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.