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Aid to developing countries: I don’t think Ghana is really in a position to help other countries considering the amount of help Ghana needs itself. I think they need to put more policies and laws in place to help their own people. They need to fix the corruption in their government and where the money (taxes) goes to so that they can help themselves. Maybe start with funding for public school and more national education. Nana was telling me about the “brain drain”: basically anyone who is educated in Ghana leaves in pursuit of a better life. I think I personally can do nothing here on a large scale. I feel that people like Nana can and will be able to though.
Energy: I consider Ghana to indirectly be very energy conservative. I say indirectly because I think that if they could change the way they live they would however most people are unable to do so; poverty is key here. People here are forced to take public transportation or walk, they don’t have AC’s or heaters, they lack showers/baths, running water, etc. All these things are helping conserve energy simply because they can’t afford to waste energy the way that westerners can. I don’t know if it’s advisable to try and further westernize this country or if they are to at least implement laws on energy conservation strait off the bat. I think we could even further their conservation by implementing more solar powered lights in restaurants and stores.
Agriculture: I don’t know if there are any rules or policies on agriculture. I think slash and burn cropping should be made illegal and that there should be a regulation on clearing forests for farmland. We could educate farmers I suppose and teach them new ways of farming.
Oceans/water: There should be laws set in place for littering. The beaches and water here are trashed. Free boreholes should be made publicly accessible so that everyone has access to water. We could raise funding for more boreholes and do things like have community beach clean ups.
Land/forest management: Again I think regulations should be set in place about deforestation for farmland. It would be nice if there was an effort from the government to help conserve wild life here. I think education is key here. We could have volunteers help educate locales and park rangers.
Adaptation/resilience: Climate change is directly affecting Ghana. The rainy season here is the longest it has ever been. Very few ghanians actually know about climate change and global warming. The government should make it a requirement in schools to learn about these things. They could also put up PSA throughout the country. Again we could educate locales. I’m not quite sure what else we could do.
How does the assigned blue youth theme relate to your country? I think the assigned blue youth theme relates to Ghana in several ways but namely in the rainy season. Climate change has caused the rainy season here to last longer this year than it ever has before.
How does it relate to your country pairing? I’m not quite sure. Alaska and Ghana are two very very different places.
What is the current state of this BlueYouth theme? The current state of this blue youth theme… well obviously it can’t be in a good state if we’re coming together to try and change something about it. I think that water is in poor condition in ghana. For example, very few people have access water let alone clean water. A lot of people fetch their water from open sewers or bole holes and it isn’t uncommon to have to pay a fee in order to use a bore hole.
In what direction does this theme seem to be evolving in your country and how does this compare with how you would like it to evolve? I think it is evolving negatively. Everytime I go to the beach it seems to be even more littered than the last time I was there. Like I said access to clean water is expensive and hard to come by. I don’t believe anything is being done to resolve this issue either.
What strategies to combat climate change and address these interrelated issues do you think are the best/worst for your country? I think scare tactics could work. The missionaries struck the fear of god into the people of Ghana years ago and christianity has been thriving ever since. These people don’t have much and they lack education however the believe anything that comes out of the mouth of anyone in the church. For example, it is very rare to see someone smoking cigarettes here because it is considered a sin. I think we could start using religious PSAs to advertise the idea that doing things like littering and burning trash is sinful. The fear of hell would drive these people to stop. I have no doubt. I’m sure this same tactic could be use in other religious places around the world.
