Urgent message to world leaders and ministers of environmental affairs!
We, students of Year 8c/d at Goetheschule Essen, wish to voice our questions and worries about habitat loss, biodiversity loss and our very own future!
Listen to us! We need urgent political action!
Ron, Bo, Hampus, Jonathan: meat consumption, insectices
Climate change and biodiversity loss are linked!
We know that meat consumption and climate change are linked. So why is there not more research and investment in artificial meat?
Why are harmful insecticides not banned? We need bees to pollinate food plants and to ensure biodiversity but bees are killed by insecticides on monocultures and in gardens.
Maximilian, Charlotte: coral reefs and climate change
You must take climate change more seriously!
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse marine habitats but they are very sensitive to rising water temperatures due to climate change. Coral bleaching is happening at the very moment because sea waters have heated up.
These beautiful habitats need urgent action - it will soon be too late if action is not taken at once!
Bo, Hampus, Ron, Jonathan: Is it perhaps too late already?
I'm worried we are not acting early enough and that it might be too late once we start!
Why does climate change get more focus than biodiversity loss? Are you aware of the scope of the problem?
Armita: monocultures and loss of biodiversity, eco-friendly products
Wildernesses are lost to monocultures resulting in massive biodiversity loss. What are you doing to stop this process?
Do you actually care about biodiversity loss? How can you not act?
I wonder: Is change actually still possible IF we make a change?
We young citizens want to help save wildlife, give us a chance!
We want eco-friendly products that are safe for wildlife to be used everywhere. Are you incapable of ensuring that?
Frida: factory farming, plastic packaging
I want the German government to stop factory farming. Factory farming is a main driver of climate change and biodiversity loss, here and elsewhere. And its cruelty to animals. So this is a question to my minister of the environment and my minister of agriculture: What have you done to tackle these issues?
Packaging must be reduced more. There is so much plastic packaging and a lot of it is used only once and then discarded. Our plastic rubbish is shipped to other countries where often it is not treated properly so that it ends up in the oceans, on fields and beaches and everywhere. It enters the food chains and it is harmful to wildlife and to humans. Germany must take over responsibility!
Leonarda: cars and air pollution
We citizens want you to ban cars from city centers so as to reduce air pollution! Protect our health!
Create green lungs instead of parking lots in cities for people and wildlife to benefit! We do not need cars in cities, we need quality of air and of life for all living beings!
Leonarda: recycling and resources, population growth
Mining for resources results in habitat loss. We waste resources!
I want you, the decision makers, to make sure much more recycling is done and to stop wasteful use of resources. Not only materials like plastic, glass, paper and textiles must be recycled!
More people consume more resources, so recycling must urgently get more political attention!
Antonia: Listen to wildlife in distress!
If animals had a choice - would not many animals want to kill themselves faced with the hopelessness of their situation?
Or - if they had a choice, what would they choose?
And if they had a voice - what would they say?
We need to "listen" to them!
Habitat loss has made survival for many wild animal species almost impossible! I want to live in a world where wildlife is respected and honoured
If animals were people they would seek expert help! Who can they go to to get the help they deserve?
You, politicians, are not doing enough to stop the distress of wildlife! Why?
Take palm oil, for example. Palmoil is produced in plantations and the rainforest, which is home to so many animal species, is cut down to make place for the plantations. So that we can eat palmoil products! But palm oil is not necessary for all these products! We could use other oils that are less harmful!
We need much more protected space set aside for wildlife! We MUST live sustainably!
If animals could voice their concerns ….
Ideas compiled by year 8c/d students of Goetheschule Essen
If wildlife could rally for a demonstration these could be their slogans:
Power to wildlife!
Get out of my habitat!
Don't invade my space!
What would you do if this happened to you?
Your promises are empty words! We want change now! (Zoeli)
No more roads! No more settlements! Do not come closer! Keep your distance to us!
(Alma)
Stop poaching and poachers! Give people a better chance!
Stop the bushmeat trade!
Give people proper jobs so that they can keep their hands off us!
(Leonarda, Zoeli, Armita, Frida)
We need more protected spaces! Create national parks, create reserves for us!
(Alma)
Re-route shipping lanes! We whales cannot communicate anymore for all the underwater noise you make! (Victoria)
Give us fish a chance! Don't use those massive fishing nets! You are killing our young and soon our seas will be empty! (Only your rubbish left!) (Charlotte)
Give us bees (and your food crops) a chance! Stop committing mass murder of bees!
Stop using insecticides everywhere on your fields! (Josefine)
What have we done to deserve this!? Stop destroying our habitat! You don't know how many friends have died from eating your plastic rubbish! Stop being so selfish and start thinking about us! We belong together only you don't realize! Stop treating us like rubbish! (Charlotte)
A conversation between wildlife (W) and humans (H)
W: Why are you doing this to us, destroying our habitats! We did no harm to you!
So many of us had no chance. So much distress you have created! This must stop! At least try to fix the problems you created!
H: Why would we care about you? We have so many worries ourselves, and we are superior and we have every power to do what we need!
W: That is not only very greedy of you but very stupid too. Because your species cannot survive without our suvival! You seem not to be aware of this!
H: Well! It is too late for that now. This won't stop us! We need to serve our needs! Many of us are poor. We need food, we need income. Even if I could I would not stop! And you are powerless and we will take what we believe is necessary! We need your land!
W: I'm sorry for your poor. But destroying habitats and killing wildlife is not going to help you! You humans must care for your poor fellow humans. We cannot not give any more land to you, this is our land and you’ve already destroyed too much. In fact, we need more land for our survival and you must give us this land! Otherwise you will suffer too, in the end!
H: That's what the NGOs keep saying…! If you're lucky their campaigning might help you … but honestly, I do not see how this can be fixed. We are so many!
W: Your numbers grow and ours decline! But you can't survive on this planet without us. Each and everyone of us counts! We need rights, we need space. And you need us to have more rights and more space too! Before my time comes I hope people will have understood that damage to wildlife means damage to humans too!
(Armita and Frida)
