Global warming

My son! No planting till the rains fall”. This was the response from my mother when I reminded her “planting season is approaching”. Gone are the days when we could predict seasons, she said! And I remembered, in 1968 the Apollo 8 astronauts orbited the earth’s moon, and safely returned to earth. But while in space they took a photo of the earth, and the image was breathtaking; a glowing marble of blue oceans, and green forests, brown mountains brushed with white clouds, rising over the surface of the moon. But today this glory is no more because of the phenomenon that we have all come know – GLOBAL warming. Today I will share with you facts of global warming, the destructive nature of global warming, and the remedy to global warming.

1.      Global warming is real

Think of your parked car, in the middle of the sweltering heat of the afternoon. On opening the door, currents of hot air blow against you forcing you to quickly turn on the air conditioning system. This is a small, yet effective example of a process called the GREENHOUSE EFFECT. This effect involves a certain body of matter, be it a car, a green house or the earth itself, absorbing heat from another body, in our case – the sun. So back to your car, the glass enables the absorption of the heat, and traps the heat inside. Similarly, the earth's atmosphere contains GREENHOUSE GASES such as Carbon Dioxide, Ozone and Methane which absorb the radiations we receive from the sun, and trap the heat from it inside.  These gases also prevent the heat on the earth’s surface from going away. The more the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the more the heat gets trapped, and the more the temperature rises on the Earth and the oceans. This is GLOBAL WARMING.

2.         Global warming destroys life and livelihood

Increased evaporation of water, increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, hence increasing greenhouse gases. Looking at the damages of Hurricane Katrina of New Orleans, in 2005, and Hurricane Sunday in 2012 – the results are DEVASTATING, DEVASTATING, DEVASTATING. An estimated 1,836 people died in the hurricane and the floods, total property damage from Katrina was estimated at $81 billion. Scientists predict global temperatures to go up about 1.4 – 5.8 degrees Celsius by 2100; Back home Mt. Kenya has lost over 92% of its ice in the last one century. And very soon we will have a continent without glaciers. These are some of the consequences of global warming.

3.         Global warming has a remedy

One way is by cutting down on the greenhouse gas emissions. The CO₂ being produced by factories and by burning of fossil fuels is more than the carbon dioxide being used up by plants. Plant more trees, reduce deforestation, and use alternatives sources of energy instead of fossil fuels, say no to plastic bags because they are not biodegradable. I urge all of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your friends, your sons and daughters. Tell them what’s at stake. Speak up at town halls, speak up in church groups, and speak up in PTA meetings. Broaden the circle of those who are willing to stand up and save the universe. Global warming is real, the effects of global warming are with us and there is a remedy to global warming, I hope my mother will one day plant before the rains fall, because she will rest assured that the rains will fall not whenever they shall but rather when they should.

(Content disclaimer: some content  borrowed from relevant sources)

When my daughter turned yellow

On landing at Jomo Kenyatta Interantional airport from Khartoum I was so excited that my unborn daughter had waited for me to be back. After two days I took my wife to hospital and Nina was born, at midnight 1st December 2013. She looked as fit as a fiddle despite one factor, my daughter had turned yellow on her skin and eyes. A condition known as Jaundice. Tonight I want to share with you: the causes of jaundice in newborns, the effects of jaundice and management of jaundice in children

1.                  Causes of Jaundice

According to “The Nemours Foundation” a non-profit organizations devoted to children’s health, bilirubin is a waste product of used red blood cells and it causes the yellow color of jaundice. It gives urine its light yellow colour and stools their dark brown colour. That’s why stool is always brown even after eating when ugali. Before birth, the mother's liver removes bilirubin from the baby's blood. But after birth the baby’s liver should do this on its own. However, the newborn’s liver is often immature and can't remove bilirubin quickly enough, resulting to its accumulation and a yellow pigmentation on the skin and eyes, and that is Jaundice.

The laboratory results indicated that Nina’s bilirubin levels escalated took a turn for the worse –to a staggering 340mmol/l a 30% deviation from the norm. According to Hansen et al., a professor in the department of newborns in Oslo University hospital Norway increased billirubin is prevalent among people of East Asia, American Indians, and Greeks but can be prevalent in other regions too and I guess I belong to other regions

2.                  Effects of Jaundice

According to the website of Mayo Clinic, a non-profit medical research group in Rochesta, Minnesota, bilirubin is toxic to cells of the brain. In severe jaundice, bilirubin may pass into the brain, a condition called acute bilirubin encephalopathy. If acute bilirubin encephalopathy causes permanent damage to the brain, Kernicterus is the syndrome that occurs. Kernicterus may result in many complications, among them: cerebral palsy, permanent upward gaze, hearing loss and intellectual impairment. Coming from a paramedical background, my wife and I were well aware of this threat and hoped against hope that our daughter shall break loose from this quandary. According to Bhutani et al., in his pediatric research, there are 250 cases of kanicterus in 1 million births in Africa. We refused to be part of this statistics and believed there was light beyond the tunnel

3.                   Management of Jaundice

Jaundice can be treated by exposing the baby to sunlight if the levels are not severe. Phototherapy can also be done where the baby is placed under special lighting that emits blue-green light of the light spectrum. In some cases the baby may need an exchange transfusion of blood. Which involves withdrawing small amounts of blood, diluting the bilirubin, and transferring blood back into the baby — this is an intensive care procedure

In our case the pediatrician dint gamble with life and recommended a double phototherapy treatment. The medical team was full of vim and vigour to safe Nina's threatened life. To all prospective parents reading this blog, always be vigilant in your future births now that you know the causes of jaundice in newborns, the complications of neonatal jaundice, and the management of jaundice. I left work and camped at the hospital ward to give moral support to my wife, and after 11 protracted days Nina was given a clean bill of health we happily went home to recharge our batteries and see Nina grow.