Students with their ‘Save the Dolphins’ posters.
Students learning about ‘Effective
Micro-organisms Technology’.
The celebration of this very special event at PTIS coincided with the
internationally celebrated “Earth Day”, on Tuesday April 22. Our theme was a
critical one, “Endangered Species, Endangered Spaces”, with a particular
focus on our host country, Thailand, set in the context of conservation
issues that can be highlighted in the South-East Asian region. Students of
all ages shared in the whole school activity, specifically designed to
partner junior and senior school students together, and working in
conjunction with CWI, Care for the Wild International, on the conservation
and protection of rare species of dolphin. The recent plight of the presumed
extinct Yangtze River Dolphin and the similar pressures from human activity
on our own Irrawaddy Dolphin in southern Thailand highlight the need for
action. The current CWI campaign to restrict gill netting in the coastal and
estuarine waters of New Zealand for the purposes of introducing stricter
laws for the critically endangered Maui dolphin was selected as a
partnership project for our students. Whilst the younger students created
drawings, the senior students wrote postcards and letters to the Prime
Minister of New Zealand, the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark. The pictures and written
appeals will be posted to Ms Clark at the very time that the government is
reconsidering fishing and trawling regulations in New Zealand’s waters.
Students also signed up for a wide range of rotational sessions throughout
the day that included such opportunities as writing Haiku poetry, sketching
rare species of orchids, planting additional native flora, competing in a
team “Amazing Earth Race” event, making biodiesel and evaluating its
environmental impact, constructing bird baths from natural and recyclable
materials, as well as completing eight large art murals, each representing a
unique and sensitive ecosystem with some of its endangered inhabitants
depicted. Through this wealth of activity, we hope that the students gain a
better understanding for, and appreciation of, our immediate and extended
precious environments, including the physical features of the land as well
as the flora and fauna that drive each ecosystem.
On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, millions expressed their dismay over
what was happening to the environment around them and their alarm over the
indifference of political leaders to the destruction that was being caused.
That 70s generation of young people, mainly students, who supplied the
energy, enthusiasm, and idealism that forced environmental concerns into the
political arena for the first time, serve as models for the young people of
today across the world. The legacy of their concern and action gives modern
youngsters an amazing opportunity to persuade political establishments
worldwide to initiate a meaningful debate on sustainability. No nation’s
society is currently sustainable over the long-term because all are
consuming capital - their wealth, so to speak, is the air, water, soil,
forests, minerals, rivers, lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats
and bio-diversity. Take these away and all that is left is a wasteland. As
nations pollute, erode and degrade their resource bases, they are spending
“capital”. Obviously, this is not a sustainable situation in the long term;
a sustainable model must be forged for the future. This issue is by far the
greatest challenge for the 21st century, on which millions of lives, and the
planet itself, will depend.
A group of students showing the postcards they
are writing to the New Zealand Premier, Helen Clark, asking her to protect
the dolphins.
Students working together to produce a poster
about endangered species.
