The Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Extension Prof J. Mathooko mentioned that he was honored to be invited to close the ceremony. He mentioned that his office was aware of the conference proceedings and apologized for not attending and attributed this to the busy schedule at the university. The university was launching the strategic plan and service charter. However he mentioned that he was impressed with the debate the conference had elicited during the plenary session. He admired the diversity in thinking from the participants and said that it offered a good forum for collecting good take home points. He dared the forum to the statement that Climate Change can not be seen coming. To support his argument he posed the question to the audience: “When did climate change start?” He mentioned that this is a philosophical question and that it is important to talk about adaptation and mitigation. He asked the audience each ones’ role in Climate Change mitigation and adaptation. He also pointed at evidence that humans use resources without thinking about tomorrow. He wished that humans should think like some animals that use resources and leave others for the dry season. He attributed problems in the African context to the ‘’Tragedy of the commons’’ which are more common in the African countries. He said that to them the common resources were to be used without control and regulation. However he stated that time had come to control consumption and think of creating more for future region. He also mentioned the importance of early warning systems and the need to strengthen them. However he emphasized that traditional knowledge should be incorporated as part of the early warning systems. This will make it easy to detect the effects of Climate Change. Finally he mentioned that our thinking should be broad and should be able to use the information to detect changes in the environment and also use the knowledge in management. He mentioned he was sure audience have obtained good information but should use the information to mitigate effects of Climate Change . With this remarks he officially closed the conference.
Filed under: Day 3
