日本語版

I am 16 years old and a first year student in a Japanese public high school. At school, we often hear people say things like, “You guys are responsible for the future” or “Become a leader and play an active role in the future”.

There are students who come to school early to study because they have a university they want to go to, while some students are working hard every day to become a professional soccer player.

One day, we had a class about the environment. When I heard that the thermal power generators are a big cause of global warming, I noticed one thing.

“Oh, this classroom is using electricity by using the air conditioner and lighting !” I asked my school about the electricity we are using, and they told me that the electricity the schools in Kanagawa prefecture use come from thermal power generators.

We are worsening global warming while we are learning about global warming. I found this a big irony.

So, I reconsidered the word ”school ”.

Schools should be a place that makes the future. School is a place where people can work hard for their future. Furthermore, school is a place for future leaders. Nevertheless, schools are destroying the future. I think this isn’t right.

In fact, CO2 emission in Japan is fifth largest in the world . About 40 % of them are emitted from thermal power generators.

In 2013, Haiyan, the largest typhoon ever, struck the Philippines. A large area was badly damaged by floods and landslides and also caused blackouts. Normally, a gust of 30m/s is said to be strong enough to topple trucks. However, the gust of Haiyan was 90m/s.

Scientists say that if the global temperature keeps increasing, this classed typhoon will be normal in Japan in the future.

When I saw a picture of an area where the houses were destroyed and reduced to rubbles by Haiyan, it reminded me of the Great East Japan earthquake. 

Our efforts as students must address this situation.

So, we launched this campaign to encourage renewable energy at school .

We combined the two words, “school” and “ecology” and named this campaign “schology”.

I am working with five classmates, and deepening our understanding together. Our primary goal is to have the electricity we use at public high schools in Kanagawa come from renewable sources.

Of course, it’s impossible to stop the increase of the temperature, only by doing this campaign. But with this as the start, we want to spread this movement to elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools all over the country and wold. Furthermore, we hope this movement will spread not only to schools, but also to the general public and countries.

Anybody who feels the same as us, who wants to protect our planet’s future, please join us in our efforts.