APT DEPICTIONS OF THE CAUSES AND effects of climate change in their artworks show that the phenomenon is a significant and urgent concern to all.

For the children and youth who joined and won in an on-the-spot painting contest on the subject, climate change is easily understood and depicted in their pieces, especially since they themselves witnessed the devastation wrought by Tropical Storm “Ondoy” and Typhoon “Santi” in their towns.

Eighty-six young people in the elementary, high school and college levels in Laguna and Cavite joined the contest organized by the Los Baños-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) as part of its climate change awareness initiatives.

A Southeast Asia-wide photo contest depicting community-based climate change adaptation in the region was also held.

The winners received their awards during Searca’s 43rd founding anniversary on Nov. 20.

Flood victims

Jayson Cristobal, 16, a senior student of the Calamba Bayside National High School, said his own experience of Ondoy helped him create a good painting.

His school, he said, had to evacuate twice as the swollen Laguna de Bay spilled over the campus. Water is still waist-deep and the students are sharing rooms with those of a nearby elementary school.

Cristobal’s home in a lakeshore barangay in Calamba City was also knee-deep in floodwaters.

“Our situation is difficult because chairs in the school were destroyed and we may get sick. Our learning is affected because we had no classes for weeks after the typhoons and we are still holding Saturday classes,” he said.

Cristobal won first place in the high school level of the art contest, with his acrylic “Hourglass” showing a disintegrating earth in an hourglass.

Students of the Philippine High School for the Arts won second and third places.

“Our artworks can help because others can see what will happen if nature continues to be destroyed,” Cristobal said.

Anna Valerie Corre, a Grade 4 pupil of the University of Perpetual Help-Calamba, won first place in the elementary level. She also witnessed flooding in her village in Cabuyao town.

Water rose knee-deep at the height of Ondoy because the canals were clogged with garbage, Corre said.

“I see people throwing garbage in the river and canals. I tell them, including my classmates, to stop but they do not listen to me,” she said.

Her painting depicted what she saw, including people practicing dynamite fishing.

When asked what she thought caused the floods, second-placer Kathya Marea Palles, a Grade 3 pupil of the Little Jesus Learning Center, said: “Whenever there is a fiesta in our place, people cut trees and use them for decoration.”

The winning college students pointed to the proliferation of factories and vehicles that emit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as culprits of climate change.

Calls

Harold Arsenius Quezada, 10, a Grade 4 pupil of the Lopez Elementary School, said people cutting trees had caused the landslides.

“Mother Earth is like a young plant that should be taken care of and cleaned so it wouldn’t be destroyed. For every trash we throw, we kill something else,” Palles said.

Elizabeth Basañez, a Grade 2 teacher and coach of Quezada, said she appreciated the activity because it made children aware of the environmental problems and also boosted their morale.

Quezada’s work was given as a token to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, who was guest speaker during the awarding ceremonies.

Basañez said the students were aware of the effects of climate change because they had evacuees in their school and some were also victims of flooding. “Lectures and film showing on climate change can also help increase awareness of children on the issue so they can understand it more.”

In the photo contest which attracted 130 entries from five countries, two Filipinos and one Thai emerged as winners.

Nikki Sandino Victoriano, a professional photographer based in Antipolo City, won first place with her photo showing a farmer propagating bamboo seedlings, which help rejuvenate degraded lands because they absorb more water.

The other winning photos showed workers moving bags of sand to strengthen the frontal wall and flood defense barrier of a temple on the west bank of the Chao Phraya river in Thailand, and the bicycle lane developed by the Marikina City government to encourage the use of bicycles.