Children use art to highlight air pollution
Richmond children's posters highlights air pollution from vehicles on National Clean Air Day
The winner of the Children's Poster Competition in Richmond has been named as Lydia Martinson, a Year 6 pupil at Richmond Methodist School.
She took the prize in the competition organised by North Yorkshire Council and Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership. Lydia’s fabulous titled ‘Stop Air Pollution’ clearly showed the impact of unseen vehicle pollution. She was rewarded for her efforts with a £15 prize, donated by the climate action partnership.
The children’s poster ideas included:
Reducing traffic by walking or scooting, “walking buses” (crocodiles), cycling, public transport alternatives and car share;
Reducing traffic emissions by use of electric vehicles, switch off engines when waiting outside school (anti-idling);
National Clean Air Day was on the 20 June and aimed to raise awareness of the importance of air quality, and promotes action to improve air pollution levels.
Commenting on the competition, Barbara Gravenor, chair of the Partnership said "We are fortunate to live in an area with generally low levels of air pollution, but there can be locally high levels of damaging pollution, particularly where there are a lot of vehicles and congestion. Unfortunately, this is the case outside all the schools in Richmond around school drop off and pick up times. As well as exposure to polluted air causing damage to growing children's lungs, vehicle emissions are also one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our area, contributing to climate change".
Air quality monitoring
Dr Kevin Carr from the council’s new Environmental Health Scientific team stated “along with our Public Health and Climate Change colleagues we are hoping to work with all five schools in the Darlington Road vicinity to look at ways to reduce the impact of traffic and the pollution it causes. We intend to install an air quality monitor to measure the progress of any steps taken and hope to involve the pupils as much as possible in the project. I’m grateful to Mrs Stevenson and Richmond Methodist School for being trailblazers today and to Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership for donating the prize money for the Clean Air Day poster competition. Although in general North Yorkshire has relatively low levels of air pollution compared to the UK’s larger urban areas, we are still striving to reduce levels further for the benefit of our residents and visitors.”
Other worthy winners, awarded a £10 prize, from Richmond Methodist School were:
Elsie Walker, age 7, with “Walking Can Be Fun.”
Poppy Allingham, age 8, with “Clean Up Our Air – Pollution Across The Globe.”
Esmé Dickenson, age 9, with “Care, Share, Clean Air.”
The judges (Dr Kevin Carr and Margaret Land, representing the Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership) were ably assisted on the day by the school’s Eco Group, led by teacher Mrs Claire Ryde and Year 6 pupil Joshua Clarke. There were 65 entries all completed by the children in their own time.
Thanks to Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership for updating readers of The Northern Eco with this news.
Do you have a story to share here? Get in touch with Sarah@thenortherneco.com or take a look at the advice for contributors here.
The weekly newsletter will be dropping into subscriber’s inboxes on Tuesday.