Essay Competition for High School Students on Environmental Issues has been launched !

With the financial support of the Government of Sweden and in the frames of the „Keep Georgia Tidy“ Project, Georgian Society of Nature Explorers “Orchis” announces an Essay Competition on the theme of “Climate Change” which aims to promote environmental protection and the Sustainable Development Goals as they are perceived by the youth and to increase their engagement.

The Competition is open to students of high schools.

The deadline for the submission of essays is January 20, 2021, 18:00. Essays should comprise 5-7 pages.

Two winners (I and II) will be identified per theme in the frames of the Competition, which will be granted a monetary award comprising 500 GEL and 400 GEL respectively.

The headlines of the essays are:

1. Interaction between Climate Change and Biodiversity, Mitigation and Adaption Actions

or

2. Mitigation of Climate Change and Significance of Awareness Raising Measures in this Context

The essay “Interaction between Climate Change and Biodiversity, Mitigation and Adaption Actions” shall describe:

Changes that occur in any particular ecosystem (e.g. forest, wetland, alpine meadow, riverine and other ecosystems) due to climate change; outcomes of such changes for other ecosystems, species or/and processes, among them in economic, agriculture, health care and other sectors; the analysis of outcomes/ established circumstances and recommended measures that facilitate to mitigation or/ and adaptation.

The essay “Mitigation of Climate Change and Significance of Awareness Raising Measures in this Context” shall describe:

Action(s) suggested for any specific direction/ sector to mitigate climate change which are distinctive/innovative and at the same time could be taken for a positive or negative case. It should analyse/ generalize the described situation, and based on this should propose educational/ awareness raising materials tailored either for a specific group of the society (e.g. decision makers, business sector, etc.) or wider public.

The theme covers the following context:

Brief information about climate change: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines climate change as follows: “change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods”.

Climate change is triggered by natural (volcanic eruption, altering of ocean streams, etc.) and anthropogenic (population growth, technologic and economic development, altering of land use pattern, etc.) factors.

Impact of climate change on biodiversity and human condition in general is the following:

– Degradation, destruction and changing characteristics of forests and habitats;

– Loss and extinction of species, and altering their distribution range;

– Reduction and loss of fertile soil layer;

– Reduction of water resources, draughts, degradation and loss of soil, desertification, reduction and degradation of agricultural crops, intensification of storms, hurricanes, avalanches, flash floods, landslides and other natural disasters, etc.

The main reason of climate change is increased concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.) in the atmosphere that is caused by: combustion of oil, coal and natural gas; deforestation; reduced sequestration of carbon in biomass; air emissions of carbon dioxide; intensive agriculture and especially development of cattle breeding; mineral and organic fertilizers; excessive and unsustainable use of fertilizers in agriculture; etc.

As known, the Earth absorbs certain portion of visible-light spectrum of the Sun while so called greenhouse gases absorb infrared light. Higher concentration of these gases leads to elevated temperature on the Earth, what can cause global warming and become a reason of many catastrophic events (like avalanches, flash floods, global sea level rise, desertification, etc.).

Plants and especially forests are one of the main components capable to regulate climate because they capture carbon dioxide – one of greenhouse gases. The role of wetlands in the regulation of climate change could be mentioned as well. Peatlands have very important role in the carbon cycle. Wetland vegetation capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere accumulating large amount of carbon in various organic compounds in peatlands.

Climate change should be coped with through mitigation and adaption. Mitigation refers to human efforts to limit the emission of greenhouse gases or enhance their capture.

For instance, emissions of greenhouse gases could be reduced and their concentration in the atmosphere could be stabilized through reforestation or, in general, restoration of vegetation cover and habitats.

Adaptation refers to the capacity of a system or individual to adjust to hazards, stress and new conditions posed by climatic changes as well as such a process itself.

The goal of adaptation as a process is to increase the capacity/ resilience of a system to cope with existing and future changes. Adaption needs long term planning of strategic development.

Please send your essays on the following e-mail address: orchisge@yahoo.com indicating your contact information as well as the name of your high school.

Good luck!

„Keep Georgia Tidy“ Project is being implemented by the NGO Consortium: Georgian Society of Nature Explorers “Orchis”, Keep Georgia Tidy and Greens Movement of Georgia/Friends of the Earth Georgia through funding of the Government of Sweden, with support of Georgian Ministries of Environmental Protection & Agriculture, Regional Development & Infrastructure, and Education, Science, Culture & Sport, and in cooperation with the Solid Waste Management Company of Georgia and Environmental information & Education Centre.