Preservation of the Ozone Layer: How much do Nigerians know?

“Ozone Layer has to do with the sun; they said it is very hot and that when the Ozone layer breaks, everyone will die,” said Ife Ajayi, a secondary school student in her fourth year speaks of her knowledge of the Ozone layer. This is not quite different from what most people interviewed by our […]

“Ozone Layer has to do with the sun; they said it is very hot and that when the Ozone layer breaks, everyone will die,” said Ife Ajayi, a secondary school student in her fourth year speaks of her knowledge of the Ozone layer.
This is not quite different from what most people interviewed by our correspondent said of what they know about the phenomemon.
Nigeria joined the rest of the world on September 16 to mark ‎the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.
The theme for the celebration is: “30 Years of Healing the Ozone Together.” The theme was supported by the slogan, “Ozone: All There is Between You and UV.”
In spite of the seeming ignorance of the Ozone layer by many people interviewed by Daily Trust, quite a number of them said they had heard about it at one point or the other but do not really know what it means. Asking for what is the word for Ozone layer in their local languages was asking for too much as we learnt.
The question is: “How can you work towards fixing or preserving what you know little about?” Mr. Johnson Afekhelua, a teacher asked.
A corps member who simply gave her name as Gift said she had heard about Ozone layer somewhere but could not remember exactly what it means.
 “But I think it has do with the planet or one of the planets. I cannot just remember,” she said.
Patrick Izu, a civil servant, said Ozone layer has to do with the hotness of the sun and “I heard it is a dangerous thing that can kill the world.”
He said he does not really know the causes of the depletion of the Ozone layer but he knows smoke could be one of them.
For Chinedu Dike who just completed his secondary education and awaiting admission into university, Ozone layer is about the sun and what makes it hot.
“It is usually said that it is dangerous and can harm the entire world when it breaks or melts,” he said.
He however, said he does not really know what causes the depletion of the Ozone layer because he is not a science student.
For Sule Michael, “it is a layer that filters the ray of light from the sun to the earth. It is a cloud cover that reduces the hotness of the sun; without it the sun’s heat will be killing both plant and human.‎”
He said the degradation of the environment is responsible for the depletion of the Ozone layer.
A pharmacist, Samuel Egbo, said Ozone layer is a thing that covers the earth planet and to protect us.
He said the destruction of that cover is what brings Ozone layer to be harmful and makes the earth gullible.
He said, “Because we are not using the right light instead we use generator, and other effect from our vegetation helps to destroy the protection of the earth and the environment and makes us gullible.’
The Ozone layer according to the dictionary is an atmospheric layer at heights of about 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) that is normally characterized by high Ozone content which blocks most solar ultraviolet radiation from entry into the lower atmosphere.
It is further simplified in a journal as a fragile shield of gas that protects the Earth from the harmful portion of the rays of the sun, thus helping preserve life on the planet.
The layer of Ozone gas is what protects us from the harmful ultraviolet radiations of the sun. The Ozone layer absorbs these harmful radiations and thus prevents these rays from entering the earth’s atmosphere.
According to expert, the Ozone layer is what saves the Earth and the living organisms from the harmful radiation of the sun and that it is necessary to understand its importance and work to control the depletion of this layer.
An environmentalist and President of Institute for International Standard Environmental Practices and Management, Dr. Emmanuel Ating, said the question about the global warming is usually from the depletion of the Ozone layer because the Ozone layer is born out of the continuum from the green house gas.
Ating explained that the layer that protects the earth from the intensity of the heat is being depleted. He said this means when there is an increase in temperature, the ice in the pole melts and whenever that occurs, it leaves increased in the sea level  which contributes to coastal erosion, they are the flooding which we are suffering now.”
He said the Paris Agreement, which Nigeria is a signatory to; means coming back home and looking at what to do to stop depletion of the Ozone layer.
“We need to look at the conduct of the petroleum industry and look at how to have environmental management plan in Nigeria to minimize the activities of gas flaring in the country.
While noting that the incessant gas flaring in the Niger Delta region has remained a problem, he said we need a level of alternative technology that will help us to reduce the gas flaring and how it could be reinvented and used for cooking gas and other things.
On Nigerians’ ignorance of the Ozone layer, he said it has to do with environmental relation and the lack of enlightenment programmes that is supposed to teach the people to know about issues of the environment and the layers in the atmosphere.
The environmentalist however condemned the fact that Geography as a subject is not being offered in secondary schools in Nigeria saying the Ozone layer are  some of  the issues that are taught in elementary physical Geography.
“Unlike then we know issues of geography, now they invite professors and PhDs to discuss issues of environment like the eclipse of the moon that happened recently, in those days it would have been students of geography because we knew it and were taught in elementary geography,” he said.
He advised that course content in secondary schools should be readjusted to be what it used to be because geography is very fundamental and it is the father of history.