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Q & A:
How does the assigned BlueYouth theme relate to your country?
The assigned Blue Youth theme relates to my country in several ways. This is the longest rainy season Ghana has potentially ever seen and that is accredited to climate change despite the fact that very few ghanaians actually know what climate change is. Even with all the rain though the locales still have very limited access to clean water here. There was recently a cholera outbreak do to the sacheting of water, which is one of the primary ways people get drinking water here. Most people do not have running water in their homes and are forced to go to boreholes to receive water which they could potentially have to pay for. I personally see a lot of locales using the open sewers to access water for cooking, bathing, cleaning, etc. I would say water access/conditions are a big problem in Ghana.
How does it relate to your country pairing?
I am not quite sure. Possibly because the glaciers in alaska and ice caps are melting and that’s causing sea levels to rise. We live on the ocean… I’m not quite sure.
What is the current state of this BlueYouth theme?
The current state of water to my knowledge is that climate change has brought a very long and heavy rainy season to Ghana which will probably mess up crops and cause starvation. Around the world sea levels are rising, ocean temperatures are increasing, coral reefs are dying, etc.
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 negatively evolving because nothing is being done here. Like I said, very few ghanaians even know about climate change or global warming and the few that do don’t seem to care. It isn’t a concern to this country and I think that needs to change. However the political system here is corrupt so I’m not sure how it could be addressed.
What strategies to combat climate change and address these interrelated issues do you think are the best/worst for your country?
I honestly believe that scare tactics could work to combat climate change. In third world country there is a big influence of religion on the people. For example, I rarely see ghanaians smoking, in fact I’m pretty sure there is a law in place against smoking. The reason for this is because they consider it to be a sin. Christianity did not start here in Ghana on it’s own. Missionaries at some point or another have come in and brainwashed these people by putting the fear of God into them. I think that scare tactics like such could be used here to get ghanaians to do things like stop burning their trash, burning computers, start recycling, stop slash and burn cropping, etc. If they were convinced that these things were very sinful and that they could potentially go to hell for doing them I have no doubt that it would have some sort of impact.
