A ‘gift Of God' Deserves More Respect

[Larkspur]

Youngsters tell of efforts to protect the environment
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This conference was sponsored by the owners of Foxwoods Casino. This conference seems to fit the theme of Native Americans belief to treat Nature respectfully.

Those who've decided Mother Earth has suffered too much harm at the hands of humans for conservation projects to make a difference might doubt their rectitude after listening to some of the children visiting New London this week.

On Wednesday, midway through the four-day Tunza International Children's Conference on the Environment at Connecticut College, youth from England, India and China made impressive presentations about projects in which they are involved in their home countries that are changing the way people get to school, carry groceries home, treat animals and cure illnesses. The presentations, all in English, were translated into Japanese for the largest group of conference delegates, who listened through headphones.

The presentations opened the day's activities, which included a visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and a meeting with Tribal Chairman Michael J. Thomas. The Mashantuckets are the major financial supporter of the United Nations-sponsored event, which has brought about 450 10- to 13-year-olds and 225 adult chaperones from 50 countries to the city.

“Our Mother Earth is a gift of God to each one of us,” and taking care of that gift is everyone's responsibility, said Harshit Agrawal, 11, of New Delhi, India, as he introduced the PowerPoint presentation for an organization at his school called Little Eco Friends.

He described a project to replace the use of what he called “poly bags” — plastic bags — with more environmentally friendly cloth and paper bags. Poly bags, he said, kill animals, pollute the air when burned and clog landfills.

“The average small shop in India uses three million poly bags a year,” Agrawal said, beginning a list of alarming statistics. His group distributed 3,000 cloth bags in their city, hung posters promoting their use and staged street plays illustrating their point through drama. The five boys in the delegation performed the play for the conference.
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