Eduvation: How comic books provide education and conservation to help save the planet.

Why are we relying on our children to change the planet?

The destruction of our planet is an inexorable topic. As this is the legacy we are leaving our children, we need to ensure tomorrow’s leaders are prepared for tomorrow’s challenges. Education is now one of the strongest tools that we have to combat conservation issues. Since education in conservation is somewhat cumbersome, ergo, eduvation is born.

When a parent looks into the eyes of their child, a surge of love swells and rises. For some, this works with a nephew or niece or a close friend’s child. We all have moments when we look at the child and know we would do anything for them: take a bullet, be hit by a speeding car, or if it is the best-behaved and most loving child, maybe even burn for them.

So, why are we allowing world leaders, large conglomerates and powerful billionaires to destroy the world they will live in when we are gone?  Every tree, every plant, every animal and tiny insect, every fish, every piece of coral, every bird and every marine mammal: they all have their place on our planet and our planet needs them for biodiversity to continue.

Our ecosystems are battling an unassailable enemy: our exponential greed and ignorance. Yet, what too many have failed to realise is continuing our consumption at the rate we are means our ancestors will face three very serious threats:

• Drowning in rising sea and river levels. 800 million inhabitants are already at risk of floods, droughts, rising sea-levels and extreme weather.
• Starvation: over-fishing is currently at a level where it threatens entire ecosystems. 80% of the world's fisheries are at the point of collapse.
• Poisoning/and or asphyxiation by a lack of oxygen and heightened CO2 levels. Levels of CO2 are currently at their highest for 3 million years. Be careful how many deep breathes you take.

Is our convenience and wealth really worth this monumental sacrifice? To some the answer is, unfortunately, yes.

The devastating issues facing our planet

Reminiscent of a grave yard: climate change
causes coral bleaching

• The Great Barrier Reef’s bleaching is so serious scientists don’t think it will be long until the entire reef is dead. Stretching 2300km along the east coast of Australia, it can be seen from space and is bigger than the UK, Holland and Switzerland combined! The reef is home to countless fish, molluscs, cetaceans, sharks and turtles. Due to its beauty and large collection of marine life, the reef generates over 6 million in revenue to Australia’s tourist industry per year. Experts now say that climate change is its biggest threat and, sadly, they have conceded the reef can no longer be saved for this reason.

• Over in Africa, poaching, hunting and human encroachment have annihilated most of the iconic species living there. Rhinos, elephants, giraffes and lions are all at risk of imminent extinction and the list goes on. Regrettably, if you research the threats to any precious mammals, WE are to blame for all of them.

• In Asia, it is orang-utans, tigers, snow leopards and more. Pandas were, happily, removed from the IUCN list in September 2016. Deforestation, the rise in demand for palm oil, and human encroachment are to blame. Some are hunted for their hairy coats and baby orang-utans have been irreverently taken from their mothers and sold for entertainment.

The issues are not just confined to these continents - there are conservation concerns across all continents that threaten the long-term survival of humans.

How eduvation can help save the planet

Such is the situation now that social media is inundated daily with stories of human greed, corruption and denial. The world as we know it now barely exists yet we continue to ignore vital warning signs. If the planet was attached to a heart monitor, the crash team would be on their way in without question. Like a deadly hunt, the longer we pretend we are ostriches with our heads buried in the African sands, the closer and more deadly it gets. With no one prepared to take immediate action to alleviate our planet’s impending demise, we need a strategy where in the near future others will take up the discarded and crumpled mantle of global responsibility before it’s too late.

In Pakistan, The Snow Leopard Foundation has taken to using a comic book to save the snow leopard. Written by Prof. Z B Mirza, the illustrated book, which is aimed at school children, focuses on the conflict between people and snow leopards with extremely positive results. Launched to promote Biodiversity Day 2017, the event was attended by school, college and university students across Pakistan.  Once the book had been introduced, children rushed to grab a copy from the stall. It's easy to understand why: snow leopards are utterly beautiful creatures. The only visible difference between them and their African cousins is their fur is white, rather than tan.

By hunting wild herbivores, snow leopards help the
environment and stop overgrazing

The Director of SLF Pakistan, Dr Muhammed Ali Nawaz said, “Children act as efficient messengers when it comes to creating awareness among elders in communities. These children will grow up and eventually take charge of social responsibilities and actions in their villages and towns. Education plays a vital role in building the capacity to understanding complex issues such as wildlife conflicts and making positive and productive decisions which eventually benefit the whole community."
 

The book will now be distributed in schools across Pakistan to help raise awareness of the plight of the snow leopard, using a subtle, yet effective message. Future plans are being made to have it translated into other languages for children around the world to access.

Dr Nawaz believes we need to change the way children
view conservation in the future

Dr Nawaz believes this is important if conservation efforts in the future will be successful. He wants children to understand that, “the global climate change has compelled the conservationists to bring new interventions to match the pace of climate change with its effects on environment and wildlife. It is therefore necessary to address children so that they can understand the importance of saving the nature and environment in coming years. Through education we can develop a positive thinking in their minds to learn more and more about nature and wildlife and its benefits for them, not to think about it as threatening or against them."

Planetary superheroes to the rescue

With the success of the book, there is no reason why we can’t use this method across the globe to help combat conservation issues: after all, it is our children who will inherit the problems we have created.

So many organisations have turned to education as a tool to combat conservation efforts. It speaks real volumes that we are now relying on our children and their children to fix a magnitude of problems that we have been big enough to create but too small to eradicate.

Alongside other education methods currently in use, this could be the answer to creating real-life super heroes instead of those that exist in comic books. Perhaps, the most responsible thing we can do for our children’s future and for the future of our planet.