Questions from Kantonsschule Oerlikon (2)

If we could choose our special climate hero this would be a guy called Alexander Benjamin, this guy planted many trees in the village called KIDENG’EMBE in Tanzania, he also fought against deforestation and changed the lifestlye of people in that village in order to change the future.

But also our climate hero can be St. Mary’s secondary school TAYEN Club leaders who are educating other students about climate change.

39.9% —or about 35,257,000 hectares—of United Republic of Tanzania is forested.

In total, between 1990 and 2005, United Republic of Tanzania lost 14.9% of its forest cover, or around 6,184,000 hectares. Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-2005 interval, United Republic of Tanzania lost 37.4% of its forest and woodland habitat.

Tanzania has some 1898 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 9.0% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 6.1% are threatened. Tanzania is home to at least 10008 species of vascular plants, of which 11.2% are endemic. 14.6% of Tanzania is protected under IUCN categories I-V.

Current environmental issues are: soil degradation; deforestation; desertification; destruction of coral reefs threatens marine habitats; recent droughts affected marginal agriculture; wildlife threatened by illegal hunting and trade, especially for ivory

For us a hero is not neccessary a super man, a police or a political leader because we believe everyone is a hero as we are all able to do something that can help us all in one way or another. So this does not mean you should have a gun or good skills in fighting BUT a hero is someone who helps, advice, teach and direct his/her colleagues in a good path.

a) I think people in our country needs to do the following to be real climate heros

-Plant many trees everyday

-Form National Action Environmental Groups in communities they live

-Plant trees around Mount Kilimanjaro

-Change lifestlye like using cement blocks instead of trees to build houses in the villages

b) -Instead of using the word hero we should use the word SAINT

-The change we can make can be by planting trees, conserve natural resources of our country and prevent emissions of green house gases into our country.

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a) What has planting trees to do with climate change?

Planting trees has a lot to do in climate change due to the following

- Trees infiltrate carbondioxide gas that causes global warming, trees also influence rainfall, prevent heavy floods, soil erosion and drought but also trees provide habitat for wild animals.

b) Do you know someone who is taking action to fight climate change? What is the motivation of this person?

-Someone who is taking action to fight climate change is US because we are teaching our fellow students the topic of climate change and we are also participating in the Hot stuff chillout project with our friends in other parts of the world.

-We are motivated by Tanzania Youth Environmental Network(TAYEN).

wo found a picture of Wangari Maathai on the internet Look at her: we added the picture in here....

YES they can be climate heros in our country as well, the expectation is high because we believe they will make a difference in fighting climate change.

In 2002, the Tanzanian government passed the Forest Act which banned exportation of logs starting in July 2004. However, the regulations were poorly enforced and illegal logging continued apace—by one estimate the country lost 91,000 hectares to illegal felling each year. In early 2006, the Tanzanian government reinforced the export ban logs and sandalwood in an effort to reduce deforestation. The country planted 100 million trees between 1999 and 2006.

As far as we know there are enough forests in Switzerland, forests are even growing...so in Switzerland climate heros should emphasize on other things like for example mobility. We are also worried about the coral reefs. What could we do about them?some reefs are expected to vanish by 2020. If climate change is not stopped, coral bleaching is set to steadily increase in frequency and intensity all over the world reefs: it could take hundreds of years to recover. Tourism and fishing industries depends on them, and damage to coastal regions would be devastating: they are currently protected by the coral reefs that line most tropical coastlines. In the picture you can see Mafia Island close to Tanzania.

YES this is our time because I have read and heard a lot about climate change and now I have a chance to be a climate hero through practical demostration of what I have learnt and heard about climate change and influence people in different ways.

If people are feeling the negative impact of climate change the difference I can make is to provide enough information and demostration on how to stop climate change and get enough support from government departments dealing with environmental conservation.

-This question simply means number of people in the world have increased resulting into lack of resources like food to meet the needs of current and future generation.