A meteorologist with the Marine and Upstream Unit of the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMeT), Thomas Biney, has called on Ghanaians to help revamp the ‘carbon sink’ by planting more trees.
According to him the activities of humans, especially deforestation, are fast depleting the Ozone Layer which protects humanity from the direct Ultraviolet rays of the sun and dangerous gases such as carbon emissions which are harmful to humans.
He however noted that trees have the ability to absorb these harmful gases serving as a carbon sink, trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, chloro-floro carbon (CFC) from refrigerators.
Mr. Biney explained that Accra and some parts of Ghana are experiencing higher temperatures than normal due to a saturation of these harmful gases.
In an interview with Kwamena Sam Biney on Angel FM’s Anopa Bofo Morning Show on Monday, he declared that he has never seen Accra reach a high temperature of 35 degrees, but it is getting hotter.
Citing the current temperature, he said that the last time he checked, it was around 36 to 36.5 degree celsius in certain parts of Accra.
He also mentioned that more heat would be retained when more greenhouse gases are added into the atmosphere.
He clarified that the intense heat is due to long wave radiation coming from the ground which is supposed to flow through the atmosphere without being hampered and return to space but instead the heat has been held and returned to the surface.
‘The more we plant trees, the more we revamp the carbon sink’’, he concluded.
