How Science Is Gradually Helping To Prove the Impossible

By Jessica Maduka

Explaining the concept of climate change to an average person on the street will take a lot of effort and proving to people that they are responsible for global warming is almost impossible.

Attribution science has been changing the narrative in conversations around climate change and global warming. Although not still able to prove the exact cause of climate change and explicitly trace the intricacies of global warming, attribution science is helping to prove the relationship between climate and extreme weather using climate data and mathematics.

ScienceNewsforStudents describes attribution science as the science of investigating links between climate and extreme weather. According to Wikipedia, extreme event attribution, also known as attribution science, is a relatively new field of study in meteorology and climate science that tries to measure how ongoing climate change directly affects recent extreme weather events.

Attribution science uses raw climate data and mathematics analysed with computer models to establish possible links between climate change and extreme weather events.

Although Nigeria is not prone to extreme weather situations like drought, hurricane, extreme flooding, storm or heat situations a 2019 report on climate change in Nigeria by Haider, H. it was quoted that climate change in Nigeria is evident in increases in temperature, variable rainfall, rise in sea level and flooding, drought and desertification, land degradation and affected freshwater resources.

All these have directly affected Nigerians through cases like low crop yield and reduced livestock production leading to low income for farmers and farm produce sellers and shortage of food to the average citizen. Flooding and desertification have also been found to be responsible for many health issues.

Scientists through climate change attribution, extreme event attribution, impact attribution, and source attribution can now help educate, prepare, and influence the people as they face the ravages of global warming, it is also providing useful answers to previously impossible-to-answer questions using science and data.