to preserve the lost vegetation.
That, she explained, was necessary because trees provided medicines and oxygen for the survival of humanity.
Ms Addy urged the students to be ambassadors of change by nurturing and monitoring the seedlings to ensure their survival.
Mr John Mensah, Head of Programme for Science, Accra Girls SHS, said the civic education club assigned members to monitor and water the seedlings to ensure their survival.
He said since the initiative, the survival rate of the seedlings had been 90 per cent and pledged to continue with the supervision.
The students thanked the NCCE Chairperson for the engagement.
Green Ghana Day was launched in 2021 under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
The objective is to restore the lost forest cover of the country destroyed by the activities of illegal small-scale mining and timber logging.
This year’s theme is “Growing for a Greener Tomorrow”, with a target of planting 10 million trees across the country.
The exercise so far has planted 42 million seedlings with a high survival rate.
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.
Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the Sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions.
But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the Sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
One of the easiest ways to avert climate change is by planting new forests (afforestation) or restoring old ones (reforestation).
GNA