The fourth Asian Children's Conference was held in Tokyo on July 31 to discuss various environmental topics. Sponsored by the Children of the Earth's Club, kids from Japan and other countries gathered to talk about issues like water pollution, piling heaps of garbage, and endangered animals and plants.

The conference was first held in 1994 to promote kids' understanding of global environmental issues and to expand networks among children in Asia. Attending the conference were the 22 winners of an essay contest--including 10 from China, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and Thailand--and 2 poster contest winners. Both contests were sponsored by club.

The participants described their motives for submitting an essay or poster and expressed their views on environmental issues in general and their impression of an incineration plant they visited before the conference.

Masumi Takahashi, a fourth-grader at an elementary school in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, who won the poster contest, said that an accident she witnessed prompted her to create a poster. A pedestrian tripped and hurt herself on a can that a driver of a car tossed out the window. "I was shocked by the incident and wanted to let other people know about it," Masumi said. "The title I gave the poster is, 'Is this a right thing to do?'"

Akiko Hasegawa, a seventh-grader at a middle school in Fukui Prefecture, received an award for an essay describing her experience as a volunteer cleaning up an oil spill in Fukui Prefecture earlier this year. "When I visited the beach where the spilled oil had washed up, it looked like the oil had been removed. But when I dug a hole, I came across many pockets of black oil beneath the surface. This is bound to affect the environment in ways that we can't see, I thought, and I wrote my feelings in the essay," she said.

Kang Yumi, an eighth-grader from the Republic of Korea, said she was inspired by her sister's conduct to submit an essay about garbage. "My sister always picks up litter on the streets on her way home from school. At first I didn't understand why she did this. But then I realized that slogans aren't enough to solve environmental problems; all of us need to do what we can around us to make a difference--just like my sister," she said.

Zhu Yifei, a sixth grader from China, said that a phoenix tree he was very fond of had to be cut down for a construction project in his neighborhood. "This really made me sad. So many trees are being cut down all over the world, and the destruction of forests is harming our ecosystem."

Gupita Nareswari, a sixth grader from Indonesia, said she was impressed by the incineration plant she visited in Tokyo. "No wonder Tokyo is so clean, I thought. There's nothing like it in Jakarta, where I live. I hope that we can build similar facilities in Indonesia in the future," she said.

At the end of the conference, the participating children issued a short statement urging the international community to do more to protect the environment and conserve resources. The statement was handed to Michiko Ishii, director general of Japan's Environment Agency, who was attending the conference.


Photos: (Top) The Asian Children's Conference under way; (middle) award-winning essay writer Akiko Hasegawa; (above) children from across Asia gathered at the Conference. (Children of the Earth's Club)