First, trees can absorb a lot of CO2 and much dust. In Australia, they have created an underground area to store CO2 excess. Why did they build it? Mainly because of global warming, current stores of CO2 could be buried deep underground. But this idea has a terrible risk- if the storage area collapses, the underground water in the area will be polluted. We already have a storage area for CO2 above ground in the form of trees. Trees absorb CO2 and return oxygen to the atmosphere. The trees in Korea absorb about 40 million tons of CO2 . This is about 72% of Korea's total CO2 output. And, trees can absorb a large amount of dust. Conifers in a 10.000 square meter area can purify about 30-40 tones whereas broadleaf trees can purify about 60 tons. These kinds of trees can well perform the 'killing two birds with one stone' effect.
Second, trees are a natural resource for building materials and medicine. In America, there are many large and very old Sequoia trees in the Red wood part in California. If we wanted to, we could make hundreds of thousands of matches, using these trees. In addition to this, trees can offer us a lot of resources for medicine. For example, aspirin which is a common cold medicine is extracted from the bark of a willow tree. And, Tamiflu, which is effective against avian influenza, is extracted from leaves and bark of the sweet gum tree.
Moreover, the amount of fossil fuel which is available to us is getting less and less over time- some countries fear there will be no oil remaining after 30 more years. So, we must quickly develop other forms of energy to replace oil. We can do this using "Bio-energy" from trees and specific crops like corn. Nature, trees in particular, has a lot to offer us.
Lastly, trees can act as 'green dams' storing hundreds maybe millions of tons of water similar to what man-made dams do. Dams are important during periods of drought and heavy rain. As natural dams, trees can protect the environment from natural flooding because of their ability to store large amounts of water. Having forest area is better for our living environment rater that large concrete artificial dams.
I think we must do our best to maintain our trees and protect our forest areas. We must regard nature as our friend and partner. We must be serious in our efforts. When nature is under threat, we must try to help in the same way as we would with a friend under threat. Find some time this spring and go to a mountain and plant a tree. Nature will be glad you did.
■ 금상 / 김예슬 (선학중 1년) "The cherry blossom's lesson"
First, I thought that it was ridiculous! I mean, it was crazy that I had to postpone my homework because of these flowers. I had a lot of work to do that day! And if I want to, I can see it on the Internet, newspaper, or TV anytime I want! And the cherry blossoms are useless because we cannot even get their fruits or anything but flowers. Like this, while we strolled down to the road, I muttered, and muttered about it.
But my parents never stopped talking to me. They only said this. "If you stay at home, you are going to regret this, sweetie." And now, I greatly agree with my parents. When we saw the wonderful beautiful cherry blossoms and the golden bell trees, I stopped complaining, but just "wow!" We enjoyed this amazing little world for a short time, then started taking some pictures. It was a huge loss for people who did not bring their cameras! Next, we ate lunch, and went to home with satisfaction.
While walking down the road, I started questioning my head. I wondered why the people are so eager to see the flowers and trees. Also, I was curious what if the plants were all gone in Incheon. Can we still live normally? Like nothing had happened? I wanted to ask my father about my thoughts, because he was very fond of plants, but I did not. I guess that I just wanted to solve this problem all by myself. And finally I answered on my own. If the plants all disappeared, we cannot live a single day, and the entire city will become a gray city, that no one can live in that city.
When I went home, I started surfing the internet about one single trees influence in nature. I began to read, "A single tree can lower the greenhouse affect. It can absorb the CO2 and alter it to the oxygen… etc." Then, we have to start planting the trees, I thought. But as I continued to read, I found out that planting the trees until they can release the pure air requires about 10 to 20 years. Oh, I bet the rivers and the mountains can change more than twice during this period! And it means that we hope to make Incheon clean, all pure by just plating the trees.
To make matters worse, Incheon is not suitable for the things related to nature. Because Incheon was built on a tide land, it is hard for trees to live. Also, because of the factories and industrial complexes, Incheon can never be free of air pollution. And to plant the trees, there is no where to remove the apartment jungle!
Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that we cannot plant the trees. Instead, we can grow the plants inside our house! They are exactly the same plants we see outside, and I am pretty sure that everybody has at least one, small flowerpot in their houses. Every time I visit my friends and other people's houses, there were always one or more dried up flowers on their veranda. I felt so bad for them. Maybe it was our mistake to buy them, putting them in the prison without water.
Anyway, if we keep raising our precious flowerpots in our houses very well, that will give us the right to plant the trees outside, maybe on the parks and mountains. After these long, sophisticated, but valuable thoughts, I ran through my veranda to water my little ivy.
■ 금상 / 차혜인 (연성중 3년) "Saving trees and forests"
The forest is the beautiful resource of our earth, which can offer us clean oxygen, the place to take a rest, and the chance to comfort our vision. Actually, it's like our homes! As these forests are destroyed by people who have greed to make money by developing, our roles to protect them are required. Of course we can make our life easier and more convenient by constructing new buildings. However, we should know that there is more damage than profits in the long run if we ruin the forests.
Then, how can we save our trees and forests? In fact, there are lots and lots of ways to protect them! First, we can plant seeds and young trees. By making up our mind to try to keep on planting young, green trees, we can increase the number of the trees, and also forests. Also, we should have more interests in our nature. If we regard the nature as the one which is not related to our life, there is no way to protect the forests. It'll be great if we mind our forests, nature, and even our whole world, we can know many problems and alternatives to solve them.
Furthermore, our interests in the forests can contribute to the protection of the nature.
Second, we should have certain position between development and environment. It must be harmful if we just follow the legislations about development. As the trees and forests are our most clean shelter, active participation to protect them is needed. Lastly, we should work hard to keep the forests clean. When we visit forests, we can practice the protection by not throwing garbage away, not breaking off the branches from the trees, and not picking the flowers. These are the fundamental ways, but the most important ones.
As the number of the forests is decreasing, saving the trees and forests is emphasizing. We should know the ways to protect and practice them. So, how about visiting a forest right now and start our scheme to protect by feeling the fresh air?
■ 금상 / 이여름 (신곡여중 3년) "Help! Our green forest is dying!"
As mentioned above, global warming is a very serious environmental problem these days. Then, how is this global warming caused? The global warming happens because there are too much carbon-dioxide in the air and this carbon-dioxide is not only made by all living creature on earth but also when fuels are burn for cars, factories, and more. However, there is one living organism on this planet that eats up the carbon-dioxide and produce the oxygen, which is crucial for us. What is this great organism? It is plants. All plants photosynthesize and produce the oxygen. Of course, trees are plants and also photosynthesize.
However, these helpful trees are being destroyed by people. Destroyed to build factories, leisure sport facilities, and more buildings for men. In this, I'm not saying that all the factories, golf course, swimming pools, and apartments are bad. These things are great facility for us, but it is time to reduce them. There are plenty of these and I don't think we'll die with them.
On the other hand, when all the trees are cut down, when global warming finally comes to where it melts all the ice-burgs in the Arctic, when all the high civilized city goes underwater, it is too late. We have to try to prevent that from happening. How do we do it? It's easy. You don't have to be a environment saving club's member. Saving the trees, the forests, and the Earth can be done by just recycling papers or better yet, plant trees by oneself. when you start off, it is very easy to do the next step. In Korea, there is a great holiday called Sikmokil, meaning 'Tree Panting Day". Koreans, this holiday isn't for a day off and play, it is for planting trees. Why don't we plant trees, breath fresh, clean oxygen, and save the Earth?
Trees are crucial to all organisms on this green planet. It could even be started that with no trees, there will be nothing to exist. Don't you love when you are surrounded by nature? Don't you feel relaxed and gaining health? Let's save the trees not only for the environment, but also for us.
■ 심사평 / 유혜배 (인천대 영어영문학과 교수)
"Impressed by the students' appreciation for nature"
Both essays and poems were evaluated on four aspects: clarity(fluency), creativity, coherence(structure), grammar(spelling). Essays were also compared for length and logical organization. Poems were further evaluated in terms of meter and rhyme.
Initially there were two steps to evaluate the students' writing: First, we selected essays that were clear and long enough to convey the idea. Many students did not write enough so that their writing was excluded. Then the creativity, coherence and grammar were considered. Many students seem to understand the style of writing an essay in English, and in fact they wrote logically. Most students seem to focus on similar topics related to the protection of trees and forests but there were some essays that did so with more creative flair. Some students wrote fluently and at great length but digressed from the main point so that they did not receive as good an evaluation. The prize-winning essays were quite good in grammar, while most writings were not as good.
As far as poems are concerned, there were fewer entries. Some students did try to use rhyme and meter in their poems, though not many. Other entries were simply sentences written out in poetic form, without any attempt at rhyme. The best poems were clear and well written, and had lyrical aspects that made them stand out.
Summing up, the level of writing ability is diverse: prize-winning entries are well-written, while others do need some work. For the future, students have to read about more environmental issues to acquire background knowledge about the area. Furthermore, reading other materials about the subject in English will give them an idea of how to write.