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about fee the foundation for environmental education fee is an international organisation that has been promoting environmental education for sustainable development since 1981 through formal school education training of staff and awareness raising fee programs involve people of all ages and nationalities they are called blue flag www.blueflag.org eco-schools www.eco-schools.org >young reporters for the environment www.youngreporters.org learning about forests www.leaf-international.org green key www.green-key.org the programs are implemented and administered by national member organisations in 59 countries around the world this year we are excited to present a new look for the yre annual publication this was an international cooperation work between france and slovakia and we would like to thank the yre coordination in slovakia for their involvement in the layout of yre book 2010 celebrating success in 2010 we congratulate all participants in the yre program for their fantastic submissions and efforts to raise awareness about an environmental issue in their community exactly 32 articles and 62 pictures were submitted to the yre international jury which is an increase from last year you can read the full submission at www.youngreporters.org the network is growing bigger with new countries joining the programme and the international jury therefore had a lot more material to review we are glad then to see new countries participating to the jury such as kazakhstan slovakia or germany highlights of the 2010 international jury turkey awarded for the best article about agriculture and gmo s china has been awarded twice for the 1st and 3rd best photos we can also congratulate wales to be awarded twice for the best article in the biodiversity and climate change/energy award every year pupils from different countries are working on projects in both national and english language this is a challenge for many young reporters who are learning english as an additional language and we applaud their efforts consequently when the international jury reviews the final submissions they take other qualities of the project into consideration such as does the project draw from transdisciplinary knowledge does it offer a new perspective does it represent teamwork with over 13,000 students from 28 countries participating in 2010 we believe that more young people are taking an interest in being an actor in the society and learning to make this link between local and global sustainable development issues we encourage all participants to build on this interest to educate in their own community in a positive way through the yre network we can share knowledge and success stories and most importantly inspire each other to go further we would like to thank the french ministry of ecology for its financial support of the international yre program as well as the members of the 2010 jury who represent unesco unep feet of green convention on biological diversity foundation for environmental education fee and feee france and to conclude we would also like to thank all national operators teachers and pupils who after many years keep making the yre program as a great network and great tool for schools we look forward to receiving great projects again this year vincent laurent yre international coordinator about yre the fee program young reporters for the environment yre is operating in 28 countries with more than 13,000 participants the eight themes for investigation are agriculture biodiversity cities climate change coastline energy waste and water students research a local environmental issue that relates to one of those and inform their community through a journalistic piece the goal is to engage the public in solving local environmental problems all the articles and photos submitted by young reporters are available at www.youngreporters.org about yre book the yre book is a collection of the best yre production in the school year 2009/10 it contains international articles photos and short news and illustrates the diversity of yre investigation in participating countries awarded pieces were chosen by the international jury which took place the 25th of may 2009 in paris and included mr bernard combes ­ unesco ms fabienne pierre ­ unep ms morgan strecker ­ unep mr david ainsworth ­ convention on biological diversity mr peter herbert ­ feet of green mr richard hale ­ feet of green mr thierry lerévérend ­ fee france director ms sarah winterton ­ fee representative for yre for more information on the yre programme contact the international coordinator at coordination@youngreporters.org editors note contents of the articles and photography comments are not subjects to corrections by the editors of this volume as to keep authenticity of the youth s work however the extent of articles may be reduced due to publishing limits enjoy 2 3

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portugal preserve today to enjoy tomorrow in march the young reporters for the environment from pico s vocational school participated in the action and campaign clean up portugal in one day invited by the mayor of madalena do pico it was a civic activity which through the voluntary participation of individuals as well as private and public entities claimed to encourage environmental education and to reflect on the garbage waste materials cycle and sustainable growth problem by cleaning the portuguese forest and taking all the garbage away from the green spaces jessica sousa and rosália rodrigues escola profissional do pico latvia water week at rujiena school to attract student s attention to water problems in the world and around us world water week was organized at our school from march 22-26 thus teachers organized study work at the lessons using research work methods group work discussions role plays experiments etc what did we gain and learn for example at the english and german lessons students extended their vocabulary connected with water in a foreign language and drew posters calling others to save water resources at social science they students organized fish carnival what species did they make and as the snow had not melted yet it could be used at chemistry and physics to state the snow density and to study how water melting temperature changes when sodium chloride is added to snow the water topic was also studied in folk songs phraseological expressions latvian folk tales and poetry alna deksne rujiena secondary school slovakia and germany bilateral and co2 free second school year of the program in slovakia has succesfully started with media and environmental workshop for almost 40 participants which hosted also the lectors from greenpeace slovakia with the professional support of slovak syndicate of journalists students received the press cards and started to investigate the causes and solutions of local environmental problems all over the country in cooperation with german young reporters young press berlin and unabhängige institut für umweltfragen they will design their own newspaperworking on through the most modern co2 free way of comunication online zuzana límová national coordinator wales students on bbc our national jury selected three national winners to represent wales and we are delighted that two of the schools also won the international biodiversity and energy categories in july the schools attended a celebration event at the royal welsh agricultural show where the minister for environment sustainability and housing presented the pupils with their certificates and a trophy for the overall welsh winner three newspapers also published articles about the schools and the pupils were also interviewed by the bbc and appeared on tv the classes involved will also be visiting the bbc studios as part of their prize tr vl greece yre training seminar in krestena in december 2009 a three-day training seminar was organized at the environmental education center of krestena in cooperation with the hellenic society for the protection of nature fifty teachers from all around greece that implement with their school teams the yre programme participated in this seminar several subjects were discussed such as journalistic techniques the function of the website of the young reporters for the environment and the educational projects and themes of the yre network christina theodorika-georgia fermeli hellenic society for the protection of nature romania active online in this school year were included on the website www.youngreporters.org a number of 84 projects of which 50 national and 34 international romania being placed 2nd in europe regarding the registration of the 22 counties included in the program stands iasi county which has 23 active projects the themes addressed in the 78 articles and photos recorded on yre site this year were biodiversity climate change water pollution and waste 4 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 ag b registration of articles photos romania districts school year 2009-2010 tineri reporteri pentru mediu bv bz cj cs db dj gr is mh nt ph sv tm yre wales contents about fee about yre about yre book 2 editorial 3 short news 4 5 coordonating teachers sorina victoria grosu corina arghira eco-school no 11 mihai eminescu,pitesti arges district simona folea national coordinator articles competition 6 31 photography competition 32 50 participants 51 5

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it s like a science fiction movie so what is gmos genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering they use high technology to transfer a set of molecules from one organism into another to create a new organism as i said before gmos are used as a solution to hunger however we should ask ourselves are gmos that much innocent it can be dangerous for the environment economy of a country and our health natural effects the world has countless species of plants when you want to grow gmos you need wide plantation for one kind of plant gmos cause cross pollination with traditional organic plants so the organic plant s genes change and it turns into a gmo cross pollination can occur at quite large distances new genes may also be included in the offsprings of the traditional organic crops miles away this makes it difficult to distinguish which crop field is organic and which is not posing a problem to the proper labeling of non-gmo food products so we can kill the world s diversity of natural vegetation with herbicides and insecticides so when we want to cultivate genetically modified foods we need to buy special pesticides along with the genetically engineered seedlings to protect them what s more high technology is used to take the genes from one organism and implant them into another i mean its not as easy as it sounds it s complicated like science fiction films nowadays production of gmos are done by private sectors in the usa and in some developed countries who have patent those countries who want to grow gmos have to pay big amount of money to grow it means that those countries will be dependant on these countries to some extent so new trade and tariff issues may arose between countries health effects thirdly the problems which we mentioned above are just the tip of an iceberg because gmos long term effects on health can be unforseen the risk and benefits of new technologies are only fully known after they have been in use for many years so we need too many years to see its results on health for example when a patient who is cigarettes addicted is afflicted with his lung we can say cigarettes role in his illness after asking the patient how long he has been smoking and how often he smokes because he can tell when he started smoking and how often he smokes but it s not same with gmos as people can not say when they eat genetically modified food and how often they eat in a year the new genes that are put in food are resistant to certain antibiotics if we eat them our body become immune to antibiotics in case of an illness the antibiotic which we need to use in order to recover may not make use of our illness allergies may become more intense and also new allergy types may develop for instance we are allergic to fish but although we like strawberry we suffer from allergy when we eat it how can we know that its because of a strawberry which has fish genes in it if it s not said we can t understand this as for gmos place in the world and in turkey this technology known as recombinant dna technology was planed to used in medicines and vaccinations first but the fields related to health are monitored strictly as an alternative they have found a field which is again related to health but not monitored seriously `food today in 25 countries gmos are 54,6 of these is in the usa 8,1 of these is in argentina 11,5 of these is in brasil 3,8 is in india 3,5 of these is in china and the population increases steadily hunger will not be the only problem there will also shortage in energy and clean water resources as one of the chinese proverbs says if you want to feed a man one day give him a fish but if you want to feed him for a life long teach him how to fish gmos are only temporary solution because turkey is a really lucky country in terms of diversity of its natural vegetation so we should learn how to keep maintain and use our natural sources as we know that the most common gmos are corn and soyabean because they have wide area of usage they are used in chocolates and in most of the things which we buy from supermarkets it s illegal to grow gmos in turkey but the foods which are imported to turkey are not monitored strictly economic effects secondly they also have economic effects the nature can renew itself i mean if a farmer wants to grow a watermelon he doesn t need to buy new seedlings every year he can use its seed again next year on the other hand gmos can not renew themselves as they have terminating genes so the farmer has to pay for the new seedlings every year because they can not use the seedlings two times genetically modified foods are also sold 8 if turkish public don t want to import and eat gmos the government should make some regulations in health department he should keep monitoring serious and strict and also we consumers need to eat the vegetables in season because they are fresh and organic in season briefly while the experts can not say definite things about gmos long term effects on our body how it happens that we can support them to us it s risky anyway life is too good to die early we wish everybody organic and healthy life izmir saint joseph french high school turkey what should be done to prevent it alhough gmos are said to be advantages its ill-effects can not be ignored at first it was introduced as a solution to hunger but today insufficiency of food product is not the main problem imbalanced food distribution is the main problem if the community keeps using up all the sources 9

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pembrey country park can conservation and tourism co-exist the inspiration for our report was public reaction to plans for a student music festival at pembrey country park in june 2010 we decided to investigate if tourism and leisure can be developed without harming the natural environment apart from doing desk-based research the team interviewed some expert witnesses gavin hall the senior ranger isobel macho an engineer working on the carmarthenshire shoreline management plan and ian forshew and ben davies directors of 2 businesses involved in the tourism development the park and its history pembrey country park is a nature reserve with 8 miles of beach edged with sand dunes it is situated in carmarthenshire on the west coast of wales it is important that the park is managed so there is a balance between conservation and leisure it already has a dry ski-slope golf course restaurants and an adventure playground a new woodland attraction called go ape is due to open on march 26th 2010 pembrey is one of the most popular visitor attractions in wales because it s a beautiful environment with lots of variety historically the land was used for a munitions factory 1880s ­ 1965 an raf base and grazing land in the 1970s the park was bought by the local council from the ministry of defence and decontaminated it opened as pembrey country park in the 1980s the park and its ecology pembrey is home to many rare plants found nowhere else in wales it has many species of birds such as the goshawk kingfisher crossbills warblers and sparrowhawks there are 31 species of butterfly including the grizzled skipper which has only 3 colonies in wales habitats here are among the most important in europe gavin hall senior ranger told us that the beach called cefn sidan is a site of special scientific interest because it attracts huge numbers of wading birds it is nationally important for oyster-catchers and internationally important for sanderlings these birds are not affected by tourism and leisure because they arrive in winter for feeding the dune system is also an sssi the main threat is sea buckthorn which was introduced to the park in the 1930s to stabilise the dunes and protect saplings for a pine forest plantation it grows so fast it crowds out smaller native plants and also changes soil chemistry by fixing nitrogen the rangers are clearing buckthorn by cutting it back and letting cattle graze on it to avoid chemical controls other human influences have come from beach cleaning by machines which gained the blue flag awards but swept up seaweed which was a nutrient and helped to trap sand to start new dunes the rangers now hand-pick the litter the edge of the forest along the beach is dying off because of weevil infestation and salt damage but the dying trees attract beetles and woodpeckers who feed on them a few years ago the council were worried about motor-bike scramblers on the beach so they fenced off the dunes but they noticed that rare flowers like sand catchfly seeded in the tracks this showed us that tourism need not do damage to the environment and sometimes conservation strategies and cleaning up have been more harmful in some cases adding facilities for visitors has been very good such as making the wooden paths over the dunes to encourage visitors not to ramble over the dunes isobel macho of carmarthenshire county council told us that the whole dune system is eroding naturally because of rising sea levels and increased storms there is a strategy to protect the coastal defences but a managed retreat is the most viable option leisure and tourism development tourism is important locally and globally it brings about £300 million into carmarthenshire and creates about 5500 jobs directly most of these are in small service businesses offering accommodation and catering but also transport and recreation it is very important to replace the jobs lost from industry we asked 2 businesses how they try to cut down environmental damage ben davies a director of the new go ape in the park told us that they put their new attraction away from habitats e.g nesting woodpeckers and take care to protect the trees the company have built bat boxes in the old war-time bunkers they encourage visitors not to use bottled water by having lots of taps ian forshew from the company running beach break live the music festival said that they are limiting the stages camp site and food areas to grass areas and fencing off the dunes and woods they have plans for 24-hour litter picking and noise control they are reducing the carbon footprint of events by buying food and drinks from local suppliers and encouraging visitors to use buses and carsharing like go ape he recognises that events won t be allowed if they damage the environment there is no choice gavin hall gave us a clear message that conservation must live alongside tourism and leisure the local economy needs money and jobs if visitors don t come to the country park there will be very little money for conservation and the park won t be able to cover its costs without an increase in visitor numbers the park is at risk of being sold off to a private owner this could mean more development and less access for local people as long as the leisure side is managed properly there is no reason for big risks to the environment glan-y-môr school wales 10 11

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where are the wild vegetables scattered over the hills every weekend dad mom and i would like to climb wushan mountain located in the southwest of west lake in this blooming season of spring green trees send out new shoots and peach blossoms and cherry blossoms are competing in splendor and everywhere it gives forth breath of spring i see thick plants growing on wushan mountain everywhere their leaves are as wide and big as my little hand and it seems to be much more sturdy than many other wild flowers and weeds i lean over to smell its odor seems a little strange dad says that they are invasive plants called ageratum conyzoides the whole hillside is covered with ageratum conyzoides and another kind of unknown weed with purple flowers there are also bidens frondosa and setaria palmifolia which are foreign invaders too mom tells me that long ago when spring was coming wushan mountain was all covered with kalimeris indica shepherd s purse and other wild vegetables as well as dandelion flowers which are indigenous residents of hangzhou but now they have been squeezed out by these alien plants information shows that there are more than 60 kinds of alien invasive plants in hangzhou the most notorious ones among them are ragweed water hyacinth solidago canadensis phytolacca amercana etc many of these alien plants come across oceans from america southeast asia to hangzhou each of them lords it over an area and severely occupies homes of local plants and some of them even bring harm to human health an example of these is water hyacinth its ageratum conyzoides of wushan mountain gradual disappearance of natural microflora and microfauna have you ever wondered the great vital importance of the edge that green strip of land which is daily threatened of course the cause of this disaster is modern man and modern methods of farming now unlike the past the ways used to exploit and cultivate the land have become more violent and demanding towards the nature as a result of these human behaviors there is a constant and everyday risk of a forthcoming extinction for a large part of the microflora and microfauna the same time that some other living organisms have already extinct without us knowing this is a phenomenon that occurs more often in the cultivated land on the edges and the dry walls these crops constitute housing for various species of microfauna as earthworms silkworms and insects such as grasshoppers apart from the microfauna there also grows a wide variety of wild plants to continue surely you have noticed the existence of living organisms such as butterflies snails and spiders on the green strip of land separating the crop from the idle land according to the scientists this strip of life is the edge also right after the edges and the uncultivated land there is a part of land with trees called dry wall usually there are many reptile animals like snakes and lizards however modern farmers think of these microorganisms as a threat and most times use extreme ways for their expulsion underlying cause of this misbehavior is the need of the farmers to keep up with the pace including agroeconomy due to that and because of the overpopulation and consumerism farmers need to produce more and more agricultural products in order to cover the excessive demands for consuming to cope with this farmers tend to use enormous quantities of pesticides and herbicides which cause irreparable harm to the microflora and microfauna also although man is an integral part of the environment he ceases to respect it and becomes increasingly aggressive towards nature instead of utilizing the environment up to its own limits he utilizes it up to his in addition we need to note that the explosion of enormous amounts of waste to nature is responsible for the contamination of some organisms which are workers of the ecosystem furthermore we could also say that the negligence and ignorance of people often lead to phenomena such as conflagrations resulting to the loss of large forest areas and the living organisms within them an indirect influence on the problem is also the acid rain which is caused by the contamination of air and when it reaches the earth has devastating effects naturally all the above have negative impacts to the environment and the man himself who becomes a victim of his own actions however there is still the time to react it would be useful if every government could adopt laws to ban the use of toxic substances and to impose the upgrading of the farm equipment such as the use of special filters in factories and agricultural machinery another way to solve this problem is the strictly controlled subsidy of economic fund to the farmers as a way to encourage and help them use traditional organic farming methods of great help could also be the organization of educational programs and the promoting of various environmental organizations as we have mentioned the green world is being destroyed and responsible for that is the man himself maybe if we could view differently concepts like the edge and the dry stone which are full of life we will understand that the nature can coexist even under adverse conditions maybe the edge and the dry stone is the nature s answer to modern man who intervenes in it and strives to extinguish it the same time when nature falls back this is a response reaction to the rape nature is being subjected to so that the edge stops meaning the nature of the margin the edge is just a sign for the rebirth of nature what are you going to do about it maria makripodi sofia mirthianou anna dai gianna mathioudaki giorgia metaxaki maria papadaki lyceum of perama rethymno crete greece 13 t ageratum conyzoides of sanjiang estuary jiande hometown is in brazil with a scientific name of eichhomia crassipes the species of water hyacinth grow up floating in water with very quick reproduction and often cover the entire surface of the water so that other aquatic plants can not conduct photosynthesis and aquatic animals can not get sufficient oxygen and food which may cause death in this way the ecological balance is damaged and the aquatic ecological system will deteriorate quickly in addition water hyacinth can also block waterways and affect the security of flood and shipping last summer i participated in a scientific investigation organized by hangzhou children s academy of sciences in sanjiang estuary of qiantang river i took a picture of water hyacinth that has almost covered the whole surface of the river which was really shocking another intruder solidago canadensis was introduced as ornamental plants and now when fall is near it can be seen everywhere in fields and behind houses which creates a spectacular view local plants collapse without a fight and more than 30 kinds of local native plant species have already been eliminated by it now with more frequent global exchanges the opportunities for invasion of alien species have also increased instead of spending a lot of manpower and material resources to eliminate them so why not take preventive measures early liu jian-kuan hangzhou shidai primary school china 12

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the bees are scratching their heads the first time we heard about the imgiebah beehives we all thought that it was something interesting although none of us knew exactly what they were on this field trip to this beautiful valley of imgiebah besides learning a lot about biodiversity we also had a glimpse of our past as these stone beehives certainly caught our eye our imagination started to run wild and we wanted to delve more and discover the origin and the function of these beehives researching about the beehives led us to explore the work of bees throughout the ages and how present day conditions are threatening bees worldwide the stone beehives in this picturesque valley in the limits of mellieha village are quite a rare site as these beehives are entirely built out of stone the area for building these beehives was chosen with care so that it is sheltered from the wind and excessive sunshine they were always built facing south so that the light of the rising sun will encourage the bees to go out early to collect the nectar the chosen area was usually a cave or a cavity in a rock and a stone wall with holes in it was built on the outside of this cave the holes were dug in rows on top of each other rectangular on the outside and narrowing further as they get deeper into the wall a small shelf was built inside underneath the apertures so that the bees could rest when they arrive laden with nectar and before they start on a new journey big pottery jars were placed inside this cave so that the bees work in this honey factory the name of the place where these beehives are built is imgiebah derived from the word migbha which means beehive the major role of bees in an ecosystem is as pollinator of flowering plants their main job is to continue the reproduction and survival of plants and other organisms in the food chain if honey bees are gone nearly all food items eaten by birds animals and humans will be affected every plant or tree that has a blossom needs to be pollinated before it bears fruit for example a single flower on the cucumber vine needs about thirty visits from a honey bee 14 before that flower will turn into a cucumber in malta bees that produce honey feed mostly on wild thyme that grows on garigue plained how he rears his bees and how the harvesting of honey is a yearly event he looks forward to his concluding statement was my bees collect their nectar mostly from carob trees and i include this information on the label of honey jars i produce many customers specifically look out for honey that is produced from the nectar bees collect from the carob tree we are not going to rest on our laurels in fact we have written to the local council of mellieha to take concrete action and save these beehives and the bees that live in the area one of the suggestions is to include these hives as part of a heritage trail where people of all ages can have a window on our past enjoy these unique structures and also discover the art of honey making through the ages kristina catania elena gauci david pace san anton school imsellie malta however it is not all a bed of roses for bees the primary threat to the world s biodiversity is loss of habitat as this alters or completely destroys the conditions needed for plants and animals to survive habitat destruction comes in different forms deforestation is of a major concern and land converted to agriculture is another factor which alters the habitat for these organisms urban development which leads to different forms of pollution ranging from greenhouse gases to the generation of toxic waste makes the bees scratch their head with worry global warming is the buzz word that is affecting our buzzing friends due to global warming there has been an increase in pathogens viruses and fungi that have a damaging effect on bees the changes in temperatures also affect bee population as the seasons are becoming more inconsistent this affects the landscape of the honey bee s territory changing the bee s usual life patterns it is not all dark clouds because there are people who care about bees as if they were a part of their extended family we interviewed a present day beekeeper mr frankie borg who uses modern wooden structures for his bees in the vicinity of the stone beehives this hobby was passed on through generations and he remembers his uncle using clay pots which he sometimes kept in the old beehives frankie ex pine trees or magnolias planted seventy years ago today they live only in the memories of tivat s inhabitants that used to walk along that side of the street during the hot summer days high as the sky with the thick needles they created shade full of pine and sea scent proud green pine trees and than one day someone decided to remove the old market place and in the large plot build the gray stone building ­ the shopping centre because it is the best for all inhabitants and the tourist in our small coastal town the pine trees witnessed all the building works tons of steel and rock were piled in the geometric shapes of building blocks apartments business areas one wall made of blue glass the whole building wrapped in gray marble the square skewed a bit to the left a bit to the right and when it all ended when it seemed that the thick green trees will still make shade and protect the tired visitors of the shopping centre they cut down the pine trees the gray home as inhabitants call the new building was basking in the sun while the resin was dropping from the thick tree the last remains of the pine trees are covered by sand stumps and than the machines removed the last remains of the proud green pine trees the magnolias will be planted instead they say tivat is the town of magnolias so there should be more of them the spring arrived sun is already shining the bare street keeps the memory of its green friends and waits until magnolias grow up kristina lazarevic secondary school mladost tivat montenegro 15

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the monster of naqbi water spring when taking the bus no 3 in fez and when leaving the bus at the last station at the region of naqbi water spring you will be surprised to see a dark and black smoke covering the sky such pollution is from the industrial units producing pottery articles according to the declaration of an officer of the office of the handicraft industrial association there are 64 industrial units in fez naqbi water spring under the mercy of the pottery manufacturing units each industrial unit is using between 2 to 5 conventional furnaces to produce pottery articles in temperatures attaining 1400 centigrade such furnaces are using woods olive dregs used tires painting and industrial wastes during the burning process black and toxic smokes are covering the region of naqbi water spring spread by the winds polluting the environment the region of naqbi is always bombarded with the pollution caused by the pottery furnaces also noticed that young people aged between 15 and 35 years old suffer from asthma and pulmonary infections children also suffer from breathing difficulties people working in these furnaces and pottery manufacturing units are all most suffering from breathing difficulties allergy and skin burnings to the expensive cost of electricity and lack of sufficient production both in quality and quantity using electric and gas furnaces to reduce pollution is very difficult as the cost price of gas and electricity is very expensive and that most of the manufacturing units are small entities and that large part of them have no official existence the electric furnaces prices vary from mad 180 000 for the furnaces made in turkey to mad 300 000 for those made in italy the secretary general of the district of jnane el ward added that pottery manufacturing units are the main polluters in this region the local authorities have decided move and transfer the pottery manufacturing units to ben jlik in the region of sidi harazem what the owners refuse as the new region is very far and tourist will no longer visit their workshops and buy their products in addition to the fact that they have not sufficient money to rebuild their units and restart their activities waiting for the hope to come while the owners of the manufacturing units refuse to adopt furnaces causing less pollution and the populations are still complaining will the competent authorities enforce the decision taken to transfer the pottery manufacturing units outside the city or let the situation going from worse to worst soumya chakir saida hmichou anas seddiki omar dehmane mohamed yakoubi abdellah chefchaouni senior high school delegation of fez regional academie of fez-boulmane turkey the citadel the bad effects of the pottery furnaces on health we are bored with this smoke and pollution our clothes are no longer clean our children always ill what a life is this these words are those of an old woman aged 60 years living near the pottery industrial units to have more and accurate information the young reporters of abdellah chefchaouni senior high school paid a visit to the chief doctor of the local hospital who said the smoke is very dangerous for the health of the peoples nearby we discover 80 cases of tuberculosis every month caused by the pollution of the region and bad airing of the houses we have 16 unsuccessful alternatives according to the declaration of the secretary general of the district of jnane el ward as the complains of the inhabitants grow the local authorities proposed to change the traditional furnaces with those using gas but the owners of the pottery manufacturing units did not accept the proposal because of the expensive cost price of the modern furnaces using gas compared to those using woods olive dregs used tires painting and industrial wastes as we were unable to meet the president of the industrial unit art-naji who is holding at the same time the position of chairman of the industrial chamber of fez one of the employees of the said the industria unit informed us that art-naji concluded an agreement with the italian company fi-cola for the use of electric furnaces but the new experience failed due it is situated at the edge of the sea connecting the south and east sector of the fortification since the venetian period it served for the protection of the city saturated with blood and hate it stood proudly throughout the time to protect against all that came and will come but at the end its broken peaces were spread trough the depths of the sea it is believed that the citadel was build during the ottoman empire but it was reconstructed after the venetian time it was demolished in an earthquake in 17th century as well as during the battles between venetians and ottomans after they took over the city the venetians reconstructed citadel and enlarged it several decades later after the second catastrophic earthquake in 1979 the former jewel of the city turned into the ruins the citadel protected us from the enemies before but after numerous years of neglect today we are enemies to the citadel within its walls the citadel kept heroes and warriors before today it only keeps garbage and empty bottles due to our neglect the citadel became our enemy and now its walls are threatening to fall down on the promenade along the sea the initiative for the reconstruction of the citadel started during the 80s when the insitute for urbanism from herceg novi prepared the draft programme for the reconstruction of citadel and old town however this program was never carried out today this subject is rarely mentioned as it seems like no one cares any more why do we turn our backs to our friends aren t we aware that we are hurting ourselves as well all i can do for my friend is to be its friend maybe it is not late to turn around and help our friend who stood there for centuries and scarified for our city maybe it is finally time to start doing something nice in return and just as the famous sophocles said life is meaningless without a friend we should do something now while it is not too late masa laban and ana krivokapic gymnasium ivan goran kovacic herceg novi montenegro 17

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wind coal of the future wind turbines are modern adaption of the classically renowned wind mills used for centuries in holland to produce bread to sustain the nation this has now been reformed to apply to the current situation with countries trying to partly sustain its energy resources using wind energy wind farms are currently used across wales as an alternate energy source to reduce the use of fossil fuel which not only helps the environment but as fossil fuel reserves are running scarce and dramatically increasing in price now is the time for wind power to come of age the sooner we realise this the sooner we can develop the idea into a fully functioning efficient way of generating the nation s power in our area tonyrefail and the surrounding villages we have twenty turbines at the site in taff ely these wind turbines produce energy for four thousand five hundred homes the site is approximately a mile from our school although we cannot hear the turbines they are clearly visible pupils have visited the wind turbines and agree that even when standing directly beneath the turbines the sound is almost nonexistent and should not produce an audible problem to even the closest houses we asked people to state their opinions on the matter of wind farms and we received mixed responses the responses included they are a landmark to our local area it s nice to see that we are playing a part in contributing to our nations renewable energy supply and providing renewable energy is important and i am glad they are there these pupils all gave relatively positive responses however when we questioned older members of the school and local community we received very much different views a local member of the environment group miss gail evans used to be an active supporter of the wind farms she says that if the wind farms were directly helping the local people she would still support the initiative but she feels that the local area has been taken advantage of she quotes coal mining once scarred our local community and now the inefficient and unsightly wind farms do the same 18 science of wind farms wales is a windy country and many of the hills and the mountains are severely exposed to strong winds from the southwest this makes it an ideal country for the production of energy through wind turbines because at least 40 of all wind in europe flows over the u.k considering that we are a small region of europe that is an extremely large amount of wind that could be used as a beneficiary method of producing energy another advantage is that wind energy is green energy and does not produce any harmful gases such as carbon dioxide carbon monoxide or any other pollutants it is also renewable which means that it can be used repeatedly without any damage to the environment however a disadvantage is that it can only be used in wind exposed locations although this is not a problem for wales itself for some countries it is simply not viable for the mass use of wind farms to generate electricity wales has a very long coast line and the westerly winds make it an excellent place to develop wind energy wales could be the spearhead in developing the use of renewable energy wales is a relatively small country so we don t need a great deal of energy therefore is should not be that much difficulty in generating the vast majority of our energy from renewable resources as we have a very large coastline we could harvest this quality and use it to generate energy from sources such as tidal power and hydroelectric power alongside wind energy this benefits wales not only economically and environmentally but we could also use this to raise awareness about renewable energy and how with further development it can work by doing this it would challenge other countries to keep up with the small countries who are trying to make a difference and then consequently by more green energy being produced the whole world can benefit another significant advantage is that after the initial costs of constructing the wind turbines the fuel to power the turbines is completely free as it is in the natural form of wind which is everywhere this shows that no matter how small a contribution if we all do our environmental responsibility it all adds up and it could make a difference to quote an environmentalist named phoebe no one can do everything but everybody can do something facts and figures wind turbines generate electricity by large blades that move in the wind which turns a gear mechanism which is attached to a generator the generator then makes the energy which is sent to the national grid although larger turbines are more efficient they also have a much more significant visual impact a single 1mw turbine operating at a 45 production rate would generate about 3.9 million kw of electricity per year this would be enough to meet the average needs of about five hundred households a year traditional sources of energy such as coal have been used up and the search and development of new cleaner sources of energy has brought investors flocking to windy wales future plans and opinions there is now a proposal to build a further eleven wind turbines at fford y nest and pant y wal these wind turbines if they are built will engulf the countryside surrounding gilfach goch residents are very concerned about both the visual and audible impact on the environment wildlife and the resulting effect it will have on their community this is an extremely important issue that is dividing the country although wind power seems an excellent environmentally friendly method of generating energy for our future you also have to consider the damaging impact is has on the communities and the wildlife of wales to quote bob dylan the answer is blowing in the wind jason elward and nathan ivey wales solar systems earth s shield to climate change case study solar heating systems a local research mutation of the earth s axis sun spots activity cosmic radiation changes in the interior of the earth and human activity are according to scientists the main factors of climate changes the only way to minimize the expansion of this phenomenon is to diminish the use of polluting energy resources like fossils this means that we have to use alternative sources of energy like wind energy solar energy wave energy geothermic etc to fill the energy gap by not using fossils in greece and especially in our region kyparissia the sunny days are more than 280 days per year so solar energy seems to be the most appropriate renewable energy source we can use therefore we discussed the issue of solar systems with the other members of the environmental comenius project eco 19

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intelligence in action the program we are currently running in our school and we wondered how much and how efficiently we actually use solar energy systems our research from discussions we made with our parents and citizens of kyparissia we noticed that even though the use of solar heater is frequent its maintenance is not that frequent in order to see whether such a supposition is true we designed a questionnaire to examine · how well we know our solar heatersh · how well we maintain the whole system of the sh and · ways to motivate the citizens of kyparissia to maintain their sh in order to increase the systems efficiency especially during winter when sunshine days are fewer and the sun is low we used a questionnaire and collected data from december 2009 to january 2010 the sample of our research consisted of 96 citizens of kyparissia they represented almost 400 inhabitants since the average number of the members in each family is 3,7 as we can see the graph histogram:frequency of number of members in a family 40 histogram 40 frequency the solar heater sh is an energetic solar system that warms water using solar radiation 50 of them are parents of students participating in our environmental program testing the variables of the questionnaire for normality using spss software we found that almost all of them were following quite well the normal distribution analyzing the data we found that 77 of the families have installed a sh in order to estimate how good was their choice to install the proper type of sh we created the variable prch including in it the data we had about the type of the solar heateropenedclosed type its capability to work simultaneously with electric power and the central heating system of the house and the position of the water tank we found that the mean value of the prch variable was only 7,32 out of 10 as reason for this result we considered to be the higher cost of the best sh type closed type triple action functionality vertical position of the boiler in relation with the open type sh such a result indicates not only the lack in knowledge but also predicts the probability of a similar behavior in the maintenance of their sh our prediction was verified when we analyzed the data for the maintaingrouped variable as we can see both from the graph and the mean of the variable mean=3,99 their performance was very low to support the claim of the good preservation of their sh almost 30 of them declared that they had never cleaned the collectors of the sh summing up all the data we had we crea histogram 40 30 20 10 0 mean =3,99 std dev =1,799 n =73 0,00 2,00 maintaingrouped 4,00 6,00 8,00 10,00 30 20 histogram 15 10 2,00 4,00 prch 6,00 8,00 10,00 to investigate how well citizens know their sh and how well they maintain it we grouped the questions of the questionnaire creating two variables the knowledgegrouped and the maintaingrouped we found that the mean value of the knowledgegrouped variable was pretty low since it was just above 5/10 in many subjects related to their knowledge about their sh like whether the sh is equipped with anodium mg the mean of the corresponding variable was only 2,3 table 1 the use of anodium n valid missing 71 25 ,23 ,00 0 ,421 ,177 frequency 0 mean =7,32 std dev =1,518 n =74 10 5 created a variable ecograde representing the total so called ecological behavior of our sample in relation to the best possible efficiency of the sh the mean value of ecograde is 5,5/10 evaluating this behavior of the sample we can say that although almost 80 of them have chosen to use the sh only half of them know their sh well enough or maintain it properly conclusions renewable energy sources are proposed by scientists to be the solution to reverse the effects of the climate changes phenomenon this solution can work only if renewable energy systems work efficiently enough to produce the maximum amount of energy our experience from the use of solar heaters in kyparissia region shows that this is not the real case although we use renewable energy systems we do not maintain them well enough thus their efficiency is below their maximum capacity and we do not gain the benefits we could · in the financial domain we spend more electricity than we need to warm the water · in increasing the life of our sh system bad maintenance of our system leads to its destruction and · in restricting the co2 emissions to the atmosphere of course we need to further inform the citizens of kyparissia so that they will change the way they use and maintain their sh and therefore raise their ecological behavior to a higher level arida dioni antonopoulou paraskevi varelas peter georgiadi eleni dionysopoulou athanasia drimis giannis geniko lykeio of kyparissia greece frequency 0 mean =5,51 std dev =1,506 n =70 2,00 4,00 ecograde 6,00 8,00 saving energy from the kitchen the girl who we discussed today named xiao guo and she was in grade 2 in a high school the same as me she studied and made a kind of heat pump whose source was the low class heat energy of the smoke ventilated from exhaust hood in the kitchen in 3 years and she applied and obtained the patent in such a field when we talked about her research we must take care more about her studying experience first she found that very much 30 20 10 0 mean =3,71 std dev =1,094 n =86 0 2 familynr 4 6 8 mean median mode std deviation variance hot water was needed for showering or washing every day and the air conditioner heated the air around its machine outdoors in summer so she wanted to invent a kind of new instrument which can produce hot water and realize air conditioning at the same time she knew the instrument called heat pump after she learned the relative acknowledge about heat pump in the middle school and she excited for her creative idea but soon she disappointed after sev21 20 frequency

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eral months market investigating and surveying she found the heat pump with source from air had been sold and it was not a kind of new technology at all facing to fail idea she also obtained more knowledge about heat pump which was the performance of the heat pump was relative with the air temperature outdoors that meant the performance of the heat pump was very low in winter for low air temperature so she thought to seek a kind of high temperature source to solve the low performance question of the heat pump she excited again when she saw the smoke or steam exhausted from the hood in the kitchen managed by her father in a fire department and she realized they could be used as the heat source of the heat pump she told me that in a dining hall that very much hot water was needed for washing vegetable dishes hands or anything else and it was heated by electric that meant it needed very much electric energy every day the exhausting smoke or steam of the kitchen was a kind of very good source the source of the popular heat pump heater was air outdoors she pointed the instrument that made by herself and said i made the evaporator according to the shape and size of the exhausting hood and i put the u-shaped copper coils behind the ventilating grill in the hood that means the evaporator and the exhausting hood were integrated together after the evaporator compressor condenser and expansion valve were installed i test the leakage of the system with n2 and soap bubbles which means no gas could be leaked form the system after all safety is the first we should take care i interested about her invent principle and function i realized that the air temper22 ature in the kitchen was higher than that of the outdoors and the gas temperature flowed from the hood was higher than that of the air in the kitchen whatever experiment or theory a conclusion has been drawn that higher evaporating temperature lead to higher performance so higher performance could be obtained in her system the results of her experiments performance were 6.22,6.08 6.64 and 6.49 when noodles vegetable rice or meatballs were treated respectively otherwise the performance of the popular heat pump heater was about 2 in the same conditions of course the instrument xiao guo made was a kind of high efficiency heater when she saw i didn t understand the concept cop well she explained cop equals 6 means 1kwh electric energy can take 5 kwh electric energy from low class source and we can obtain 6times of energy compared with the electric heater the heat pump heater she invented could use the exhausting energy to improve the evaporating temperature of the heat pump so the cop was improved ,meanwhile it could reduce the degree of air pollution leading by the exhausted smoke or steam from the kitchen when the interviewing was over she told me full of confidence we could contribute to saving energy and the patent isn t far away from our high school student and my new target of next step is promotion and applying my technology i adore and praise you i can t help expressing my blessing and envying yes we high school students can also do something to realize low carbon life and that is the pride and acknowledgement of our high school students yu qingxi guo tianjin xinhua high school tianjin china from windmill to wind turbines coming with the wind a glance at the services of wind to mankind and the environment in the area where we live wind energy according to greek mythology aeolus was the god of wind and so governed it as he wished picture 1 he kept the winds imprisoned in sacks and only freed them at the command of zeus european windmill picture 2 european windmill aeolus the god of wind picture 1 aeolus the god of wind windmill in asia mesopotamia and china the use of windmill began from the 700 b.c and has continued up to the present in greece the first windmill was drawn by herona during the 1st century picture 4 parts parts of the windmill of the windmill the water-pumping windmill was a metallic construction with two to four blades nowadays approximately 1000 metallic windmills function in crete in the lasithi area going through history we can see not only cultures and civilizations but also great winds crossing over naxos the biggest island of the cyclades there are records stating that windmills exist on the island since the 13th century and were brought there by the venetians during the venetian invasion on greece up to the 15th century around 80 windmills existed in the hills and mountains of naxos today 23 metallic windmill3 metallic windmill picture

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the few remaining or reconstructed windmills seem to be lofty witnesses of the past and great monumental artifacts of our cultural heredity traditional reconstructed windmill in apiranthos naxos wind turbine the wind turbine generator is a modern system used for harnessing the wind power which changes the energy of wind into electric energy it functions individually or in groups composing wind farms picture 5 traditional reconstructed windmill in apiranthos naxos picture 6 wind farm in the sea thoughts and conclusions following the traces from the windmill to the wind turbine we can say that wind energy a is revealed and provided freely by nature b is friendly to the environment c has served man kind since the antiquity furthermore the appliances of use and exploitation of this energy a are controlled and do not include dangers b don t harm mankind or any other living organism according to research the birds that is said are harmed by turbines actually familiarize with them learning eventually to avoid them c have no effect on the agricultural and stock-raising activities d create certain aesthetic problems in the natural landscape which are not as intense as the effect that regular agricultural activities or excavations have on the environment besides the advantages that were reported above concerning the harnessing of wind energy sometimes we can see some unpleasant connotations under the pretext i protect the environment certain people take advantage of the situation and gain a lot of money against the common good to avoid this the government has to be very careful in following all the demanding legal procedure of studies and area validations that are necessary for the construction of wind farms we come to the conclusion that wind energy has brought us a wind of change in the energy and environmental issue at the same time creating the conditions for economic growth of regions with high wind potential as well as the guarantee of a viable future for us the younger manolis karabinis andrianna pittara giannis protonotarios 2nd high school of naxos greece we are not indifferent to nature annotation young reporters for environment and students from gymnasium of m m hodza in liptovsky mikulas mapped the different waste which could be found near dam liptovska mara it was on april 12 2010 and students wanted to get the litter away and eliminate the illegal dumps the key words liptovska mara pollution prosiecka cove removing rubbish originators of pollution laboratory research the future plans liptovska mara and its maintanance we have studied the pollution of liptovska mara banks and thus we have helped to improve the situation liptovska mara is an artificial reservoir in central liptov region it is named after one of the flooded villages it was completed in 1975 and it burried more than 10 villages the total working area the dam s surface is about 2 160 ha at present liptovska mara dam is of primer importance for the region because of the river vah regulation production of electric energy fishing and mainly tourism about 26 000 people visit liptovska mara every year and they contribute to its pollution fishing farmer mr tibor ilavsky said that more than 1000 sacks of waste are collected every year people s awareness towards the environment has improved dramatically in comparison with the past few years the positive message is that the owners of boarding houses nearby care for cleanness of the banks our help to nature slovak fishing association has helped to organize the school event in prosiecka cove this event was aimed at removing waste seven reporters for environment seventeen volunteers and the local television liptov participated in this event we collected 120 sacks of waste within three hours these sacks were taken to the dump in partizanska lupca the content of the illegal dumps was separated for paper glass plastic and other rubbish apart from municipal waste that villagers take to the dump they also take building material mostly glass and plastic bottles toiletry items food leftovers camping chairs inflatable boat baby car seats and couches there are seven young reporters for environment and seventeen volunteers in the photo the whole group are situated in prosiecka cove there are sacks of rubbish from banks in front of us the amount of sacks signalize the enormous pollution of banks how can we solve this problem the originators of this pollution are tourists inhabitants of near villages and accidental passersby the problems coming out from tourism should by solved by businessmen and institutions profiting from tourism one of possible solution could be setting up the fund which would finance events focused on cleaning of neglected areas local self-governments are to sort out pollution caused by villagers a possible solution for the future is a large capacity container the country itself is responsible for waste which is thrown by accidental passersby and it should equip rest areas with litter bins analysis of the soil and water in prosiecka cove we took the soil sample which is constantly flooded throughout the year we have found outthat ph values range from 6.5 to 7.0 which means that the soil is mildly sour the soil humidity reaches 11 5 and the value reveals that soil is relatively heavy the content of nitrites and nitrates is 1mg/l no 2 phosphates and ammonium cations were not found in the soil these results are better than results measured from school yard s samples see the 25 koronos aesthetic problems in the natural landscape wind park verses gravel pit the past meets the present ­ wind farm in koronos naxos next to a traditional windmill 24 picture 12 the past meets the present ­ wind farm in koronos naxos next to a traditional windmill

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graph 1 these conclusions were caused by the fact that the soil was gained from the area which is not damaged self-cleaning abilities of water and rainy weather also had positive effects the analysis would not come off so well if the samples were taken in summer months graph 2 analysis of the water future visions we plan to continue in these activities intensively we want to continue removing illegal dumps with the help of more students we will not finish with the research of the soil and water and we will work upon it throughout the year since the public is not sufficiently informed we will familiarize them with the pollution of liptovska mara dam via the public presentation and giving out informative leaflets antónia hollá veronika kasáková nikola pazitná gymnasium of m m hodza liptovský mikulás slovakia graph 1 analysis of the soil we compared the water from liptovska mara dam with the water from our school yard where is a small lake and a well it was surprising that the water from small lake was the worst it was alkaline ph 8,0 and it contained the most ammonium cations the water from liptovska mara was medium hard the water from dam and the small lake contained phosphates these agents are dangerous because they are products of washing powder and they are localized in waste water only the water from well contained nitrites but nitrates were localized in the water from the dam as well these agents are carcinogenic and would cause danger for people s health in a high concentration shows exactly this its construction dates back to some decades ago but since then no one has ever lived there it is obvious that an abandoned building like that is a big problem for the population although a fence has been built all around the building intruders always find a way to get in as it has no doors it is dangerous to go there but still many young people use it as a hidden place for dubious activities it seems that it is difficult to find a solution to this situation it has become an environmental problem as well because grass grows everywhere around the building and it doesn t dignify our town in any way as long as the situation doesn t change the population will continue to live with this huge environmental threat it is obvious that as the years go by the abandoned building gets more and more evident these buildings end up being occupied and attended by people mainly teens has places where it is possible to do some activities seen has imoral or undesirable by the neighbourhood most of the population has we know feels bothered not only for the building itself but for the activities practiced inside it so some of the locals from benedita think that the building should be prostrated because it gives a bad environment to the region and has no interest or utility at the moment the opinion of beneditenses about the fact that the building is attended by a lot of people is also consensual it has no hygiene or conditions from any kind to be attended by anyone and they also say this place has been used by addicts and skaters with the intention of changing the life cycle of the unfinished building a fence has been built around it unfortunately this wasn t the best solution to the problem because the people who usually attend it have no problem in putting down the fence and pass again to the inside of the building with this the situation hasn t changed one still needs to bear in mind that this building has been abandoned for about 20 years it is necessary to do something to finish with this trash in our society but no one seems to have the needed determination to put a end to this scenario and as long the situation doesn t change the one that continues to being prejudiced is the environment bernardo vinagre inês tinta margarida silva externato cooperativo da benedita portugal trash life after us throughout history man has built a lot of castles cathedrals houses bridges roads for a number of reasons but today more than ever this construction fever seems to have driven our society out of control and sometimes man dreams too high and invests in great buildings without foreseeing possible dangers and the one that suffers most is the environment which ends up supporting innocently monstruous and cement made pieces of what we can call trash in our town there is a block of flats that 26 benedita portugal environmental problems such as pollution are very critical now we ve noticed its effect on the example of wasteland near school 15 in shakhtinsk town this wasteland is situated between a school kinder garden tire shop abandoned building and block of flats all around the territory of wasteland you can see a lot of rubbish the ground is covered with salt caused by snow-melt waters also there are a great deal of open wells that can be a reason for traumas it all causes different troubles people are disgusted by the place it can injure psychic health after asking several people we ve made a conclusion that peo ple living around are afraid of going through the wasteland when it s dark but you still can find some pleasant things in here for example we were really surprised to find a meadow with small yellow flowers among rubbish and dry grass and we also met a wagtail sitting on the electric line and heard a voice of gull somewhere far away this small pieces of life shows the power of nature striking for survival it will always find a way of existing and our task is to help it not to test it this is our opinion regina urvacheva dmitriy kudinov school 5 karaganda kazakhstan 27

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tourist attraction or a froggly graveyard chadwick lakes or `wied qlejga is a reservoir situated in mtarfa malta it is dry for most of the year especially in the summer however when winter approaches and a number of heavy rainstorms hit mtarfa chadwick lakes immediately fills up with the rainwater gathering up from nearby fields chadwick lakes is home to many organisms trees plants birds insects mice frogs et cetera it would be a shame to see chadwick lakes demolished and built as apartments bers of my family who went with me to chadwick lakes also noticed several illfated dead frogs floating on the surface with their bellies propped up and their legs drooping in the dirty water these animals will get profit out of them and maybe animal farms will begin to appear more back to chadwick lakes while visiting this valley we also noticed that some trees had fallen in the water because the soil underneath them gave way and collapsed these trees then died since they could not have carried out photosynthesis to feed under the water under the algae of course this is no one s fault and so i am not pointing my finger at anyone polluted water in chadwick lake another example of organic fertilisers can be the adding of compost and with this there is no need to pay the government can organise a route for a garbage truck were only organic material are picked up afterwards the organic material may be given to maltese farmers were they can dump it into their soil and leave it there to decompose and decay the latter can be beneficial for the soil and crops for micro organisms and as well for the farmer organic farming can be conducted by using manure as fertilisers hand-weeding using mulch as fertilisers using solarization this is done when spreading transparent plastic across the ground in periods of hot weather for about five weeks to make seeds germinate quicker and various other ways the maltese painted frog a maltese endemic specie how can there be so many dead frogs i began to question myself a couple of moments later i found my answer on the way up back to the car my family and i noticed a farmer working in his field he was putting chemical fertilisers on his germinating crops in the soil and that was when i realized what was happening farmers were applying chemical fertilisers or pesticides to their fields and when it rained the chemicals would dissolve with the rainwater then the polluted rainwater would skim down to the reservoir where frogs lived and drank from the poison and ultimately died this does not apply only for frogs but also for local and foreign birds such as `il-ojjin `il-verdun and the maltese falcon and also for insects which were common but now are rarely seen in malta like the dragonfly what if we can use organic fertilisers and pesticides for fields such as manure instead of chemicals this will do no harm for any organism while using organic farming a form of recycling is being done by not applying chemicals for example manure from cows or other farm animals is usually wasted but if it is sold for a reasonable price farmers will not use chemicals the soil will become more fertile micro organisms saprophytic bacteria and fungi can grow countrymen who take care of different species at chadwick lakes at this point i insist that something should be done about this as i pointed out earlier the valley of chadwick lakes is lovely however its inhabitants are suffering all this suffering for animals is caused by human interference therefore with this argument i intend to set up awareness for the local maltese or foreign organisms which live in chadwick lakes rebekah camilleri st monica school gzira malta talk to you about water and what it does for us water does lots of things for our body with out it we would be dead water helps remove toxins from your body from air you breathe the food you eat and the hygiene products you use water also carries oxygen to your cells and helps regulate your body temperature you need a certain level of water in your body s to keep healthy so you should drink six to eight glasses of water a day now what else do we use water for you could give me the gr.2 answer and say cooking cleaning brushing your teeth or having showers but did you know that paper is made up of 60 water and steel is made up of 40 water so when you recycle paper and steel you re not just saving 29 chadwick lakes chadwick lakes is also nice to go for a walk especially since there is flat road in the cold seasons chadwick lakes is almost paradise the calm sound of water gushing behind the trees algae flowers floating on the water birds twittering and gliding from one tree to another evergreen conifers standing tall and proud giving shelter from the rain to anyone in the spring the passages are surrounded by wild yellow flowers and dormant trees which begin to grow little pink flowers to cover their naked branches from the winter white and orange butterflies flutter about on every flower petal and explore every bend between the little shrubs oh what a lovely sight it is perfect for family outings or for a romantic afternoon with one s love you might say `wied ilqlejga is nice but everything has a bad side lately i paid a visit to chadwick lakes and i was disgusted and shocked at the devastation of the place the reservoir was completely covered with algae and there were plastic bottles and beer cans floating on the green water many mem28 water in our world look at these two pictures of flowers what do you see well i see in the first picture that there are some very healthy beautiful yellow flowers in the second picture i see some lifeless boring dead flowers what makes these flowers so different and unique these plants both had sunlight and soil but only one had water can you guess which one it was my guess would be the first picture because water makes things alive healthy and beautiful you can see in the second picture that the flowers have had no water because they posses not one of those qualities no i m not here to talk to you about flowers and how great they are i m here to

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