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Portway Junior School – Pupil Interviews

“Has the tree planting and work about the Forest Stewardship Council [FSC] inspired you or changed the way you think?”

The following children felt that the way they think had been radically changed and asked to share their thoughts. Here are five of the children’s comments:

Kiera Jones, aged 10:

“When we do stuff like this it makes me realize why building homes on land where there were trees affects a lot of people. There used to be a field near my house. Some people used to walk there and now they can’t; animals and creatures lose their homes when trees are cut down. Also when you cut down trees it affects the whole world not just the people who live close by because it affects global warming. People won’t realize until it’s all gone and then they will realize that it might be too late.”

Kai Mumford, aged 10

“I’ve told my dad about how good it would be to help save the planet by planting trees. I also told him the more trees we plant the more carbon dioxide or CO2 will be sucked in and the more oxygen they will release. And so that made my dad think about recycling and he used our old bathtub to make an herb garden and there was a blank patch of soil which was doing nothing. We sometimes threw our rubbish on it. I told my dad we should do something with it so we made a new garden next to the pond with it.
We have started to buy FSC things since I told my family about the FSC. My parents read Jessica’s letter in the Advertiser and thought it was good that we were trying to do something about the planet.”

Layton Brook, aged 10

“The other day when we were watching the news there was something about global warming. My nan said you can’t stop it but I told her we could. What I saw made me think about climate change and I told my nan that we could make a difference. If we stopped cutting down trees it would help save the earth, because if we cut down the trees the CO2 from the energy we use will have nowhere to go and it will just go in the atmosphere. The gas will warm up the earth like a greenhouse.”

Josh Ingram, aged 10

“I’ve always kind of liked being eco but when I learned about the FSC, it told me that it was bigger than I expected it to be. I’m glad we’ve been able to plant trees because even planting one tree makes a difference, even though not everyone agrees with me. I was a bit upset to find how many different plants and creatures die when we cut down forests. I feel now we’ve planted our own nursery we can put back some trees in places where there aren’t many or any. I hope we will be able to talk to people who are cutting down trees and ask them to find a more eco way of doing it.
After I had written the FSC letter, I went home and explained how you can buy FSC products to all of my family. A bit later we went to a Next sale and we saw an umbrella and my mum looked on the label and it said FSC so my mum decided to buy that one.”

James Gilbank, aged 10

“Before I knew about FSC, I thought that trees were there for decoration, that we planted them to make places look nice. But when I learned about FSC and CO2 and climate change, it made me feel absolutely differently. Absolutely. I can’t tell you how much. It gave me a completely different feeling about trees. Now I know that when we cut down trees we’re letting a lot more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
And another thing about trees is that a lot of creatures need them for habitats such as birds need them to make nests and if we cut down the trees, then gradually birds won’t be able to make nests in trees and maybe birds will eventually become extinct.”

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