Drawing Environmental Poster Competition

Who is youngsters’ is mind responsible for today’s poor air condition? If the question is given to participants of Tunas Hijau Club’s drawing poster competition with theme air pollution, the answer is it’s the industrial world that has to be responsible for today’s poor air condition.

“My poster shows that birds are the ones who suffer most because of today’s air pollution. But in general, all living creatures are suffering because of air pollution caused by various sources, especially the industrial world, represented by a picture of a factory in this poster,” explained Evelyn Livia Wijaya from Surabaya’s Vita elementary school, the first place winner of the elementary school category.

Wijaya is not alone. From 362 participants divided into three categories, elementary, junior and senior high schools, most “pointed their fingers” to the industrial world as the responsible polluter through their posters.

“Of course there are some participants who also drew other causes of air pollution, such as motor vehicle or others. But most of them, with their own imagination and innovation, drew a factory or something else to represent the industrial world as the air polluter,” said Moch Zamroni, the Tunas Hijau Club’s president.

Take Margaretha Retnasari from St. Maria senior high school, the second place winner of senior high school category, as another example. In her poster, the continuing pollution caused by industrial world also represented by a picture of factory, will force all people, shown by faces of people, to leave the earth and head to other planets.

“If today’s air pollution is worsening day by day, I’m sure people will have to be evacuated from earth one day,” Retnasari said. “I know it sounds threatening, but it’s possible, right?”

Sharing the same ideas on how factories pollute the air, black is dominant in Evelyn poster to picture how the sky turned dark because of pollution, while Retnasari prefers blue as the basic color in her poster, to represent the sky.

Almost the same as Retnasari, Ivan Aris from Angelus Custos junior high school drew a plane leaving the earth to symbolize that there is no longer clean and healthy areas on earth to live on. But rather than drawing a Boeing or jet, he preferred to draw a plane made of paper.

Where the planet is heading? “Mars, perhaps…I don’t know as long as it goes of this earth.” Just like Retnasari, Wijaya and other participants’ posters, Aris’ poster also sent a gloomy message that air pollution has to be immediately taken care of, that the next generation deserves a better environment condition.

Not only sending message, other participants’ posters also sent solutions to take care of air pollution. Some reminded people to cut trees and maintain the environmental balance while others suggested the industrial world to carefully throw away their waste.

“Compared to last year’s participants, this year’s were more mature in expressing their ideas. This what made the juries work hard to determine who the winners were,” Zamroni said.

Apart from Evelyn, the three juries, Michaela Newnham, Rachmah Ida and Igak Satriya finally placed Rommy Hendrawan from Yogyakarta’s Muhammadiyah elementary school as the second placed winner in the elementary school category and Naesilla from Jember’s Marta Fatimah as third.

For the junior high school category, Nesti Ciciolina Octavia from Dr Sutomo junior high school and Sisylia Octavia Chandra from Ciputra School were the first and second place winners, respectively.While Sidik Nugroho from Wonogiri’s Pancasila senior high school and Garis Kabe Muslim from Pasuruan’s SMU Negeri 3 were the first and third place winners in the senior high school category.