By BENJAMIN NJOKU

Beauty queen, Susan Garland: My path with destiny as she speaks on climate change

Reigning Miss Earth beauty Queen, Modupe Susan Garland has revealed her plans to embark on tree planting project, where she hopes to plant about one million trees across six countries of the world.

The project, she said is aimed at reducing the adverse effects of climate change on the earth. She listed the benefitting countries as Nigeria, Philippines, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Rwanda.

The project, which she intends to carry out through her foundation, Beyond Garland Initiative will commence immediately the corona virus pandemic ends.

The 22-year old beauty queen made this revelation, while speaking at the media presentation of her maiden book, ‘The Earth is Important Too: Managing Climate Catastrophe,” which held last Sunday, in Ikeja, Lagos.

The book, which focuses on the effects of climate change on the earth, was formally presented to the reading public on Sunday, May 10 in Lagos.

The author and Environmentalist, described as worrisome the fact that in some parts of Africa, people don’t believe that climate change exists. Despite this misconception, she said, serious climate issues like flooding, drought, loss of biodiversity leading to infectious diseases, are rife in Africa.

She listed the countries that are very vulnerable to the effects of climate change to include Japan, Philippines, Germany, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Rwanda, Canada and the Fiji Islands.

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“Japan, as we all know, has suffered the worst hit of earthquakes. The Philippines has suffered from typhoons, earthquakes and other disasters. It is so sad because they are very vulnerable because of the position they occupy in the earth’s equator. And it just happens that they are the ones that are greatly affected by climate change. Our cause is to make sure that as we make sales on this book, we are going to these specific countries. We are selecting six of them, to plant trees and to also make sure that the impact of climate change is eased. It is important to note that each book sale equals two trees planted,” she said.

A ten-chapter book, ‘The Earth Is Important Too’ covers the effects of climate change in Africa, the effect of biodiversity in the Middle East, the activities of companies regarding the emission of fossil fuel, how politics is affecting the fight against climate catastrophe, the agricultural controversy surrounding climate change as well as government’s response to climate change.

The Irish-Nigerian model, said it took her about one year to write the book. Just as she revealed why she got involved in pageantry, saying “ Miss Earth beauty pageant has “something in common with my vision and goal in life.”

Garland represented Nigeria at the Miss Earth World Pageant in 2019, and made the top ten of the glamorous pageant.

Vanguard