Modupe Susan Garland was crowned Miss Earth Nigeria 2019 on 3rd August 2018 and represented Nigeria at Miss Earth 2019 on 26th October 2019 at Cove Manila at Okada Manila, Parañaque City, Philippines. She was placed at the Top 10 at the end of the event and was highly appreciated for her strong performance throughout the competition.
Modupe is 22-years-old and is an environmental biology student and model. She advocates for clean quality air by suggesting ideas around the use of alternative resources to fossil fuels. She recently revealed her plans to embark on planting about 1 million trees across six countries in the world. The countries included in Modupe’s project are Nigeria, Philippines, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Rwanda. The projects aim to reduce the adverse effects of climate change on the earth.
Modupe will carry out the planting of 1 million trees across the world through her foundation, ‘Beyond Garland Initiative’ and will start as soon as the pandemic ends. The diva has shared about the project during the press presentation held in Lagos for the launch of her maiden book, ‘The Earth is Important Too: Managing Climate Catastrophe”. Modupe’s book focuses on the effects of climate change on earth and was formally presented to the reading public.
The book which is written under ten chapters covers the effects of the 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 diva is a strong believer in healing earth and preserving what we have left and her book serves as a vehicle for achieving that goal. She turned towards writing in order to share her ideas and ways with the massive audience. “I always wanted to write a book on climate change because I’m very passionate about protecting the environment. Most people in this part of the world think that climate change is a myth. They do not understand that it’s as a result of human activities distorting our ecosystems, thus, bringing harm to us. We ought to try our best to preserve the earth because it is our home and we need to make it conducive for inhabitation,” she said.
The diva took one year to write the book and plan out her project. She also revealed that she participated in Miss Earth Nigeria 2019 because the beauty pageant had something in common with her vision and goal in life. She also expressed her worry about the fact that the people of Africa don’t believe that climate change exists. Africa deals with serious climate issues like flooding, drought, loss of biodiversity leading to infectious diseases. 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.
“With the project, one book sale will equal a tree planted in six vulnerable countries in the world that are not well equipped to manage climate catastrophe. Our aim is to plant one million trees before the end of next year,” she noted.