Raising environmental awareness in children Ahmad Bukhori, Boston, Massachusetts

Children are our future. They are indeed the most vulnerable group in our society. Look at the recent Aceh tsunami disaster where almost half of the victims were children. To save them from devastating calamities in the future, we need to educate them about natural disasters and develop their awareness of the need for environmental preservation. They need to be aware of their country's geographical position and its potential for natural disasters, and how to better anticipate them. This is necessary because Indonesia is perched precariously atop the "Ring of Fire".

Although humans cannot control natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and landslides, the effects of these disasters can be exacerbated by human error. Some analysts claim that the recent devastating tsunami was possibly triggered by oil exploration. Deforestation and global warming caused by human activity have also caused many natural disasters like floods, landslides and forest fires.

While we give every possible assistance to tsunami victims, we also have to think of long-term preventive programs. One such program could be to promote strong environmental awareness in children. The effects of human error leading to natural disasters has been phenomenal, especially for Indonesia which is located in such a seismically unstable region.

Therefore, all parties should do whatever possible to make our children realize how salient the impact of human greed can be on our natural environment. Logically, we must teach our children about our geographical position. Then, we must explain the possible sources of natural disasters.

Parents should begin introducing environmental awareness to their children with the small things. They should show their children how to properly dispose of garbage so as not to block the rivers. They should also tell their children how to close water faucets so as not to waste water.

On weekends, parents could get their children to do some gardening. When school vacation comes, they can accompany their children in visiting museums of science, like the geology museum in Bandung. This will enable children to know more about natural history and its importance.

By understanding nature and building environmentally sensitive behavior, our children can develop their sensitivity toward nature. This in turn can help them preserve nature, and also to be ready to cope with natural disasters in the future.

Such sensitivity towards nature helped significantly in Simeuleu, an island off the coast of Aceh. In the recent tsunami Simeuleu had a relatively small number of victims. Most of its inhabitants, including children, are familiar with the phenomena of tsunami following earthquakes. This awareness has been passed down through generations and as a consequence they can recognize signs of trouble and anticipate it by quickly moving to higher ground.

As many geologists have proposed, school curricula should incorporate more knowledge about the potential for natural disasters. Geography and science teachers should tell their students about the geographical position of our country, the characteristics of different natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and how to better anticipate them.

Schools should also provide their students with authentic earth-awareness educational resources to cover topics such as rain forests, endangered animals, earthquakes, ecosystems, and volcanoes.

Apart from this, schools should have a science laboratory or other similar facility to bring authentic material into the classroom.

Some developed countries already have programs such as the "Green Kids" project that includes field trips to sites such as botanical gardens, and promotes activities that relate to furthering understanding and conservation ethics.

In the U.S., the "Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics" is a national non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and inspiring responsible outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships. Collaborating with schools, this organization enables students to develop a relationship of stewardship with the natural world, understand how to minimize their impact on the environment when recreating, be able to make responsible decisions about their behavior during recreation activities, and share the message of "Leave No Trace" with others.

Living in an archipelagic country, our children should love the marine environment. The government through its Navy, together with other social organizations, should promote a caring spirit in children towards the marine environment. They can establish organizations with programs dedicated to preserving aquatic habitats while at the same time educating and entertaining them.

In Indonesia, such a program would expand the awareness of our children and their families through informative programs and interactive games. Its goal would be to provide a greater awareness of our marine environment for children who may not have previously been exposed to such information.

In the future, our children will have good environmental awareness. They will be more familiar with natural disaster phenomena so that they will be able to better anticipate such disasters.

We, as children's primary role models, must be consistent in how we treat nature. If we ignore nature by over-exploiting it, our children will do the same.

The writer is a Fulbright student of the School of Education at Boston University and a member of the teaching staff of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung. He can be reached at bukhoribandung@yahoo.com