BN Photo Stories: Nigerian Cities – Landscape & Skyline

It is such a beauty to behold the blue sky as the day breaks and its tired mien when the Sun sets in the West. Living in the countryside blesses you with ample time and space to stare at these natural wonders, unlike in many busy cities where the zillions of skyscrapers easily make you forget there is a sky up there.

The sky commonly refers to everything that lies a certain distance above the surface of the Earth, including the atmosphere and the rest of outer space. This is often in reference to the Earth’s surface. In the daylight, it appears to be blue because air scatters blue sunlight more than it scatters red while at night, it appears to be a mostly dark surface or region scattered with stars. During the day, the Sun can be seen in the sky, unless obscured by clouds. In the night sky, and sometimes during the day, the moon, planets and stars are visible in the sky. Some of the natural phenomena observed in the sky are notably clouds and rainbows. As a result of human activities, smog during the day and light radiance during the night are often seen above large cities.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution over a century and a half ago, human activities have continued to impact severally on the environment, especially the sky. Even as man has endeavoured to initiate development, he has done more harm by introducing poisons into the water and air, and an alarmingly large hole in the Earth’s protective covering of atmospheric ozone appears over the Antarctic. Toxic mists envelope our major cities and initially fertile portions of our planet have become deserts, never to be green again in our lifetimes. Still, the abuse continues. The poisons in the air include nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, soot, lead, and ground-level ozone. Ordinarily, wind disperses them. But the wind does not always blow. In London’s winter of 1952, there was a temperature inversion: a cold layer of air settled under a warm layer, slowing the dispersion and allowing pollutants to accumulate close to the ground. The result was the worst air pollution disaster ever recorded. The air was so misty that drivers had to use headlights in the middle of the day. Guides walking on foot, and carrying lanterns, picked out paths for buses. By the time the London “killer fogs” drifted off on the breeze, the venomous air had fatally sickened 4,000 and helped reawaken the world to the hazards of air pollution.

Today, air pollution and climate change control are a major component of the Millennium Development Goal 7 – to ensure environmental stability by the year 2015. While there have been remarkable improvements in the developed world, most developing nations are very far behind in meeting set goals. In this post, we bring you landscape and skyline images from selected Nigerian cities, including Abuja, Enugu, and Lagos. Enjoy!

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________
CREDITS:

Bayo Omoboriowo is a freelance photographer and photo artiste. A double-finalist (Still Life & Lifestyle) at the maiden edition of the Nigeria Photography Awards in July 2011, his works have appeared on BellaNaija.com, YNaija.com, and in Y! Magazine. He loves documentary photography, though he also dabbles into events and portrait.
Twitter: @BayoOmoboriowo | Blog: www.bayoomoboriowo.com | Facebook Page: Bayo Omoboriowo

Jide Odukoya, a graphic designer and (front-end) web designer, decided to build a career in photography barely a year ago after purchasing a Canon 550D with which he had experimented for a while. A Photoshop faithful, he dabbles into several kinds of photography, the top three being documentary, street, and wedding photography, in that order.
Twitter: @jideodukoya | Blog: www.jideodukoya.com/blog | Facebook Page: Jide Odukoya Photography

Gbenga Awomodu is an Editorial Assistant at Bainstone Ltd./BellaNaija.com. When he is not reading or writing, Gbenga is listening to good music or playing the piano. He believes in the inspirational power of words and pictures, which he explores in helping to make the world a better place. He writes from Makurdi, Benue State, where he is presently on the national youth service programme.

Twitter: @gbengaawomodu | Blog: www.gbengaawomodu.com | Facebook Page: Gbenga Awomodu