Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin has stated tree planting is about the existence of life, the earth and all living things on it.
According to him, issues of the environment and climatic change have become topical not because they are fashionable but because they are existential issues for every living thing on planet earth.
“There is a veritable threat to human existence that is typified by the impact of environmental degradation on the climate on our lives,” he stated.
Speaking at the tree planting exercise of the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana Day event at Parliament House on Friday, June 10, 2022, Speaker Bagbin noted the tree seedlings being planted form the basis of life.
The planting exercise, he said, is at the centre of providing sustenance for human existence and for its significance Parliament did not sit to conduct its daily business to afford members the opportunity to travel to their constituencies to participate.
“This bears testimony to the statement once made by the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, that “saving the planet isn’t a partisan issue. No matter what our political persuasion is, it behoves all Ghanaians to join in the efforts at protecting our environment, and by extension saving our planet.”
“It is our elders who say that ‘A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing. If you see a toad running during the daytime, it means there is something after its life.” he stated.
Quoting Ugandan climate activist Venessa Nakate, the Speaker stressed that climate change is more than statistics, more than data points, more than net-zero targets adding, “It is about the people: it is about the people who are being impacted right now. I add that tree planting is about the existence of life, the earth and all living things on it.”
According to the Speaker, it is easy to forget there is a nexus between the extent to which we protect the environment and the nation’s growth and development as a nation.
Ghana, he said, can therefore not successfully pursue an economic development growth agenda if environmental and climate challenges continued to be consigned to the environmental scientists alone.
He pointed out that parts of La in Accra, a growing beach community called Bortor, have today been completely wiped off the surface of the earth, and is gradually being forgotten just like several other areas along Ghana’s coastline including Keta, Dzelukope and allied beach communities in the Volta region that have been eclipsed completely by tidal waves.
The time to act, the Speaker stressed, is now and charged Ghanaians to dial the re-tune knob on climate change.
Hon. Alban Bagbin led officers of the House to plant trees on the precinct of Parliament, which was extended to the Speaker’s official residence, the Clerk’s official residence at Cantonments, The leadership village, Manet Villa, Joggis and Sakumono Estates.
Speaker Bagbin planted a Lignum vitae commonly referred to as Tree of Life. Majority Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh planted on behalf of the 1st Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu; Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah did the planting himself; Deputy Majority Whip Seyiram Alhassan planted on behalf of the Majority leader while Deputy Minority Whip Ahmed Ibrahim planted on behalf of the Minority leader.
