Journal of Marine Science: Research & Development
Open Access

Abstract

Climatic change which involves average temperature, precipitation and wind patterns of a geographical region can be so intense that in extreme weather, drastic effects on some body systems can occur as had been observed in some developing countries. This is because human activities which negatively influence our atmosphere and climate, could also pollute and debilitate the normal body functions, through chemical, physical, biological or radioactive contaminants to our environment. Our study implicated excessive heat, air, water, soil, radioactive materials, noise, light, and visual pollutants as factors facilitating the disruptions of the normal functions of some body systems under extreme weather conditions. Our decades of sweat studies in a tropical and developing country such as ours, Nigeria, showed that with climatic change, a high percentage of the populace sweated profusely with enormous loss of body water and electrolytes through sweating and especially when accompanied by some exercise or bodily activities. Equally, other skin sensations undulate, while some respiratory abnormalities occur as a result of the extreme weather. In some of the people, the heart and the blood vessels became vulnerable and their digestive system was easily contaminated by the degraded nutrients consumed under such climatic conditions. While their renal system battled with kidney stones, their endocrine system regulator sensors appeared to have been deceived especially in the fetus, during such extreme weather thus putting the reproductive system into the list of endangered species. Control of human activities and proper management of our environment appeared to be a special key to the solution of the dangers imposed on human systems by climatic change and extreme weather. Extremes of weather had depicted some areas in Nigeria as danger zones, since staying in such places like Maiduguri, during such conditions had been described as ??living in hell??. Over ten States of Nigeria were virtually submerged by flood in the year 2012, due to climatic change and human activities, which resulted in over flooding of river banks, and diseases and high level of human sufferings. We therefore concluded that all these problems can reasonably be averted if simple precautional measures are adopted during the climatic change and extreme weather conditions.

Biography

Andrew Chukwuma Ugwu is a Professor of Physiology at the University of Benin, Nigeria; the first Sweat Scientist in West and Sub-Saharan Regions of Africa; a Fellow of the Physiological Society of Nigeria; a Commonwealth Scholar for his Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow, U.K. He had published over 70 papers in reputed journals. He is Editorial Board Member of many journals and the Chairman of many Accreditation Teams for Benchmark Standards of the National Universities Commission (NUC) of Nigeria and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).