Today I know better

The Enviro-Spellathon gets participating students to study publications (especially developed for the programme) on the UAE's environment and then, write a test. The best are nominated Enviro-Spellathon Ambassadors.

At the close of the last programme (June '03), an Enviro-Spellathon Ambassador wrote an open letter that he shared with the World Wide Fund for Nature/Emirates Wildlife Society (WWF/EWS). The letter, written to his mother, said...

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Dear Mom,

Now that the summer break has begun, I can relax and tell you all that happened in the last term of school. The exams were tough. Thank goodness they are behind me! Don't worry. I did quite well. As usual, we had lots of tests, but there is one that was actually fun! The best news is that this test made me an Ambassador. Surprised? Let me explain.

We had an exciting new project this term. It was called the Enviro-Spellathon. No, no! It had nothing to do with sports….just a wee bit to do with spellings. It meant reading, understanding and learning. Then writing a test. I had to study just one book for the test i.e. 'wildlife of the seas'….Hey! Did you know there are dugongs and sea grass meadows in the coastal waters around us? … but, I found it so interesting that I read even the ones I wasn't required to read. I read all six books! Impressed? But really, they were more appealing than storybooks. More because they were about real things that I hadn't known, and couldn't be bothered with, before.

Imagine growing up in the UAE believing that the sands support only cacti; the seas just barges and oil tankers; and the mountains no more than rock and stone! Today I know better. I know, for instance, that there are turtles and coral reefs, and dolphins and sharks. And there are whale sharks! That one was new for me. I looked it up because I'd heard of whales and sharks individually, but not together. It is a large, but harmless, shark that has small spots and lines on its body. I love sharks, and hate the thought that they are killed just for their fins and thrown back into the sea to die. My teacher told me this.

Something really freaked me out. You know those little sticks that jut out of gooey mud along parts of the UAE's coast? They are really roots that breathe air. They are the roots of mangrove trees. Now if we people could be like mangroves, we wouldn't fear a water crisis because then, we would be able to drink salt water straight out of the sea…without waiting for it to be desalinated. Perhaps then, we would be more careful about not polluting the sea!

Mom, I realised one thing when I read the Enviro-Spellathon books …actually several, but I'll tell you just this one…that I share this world with so many, many beautiful creatures. They need food, water, shelter and safety, just as we do. Not everything that has been gifted to us on this earth is for our use alone. We must share the planet's resources with other life forms for their survival and well being. In return, they will enrich our lives. The flowers of the toothbrush bush are as important as a source of nectar for butterflies, as its roots and twigs are for our toothbrushes. Its fruit is valuable food for bulbuls, while the bush itself makes good hedges and wind breaks for us.

Hey, do you recall all the birds that we see around our house? Well, guess what. I think I can identify most of them now. Those are doves that unsuccessfully try building nests on our window ledge. They even lay eggs that fall off now and then; and we feel sorry. The birds with white cheeks that splash around in a pool of water in our garden? They are bulbuls. We both recognize sparrows, of course. But I know something that, I bet, you don't. I can tell the difference between a male sparrow and a female. The male has a black mask. How does it feel to learn something from me?

Do you know that plants steal? Ha, Ha. They do too. The desert hyacinth and the red thumb both do. Their roots steal food from the roots of other plants. We call them parasites. But are they not punished? Teacher says it's their survival strategy. Nature has its own laws. We humans cause enough harm to nature any way, even though it does no wrong, only good.

I promise not to harm nature ever. And I am going to tell others too, because I am now an Enviro-Spellathon Ambassador.

Look at me; I started rambling and quite forgot that I was going to tell you about how I became an Ambassador. I wrote the test and scored full marks. But that wasn't all. I asked a lot of questions during Spellathon sessions in class and did my own fact finding too. I helped with sorting and collecting for recycling and took part in many of my school's environmental activities. Finally, I was selected, along with nine other schoolmates. We have decided that we will constitute an ecological school force to uphold the green cause.

Surely I deserve to be taken to the Sharjah Wildlife Centre? Can we go please, Mom? Will you take me for a real wildlife safari some day? I want to see all that I have learnt.

With love,

Your son,

An Enviro-Spellathon Ambassador