Air pollution and climate change, “University of Adversity” in Africa and the need for actionable steps — CAOA #teachthefuture, #teachtheteacher campaign.

Current research trends showed that outdoor air pollution is responsible for premature deaths globally. A recent report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) clearly indicate that approximately 7 million deaths per annum across the world is air pollution related (WHO, 2021). In Africa alone, Bauer et al., (2019) estimated that air pollution is responsible for 780,000 deaths per annum, caused 1.1 million premature deaths in 2019 (Fisher et al., 2021) and nearly 520 million children do not breathe clean air (UNICEF, 2016). In Ghana, about 28,000 premature deaths is associated with air pollution (WHO, 2016) as of 2018 and 1.6 billion economic loss of Ghana’s GDP in 2019 alone is due to air pollution (Fisher et al., 2021).

Recently, WHO introduced new air quality guidelines to ensure that governments put in measures to protect public health. While we welcome these new guidelines, it will not make any significant impact especially in the developing economies particularly those in the global south say Africa. In most parts of Africa for example, public knowledge of air pollution and its impact on health, climate and ecosystems including agriculture is limited. Consequently, mitigation policies or new guidelines will not make any meaningful impact especially if we cannot:

· expand community’s understanding of air pollution and its health damaging effects.

· control population growth as this puts pressure on the circular economy.

· properly manage waste.

· expand air quality monitoring networks to understand air quality levels integrated with source apportionment studies.

· provide poorer households with improved energy source for cooking and heating.

· properly plan our cities considering reliable public transportation services and public footpaths for walking and cycling.

· teach the future on the impacts of our actions on the environment and possible mitigation strategies considering DIY approaches fused with IoT.

· complement expensive conventional air quality monitoring approaches with low-cost environmental sensing strategies.

· Simultaneously undertake air pollution and climate change research on the continent with mitigation strategies.

Further to the above, just as in agricultural extension services, old farmers find it very challenging to adapt new technologies/ improved ways of farming to increase productivity and efficiency. We have observed a similar trend in the air pollution control domain particularly influencing behavioural changes such as proper waste management instead of open waste burning.

The critical question is, why are African governments not committing resources to combat this canker??? The academia is mostly interested in scientific publications — this provides evidence on the degree of damage/ current state of the issue and in some cases where resources should be channelled but majority of these publications do not consider/ provide approaches that local communities including student-led organisations/ clubs can take to address air pollution and / or climate change. Some of the authors do however offer recommendations to local/ government institutions which are mostly not implemented. This is often the case because these publications are focused on say understanding the robustness of new technologies to function in these (affected) environments.

Citizen science has proven to play a critical role particularly in underserved communities to address most of the pressing environmental challenges requiring robust scientific approach. The approach if properly employed, will generate multiple co-benefits for example SOS-UK runs “club-like” activities in the UK universities with focus on the environment, energy, food, and water to mention but a few. This gives the students the opportunity to design tailor-made solutions in their respective schools to cut down carbon emissions; reduce food waste; improve public health; sustainable farming; environmental auditing including student audits and “green impacts.” These solutions are based on “Do it Yourself” (DIY) approaches integrated with “Internet of Things” (IoT).

CAOA proposes a similar approach in Ghana as an example for rest of Africa that will focus on air pollution and climate change mitigation. This proposal includes formation of “CAOA — Atmospheric Science” Clubs from basic to tertiary institutions in Ghana. At each level, specific tasks will be deployed to map the ability of the students and to also evoke their curiosity through workshops/ seminars and training programs.

In the light of the above, CAOA has collaborated with the STEM Club at the Methodist Girls’ High School, Mamfe #MEGHIS to launch the first ever environmental campaign — #teachthefuture, #teachtheteacher through the leadership of the STEM Club. #MEGHIS having recently won the international robotic and coding competition is poised to take the lead on the utility of emerging technologies including low-cost environmental sensing tools to address Ghana’s environmental pollution challenge as an example for rest of Africa. As part of initial plans, PurpleAir PA-II low-cost sensor was deployed at MEGHIS campus with the support of the STEM Club. This will follow up with workshops firstly on air pollution and impacts on public health including the utility of open-source internet-based platforms to meaningfully communicate air quality data (i.e. using Yakokoe as a template). Subsequent meetings will focus on training interested students on the use of machine learning to manage, visualize, analyse, and interpret reported air quality data. The goal is to equip the leaders of tomorrow with knowledge of the present challenges, availability, and applicability of technologies and how a thoughtful protocol on involving them in decision making process through #teachthefuture, #teachtheteacher campaign can shape Ghana’s (Africa) sustainable development.

We believe the STEM Club at MEGHIS as the pace setter in this field, will provide the needed support to other STEM and / or related clubs across senior high schools in Ghana which will include but not limited to remote workshops, hands on applications, innovative and creative approaches to combat environmental pollution and most importantly drive local production/ assembling/ manufacturing of tools to suit Ghana’s (Africa) infrastructure. We are also convinced that as these students become clean air/ environmental stewards, they will help influence behavioural changes both on campus and at home including their respective communities. We hope that the Ghana Education Service (GES) and student organisations including educational agencies across Africa will in the long-term integrate these types of strategies into the educational curriculum at the basic/ senior high and tertiary institutions to evoke the interest of pupils or students to raise prominent and relevant atmospheric and related scientists to run Africa’s Atmospheric Observatory in the next decade or two for a sustainable and habitable Africa #teachthefuture, #teachtheteacher #MEGHIS, #Engage, #Educate and #Empower.