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Nature: Help!

2015 Annual Writing Festival FMV Işık Schools

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Organizing School: FMV Ayazağa Işık İlköğretim

Kurumu

We would like to thank the jury members for their contribution of selecting the

entries: -Binnaz Melin

-Heather Erguvanlı -Gülsen Öksuz

-George Duvoisin -Gizem Evcin

-Nathalie Eilahtan

We send our gratitude!

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Poetry

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MY NATURE

I like nature very much It is nice to touch

A green and pink flower I like giving food over

To cats and dogs They become so happy

And I feel proudy My family and I go to holiday

We see lovely animals on the way They sing songs together

We have fun in our holiday

Batuhan Kubak, 2B, Ispartakule Işık İlkokulu

NATURE

Help me! Help me! Said nature I’m dying I’m the forest I’m the bear I’m the lake I’m the snake I’m the bird I’m the earth So If I die We all die

Ayşe Sağlam, 3G, Erenköy Işık İlkokulu

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Sleeping in nature is exciting Under the tall trees North star is watching

Dora Arıcan, 3C, Nişantaşı Işık İlkokulu

Strong wind blowing Trees are swaying Oceans are crazy Rainbows are hiding Mess everywhere

Ege Onur Dündar, 3D, Nişantaşı Işık İlkokulu

IT’S TRUE! In 1993 ‘Deepwater Horizon’ exploded in the sea. Scientists thought the petrol will burn. Lots of animals died. Some animals got very ill. Seaplanes and boats cleaned the sea. This disaster was bad for the sea and bad for us. One year ago the sea was finally cleaned. Let’s not forget or repeat this disaster.

Çağan Abbasoğlu & Mehmet Efe Uncu, 3D, Nişantaşı Işık İlkokulu

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NATURE – HELP ME! I am sea, my colour is blue, I want to see ships and humans,on me, Don’t throw away waste on me, I want to be clean and blue. I am forest, my colour is green, Don’t cut my trees, Please plant more trees, I want to be clean and green. I am sky,my colour is blue, Don’t smoke and harm to me, Don’t dirty the air in the sky, I want to be clean and blue. I am a big cat,my colour is Brown, Please protect and love me, Don’t damage and kill me, I want to be free. I am your world,my colour is blue and green, I am your life and keep me clean, Don’t mistreat to me, I want to stay blue and green.

Melis Tekin, 3A, Ispartakule Işık İlkokulu

“Writing is the painting of the voice.”-Voltaire

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SAVE THE COLOURS I live, You live, All the living creatures live, So we live. We live, So, We need. We need, Also, The next generations will need. So, Save the green, Save the blue, Save all the colours of life. Mete Onur, 4E, Ayazağa Işık İlkokulu

NATURE

Cars,houses Buildings,streets There aren't any trees Because of people It’s the end of the nature

Birds fly away Deers run away Rabbits jump away Fish swim away So all animals are going

Let's find a way for them Let's help them They don’t hurt us Let's find a solution Let us preserve nature

Gülin Keşmer, 4E, Ayazağa Işık İlkokulu

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WORLD’S CRY People came to the world, Nature never said a word. Humans were always so clever, Animals didn’t know they were in danger. The world changed without a sound, People covered the beautiful ground With their ugly carbon dioxide gas They all started to stop our lives. Things started to be in danger, They killed their own kind and gender. Wars’ and guns’ numbers increased, Animals’ and trees’ numbers decreased. I don’t know what will happen next, I just know the taste of life is past. We are all dying now, Hope somebody saves us somehow.

Deniz Balbay, 6F, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

“Write what should not be forgotten.” -Isabel Allende

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THE SHIELD OF OUR PLANET

Hey, dear citizen! Listen to me carefully. These might look like a joke, But they are not funny.

Saving the nature is in your hands, Be serious and make it fast. Animals, plants, global warming, The nature is dying.

Don’t be a loser, Be a re-user. Plastic, metal, glass, choose the right bin, If you do that, all of us can win!

Don’t cut the trees, Don’t hurt animals for fun. It causes trouble, Then we are all done.

Mother Nature calls you, She says this proudly. Protecting our world, It is your duty.

Remind others as well, Tell them it’s important, If they believe in this, It can happen in an instant.

Defne Tuncer, 5G, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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THE THING I’m the thing that you were born in I’m the thing that you build in I’m the thing that you live in I’m the thing that you’re going to die in I’m the thing that you pollute I’m the thing that you cut trees in I’m the thing that you hunt animals in I’m the WORLD THAT YOU MUST PROTECT

Arda Özdoğan & Cem Akpınar, 7D, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

NATURE, I NEED YOUYou are my sun, you are my moon,You are my fun, you are my balloon. You are my fire, you are my music,You are my water, you are my tree. You are my magic, you are my home,You are my logic, you are my tone. You are my green, you are my blue,Please nature come back, I need you!

Zeynep Dallı, 7C, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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MOTHER NATURE

My name is nature I am in danger I am so dirty Please help me! I feel so bad Aren’t you sad? You can save my life Give back what I had

My seas were clean My skies were blue My forests were green With many animals, too.

Now I am crying My colours are dying Seasons are changing The world is aging. Don’t drop litter Please treat me better Don’t cut my trees You will be safer.

Don’t kill the animals Don’t pollute the seas I am your mother nature Let’s live in peace!

Kayra Jay Chavush, 5G, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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HELP THE NATURE WITH YOUR HANDS Dog, frog, hog If you are in the sea, shark If you are in the sky, lark Please help Nature With your hands. Doctor,lawyer,baker If you are in Chicago If you are in Santiago Please help Nature With your hands. Lakes, rivers, leaves If you want, you can save the trees If you don’t save these One day later, You won’t breathe. People, animals and all flowers, Please help Nature If you want to help Think of how to help, Save me! Help Nature with your hands.

Deniz Moralıoğlu, 5A, Nişantaşı Işık Ortaokulu

“The universe is made up of stories not atoms.”

-Muriel Rukeyser

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Nothing but those mountains At the top high Takes away all the mess Unbelievable with this delicious sky above Rainbow, everytime after the rain Everything so beautiful, this is NATURE In the rivers Seas and oceans Behind the unknown Everything so beautiful, this is NATURE… And Unbelievable with this delicious sky above Trees with many flowers and many fruits ready to give It is NATURE For all of us ready here and everywhere Unbelievable with this brilliant sun above Lots of fun, lots of joy hidden everywhere, this is NATURE.

Ege Atalan, 9B, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

HELP SAVING OUR NATURE Open your eyes See what’s happening around you How the nature is slowly fading away And how nobody does anything about it Because they’re too busy Stressing about money Or your friends Open your eyes If plants could talk The first thing they say would be “Help me” Nature needs us And we should Before it’s too late.

Derin Balıkçı, 9A, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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HELP ME ! Watch outside see the flowers see the trees walk outside hear nature saying ‘’help me !’’ a little seed for me to sow a little dirt to make it grow. Roses, violets everywhere Leave them there I walk through the garden I smell the one that you get on Valentine’s Day The one that you get on Mother’s day Red roses everywhere Do not let them fall Do not lose them all Take good care of nature So it won’t scream HELP ME!

Aybala Tuğba Yılmaz, 9A, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

Nature

Hello hello my little world Why do you treat me like that bad My name is nature The one that is always bad Help me help me my little world I created your world Don’t treat me like that Then I’ll be the one to make you worse Love me love me my little world Don’t throw away trash Then I’ll come like a flash

Ece Bakan, 10A, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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NATURE: HELP ME!

I’ve given you food I’ve given you water I’ve given you life So when it comes to helping me I’d expect you to not think twice You use me so much I’m never enough. Doesn’t it bother you That you’re killing me off. Do you not know my time is running out My life is ending And soon you’ll be hearing each other’s screams and shouts.

İrem Çalış, 9D, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

RAIN

The rain starts falling down from the sky It washes us top to bottom Little rain drops hold on to us They wait inside of the clouds Rain leaves like it never happened.

Çağla Yangel, 10A, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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KEEPING IT GREEN Remember those times when the world was greener When the sky was just a bit clearer And the days when we inhaled air so much deeper So why don't we protect Nature and make our memories a reality? Why leave Nature to rot while being able to save it When knowing that when it's gone that we will crave it And how dare we not care and leave it ? So why don't we protect Nature and make our memories a reality? Remember those times when the world was cleaner When life was just a bit easier And the days when Nature was prettier So why don't we protect Nature and make our memories a reality? Why lose hope at a time Nature needs us the most When it really depends on its most consuming host Therefore we shall not back down at any cost So why wait for it to call out "Help Me"

Bora Suda, 9C, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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--YOUR FUTURE--

I give you shadow, So you can get rest,

I give you clear breath, So you can live inside your nest.

Animals can't live without me,

Cause they live inside me, No one cares about me,

Until I am gone.

I hope you can save me, If you want to save yourself too.

What am I ?

I am your future.

Eren Davut, 10C, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

THE DEAD LIFE

I took a walk in the green meadows, also the dark and gloomy sorrows,

but when I stumbled upon the meadow, it was full of sorrow

The axes slashed through the meadow, reign of the sorrow,

"Help me!" said the meadow, but the axe had no sorrow the trees left the meadow

because they died in the sorrow, even the birds flew from the meadow,

because they didn't wanted to see these sorrows, the dark clouds covered the meadow,

rained the sorrow, factories forested the meadow producing even more sorrow...

Kaan Berk Yaman, 9D, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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Short Story

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NATURE IS CORRUPTED

Once upon a time, there was a place with very clean seas, forests with lots of green trees and friendly animals. But nobody knew this place because it was under the normal world. There was a cave to connect this place to normal world. Everybody was afraid of going into the cave and nobody knew this place. One day a very brave girl went into the cave and found the hidden path to this beautiful place. Her name was “Samantha”. Samantha was a very fan of nature and she was always protecting the nature. Samantha didn’t destroy the nature but there was somebody followed her and found the hidden path to beautiful place. He was a boy. His name was Tom. Tom brought everyone to this place after Samantha and they tried to build a town here. Samantha got angry. She asked why they wanted to build a town here. But she was alone and she could not stop them. Everywhere was under construction in a few days. Samantha was so unhappy but she could not do anything. There has been water, air, noise pollution, lots of cars in a year in this beautiful place. Natural resources began to finish. Trees were cut, animals were killed and their furs were used for clothes. There were so many people lining there and only nature lovers stayed in the normal world. The world became a beautiful place because of that. Samantha was so happy but she was afraid people will come back to the world again.

Evrim Sude Con, 4B, Ayazağa Işık İlkokulu

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NATURE HELP ME

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in England. Her name was Candytuft. She was a bookworm - she always read books. Her mother and father were surprised by her imagination. In her head she lived in a different world full of characters from books - fairies, princesses,dragons and lots of other creatures. She had to wear glasses because she read too many books. In her imagination she was a nature and animal lover. Her father was a hunter and her mother was an old housewife. Candytuft’s family was very poor because her father didn’t earn enough money even to buy food for the family. They were very hungry. Every day they ate bread or cabbage - they didn’t have enough money to buy water so they sometimes had to drink water from the lake.

One day Candytuft decided to save nature. As everybody knows nature is about to dissapear because people are cutting down too many trees. Candytuft went to the only forest in the whole city. She started to plant seeds all over the forest. She waited six months and watered the trees every day after school, and took good care of the trees.

After seven months the trees had grown tall and strong. Candytuft took her mother to the forest. She ran as fast as she could and she showed her mother the trees she planted. Her mother said, “Darling you don’t need to plant seeds because the government has decided to save nature. So you need to plant seeds. The government will plant 260 seeds a day, so soon we will be living in a small village not a big and busy city!” Candytuft was very happy and proud of herself because her mother didn’t know that she was the one who told the government to save nature and make the city a happier place, without busy cars, accidents and a boring city with the same routine going on every day.

Ella Hardern, 4E, Erenköy Işık İlkokulu

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ECO ANIMALS COME TO THE RESCUE! Once upon a time many animals lived in the rainforest. The animals loved the rainforest. In the rainforest the birds were singing, the sky was blue, the sea was beautiful and the sun shone. Later one man came to the rainforest. He chopped down the trees, dumped rubbish in the sea and dug up the ground.

The man got tired because the rainforest was very big. He told his friends to help. They chopped, dug and dumped again. The animals came together. The animals talked together. “This rainforest is very dirty,” said the bear. “Yes. Let’s stop the digging, chopping and dumping,” said the squirrel.

The animals went to the men. They shouted, “Stop! This is our home.” “This rainforest is now my home,” said the man. The animals said, “You take our home and we will take your home!”

The animals went to the man’s house. The monkey ate all the man’s food and jumped on the bed. The crocodile snapped the bed in half. The birds made nests in the roof and sang. The man couldn’t sleep. The elephant sprayed water all over the house. The man got very wet. The frogs went down the man’s shirt. The man went crazy. The animals said, “Clean up the rainforest and we will leave.” The man planted new trees, cleaned up the sea and picked up the rubbish.

The man made a sign. It said, ‘No dumping. No chopping. No digging. This rainforest belongs to the animals’. The animals lived happily alone in the rainforest. Aksel Tepe, Alp Gürek, & Batıkan Kantarcı, 3A, Nişantaşı Işık İlkokulu

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LITTLE HANDS HELP THE WORLD The world is sad. Many people dumped rubbish in the sea and chopped down all the trees. The animals were very sad and angry because the world was destroyed. They walked and saw the animals lost their homes and didn’t have good food to eat. They didn’t have clean water to drink. The elephant couldn’t wash itself. The birds couldn’t make a nest and people took their eggs. The rabbits couldn’t find vegetables to eat. Lots of fish died because the sea was very dirty. The lions couldn’t find meat to eat because the other animals were dying.

The animals saw a small box. They thought and worried about the box. The animals kicked the box hard to open it. The box opened. The animals saw lots of fairies fly out of the box. The fairies were very woozy. The fairies flew and looked at the world. The fairies were very shocked because the world was terrible.

The animals and fairies made a plan. Together in the morning they cleaned the world but they couldn’t finish. All the people woke up and saw a beautiful clean world but a little part of the world was still dirty. The people cleaned the little dirty part of the world. They planted seeds too. Animals and fairies lived in the trees. The people loved the fairies and animals. They all became friends. The people wanted one wish to keep the world clean forever. The fairies said, “YOU must make this wish come true!”

Duru Sert & Gülse Geçgel, 3A, Nişantaşı Işık İlkokulu

“If there’s a book that you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

-Toni Morrison

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THINK ABOUT THE WORLD In the world there are no colours, just black and brown. People did this. People killed all the fish because the exhaust fumes from boats went into the sea. The sea got dark and turned into mud. People were shocked. They couldn’t drink water. They were so thirsty. They cut down all the trees around the world to build big skyscrapers. They went everywhere by car. They got fat because they were so lazy. They ate harmful food. One girl saw a door and pulled it and suddenly she woke up. That was her scary dream about the future - the world and people dying.

The girl looked outside. She saw a colourful rainbow. She walked to the end of the rainbow. She saw stairs going to the top of the rainbow. She told the rainbow about her dream. The rainbow was shocked and wanted to help. The rainbow said, “Oh that is a very very bad dream. How can I help you?” The girl said, “You can scatter colourful raindrops around the world.” The rainbow said, “Okay.” She scattered her colourful drops. In each drop there was a message saying ‘Please protect the earth because the world is ending!’

Everybody looked out of the window and they caught the amazing colourful drops. They read the message and they started to clean up the world. They were amazed. They couldn’t believe they lived in such a disgusting world. After this they never polluted the world again and they were careful. Everybody was happy.

İpek Sükan & Selin Özsoy, 3A, Nişantaşı Işık İlkokulu

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NATURE HELP ME Alex is a stork, İt was living on a tree named Jack. They were living happily in a forest. One day people came and cut some of the trees and they built a big factory near the forest. Factory chimney was smoking too much and it caused air pollution. Alex and Jack were very sad and were talking about factory. Alex says: What can we do about the factory? Jack says: I don’t know Alex says: I got sick, all the animals got sick. I decided to go to other forests, Jack says: Okey,you can fly but I can’t go anywhere, What will I do? Alex says: Sorry I didn’t think about you. We must find another solution. Jack says: I am trying to produce oxygen, but I think it is not enough, also I feel myself getting sick. Alex says: We need HELP… They cried together…, and a boy named Can heard them, he listened to their problem and, he offered them to plant more trees near the factory. He also talked about this problem with his parents. Can and his family decided to organize a campaign to ‘Save Nature’ They prepared slogans; ‘Breathing is easy, lets not make it difficult’, ‘Go Green, to Breath Clean’ Five Years Later… trees grew taller, Alex, Jack, and Can lived a happy and healthy life.

Can Alparslan, 4B, Ispartakule Işık İlkokulu

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”

-Anne Frank

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4015 Date was 06/12/4015. The technology was so advanced that it was like magic. The human kind wasn’t living on Earth any more. They left the Earth in 2200 because human population was 20 billion and there weren’t any plants left on the Earth .They were living on a planet named Tenti. There was a woman called Aylin. She was living on Tenti, too. She was so beautiful, clever, and wise, so people would always listen to her. She was one of a kind because she knew that there was a plant on Earth. In 4015 she invented a machine that could understand plants’ words. It was working. One day she bought a spaceship for 10.000 dollars. Then she flew to the Earth.

She found the plant and then she started to look after that plant every day. One day her plant became a tree. After that day she took her machine to talk with it and the tree said ‘Help me! I want friends, bring plants from Tenti!’. Aylin said ‘Our plants can’t live here. They would slowly die out’. Then, the tree gave her some seeds. Aylin told everyone about that and everyone believed her. She put posters saying ‘NATURE:HELP ME SHOW’ and many people came to the show .They believed that tree was talking but some people didn’t believe that. Aylin was a clever woman, so she showed her robot that could understand the trees. She let the people take her robot and go everywhere in Tenti. The trees started talking everywhere so everyone believed her. She had a conference and she said help me sow the seeds on Earth. In 4095 everyone went back to the Earth but they had the same problem in 7001 but this time Aylin’s grand-granddaughter was there to help them.

Aylin Dora Leblebici, 5E, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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SAVING CHEETAH Hi! I’m Alisha Marie and I’m twenty five years old. I’m working for National Geographic. Last month I had really bad problem. While I was walking in the forest for taking photo, I heard really bad noises. First I thought these were animals’ noises. Then I started walk again. I heard some noises again and I thought that it was gun. I try to find it. Then I saw there was a man in the forest and he was hunting baby and mother cheetahs. I took photo of his car’s plate and I started to run very fast. The man saw me and put cheetahs on the floor and tried to run away. I took cheetahs and I ran as fast as I could but they were heavy. Sometimes I fell down but I took them into the car. I wanted to drive very fast but there were lots of policemen on the street but I drove at 130 Km/hr. I took them in to the very big animal hospital. I was so tired that I slept for five hours. Then Doctor woke me up and told me that they were okay, but they had to be here for a month. Then I went to the police department. I told everything to police and I gave them the photo of the car plate I had taken. Now I’ve come to the animal hospital and the doctor has told me that they are ‘ Excellent’, I’m so happy to hear that. Now the hunter is in the prison for two years. I’m on the cover page of the National Geographics with the cheetahs. PLEASE DON’T KILL THEM THEY DESERVE TO LIVE LIKE US. Alara Kohen, 6E, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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THE DIARY OF JAVA

01.01.1874 Hello! My name is Java. Today is the first day of 1874. Today was a special day because I was born. I’m a Javan Rhino. My father was a big and great rhino but he died before I was born. My mother was big too but she was very old. We were on the Javan Island. We weren’t alone on that island. I had three sisters and five brothers. I thought we were the kings of animalia, because we were so strong. On Javan Island there were 2000 Javan Rhinoceros.

09.12.1879 Today was a bad day.My mother and my brother died. I don’t know why they died. So many Javan Rhinoceros died too, not only my mother and my brother. My brother and my sister thought that something was going wrong. I didn’t want to think about that because I was scared of dying. Me and my sister went for a walk in the forest.We found the corpse of my other brother. Things were getting worse and worse. I looked for my sister, then I saw her on the ground!

29.02.1981 All rhinos from my family except me have died. I saw a person. He had a weapon. He came to our living area and shot everybody from my family except me. I understood why rhinos were dying. Me and my new friend were going to a safer place to live. I’m getting older and older. On Javan Island there are one hundred Java Rhinos left. That is really scary. We are going to London!

16.04.1985 We went to London three years ago.We are in a zoo right now.There are five Javan Rhinoceros in the zoo.The people who look after and take care of us said that we are really lucky to be alive.They said that they were really sorry to hunt our family. They made a building on the Javan Island. We were really angry with the caretakers, but we couldn’t do anything about that. There are only sixty left in the world from our species.

İpek Yüksel, 6E, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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Artificial City Once upon a time, there was a beautiful city called “Technology Paradise”. In this city there weren’t any schools because children had tablets. They were joining classes by using holograms of a teacher and objects in class. There weren’t post offices either because people had mail accounts. But the worst part was that there was no nature! There weren’t trees and there weren’t flowers. Oxygen didn’t matter very much because technological machines were helping people to breathe. There was a girl named Jenny in this city. One day her best friend Sarah came to her house to play on their tablet together. It was their favorite game. Sarah said ” I’m sorry, but I forgot my tablet at home. Can I use your spare tablet please?”. Jenny said “Yes, of course. Wait for me here.”. Jenny went to the basement. She took the tablet but she saw something different. She got closer to the thing. It was a book! Because there weren’t any trees in the city she didn’t know what a book looked like. She saw some words on the book she said “Read”. Nothing happened. She repeated it but still nothing happened. She took the book and turned over the page. She saw a princess called “Snow White”. She started to read the book. There were forests, trees and flowers in the book. Jenny saw these green and brown things for the first time. She continued to read. She learned that these green and brown things were “trees”. When Sarah called Jenny’s name, Jenny went upstairs with the tablet and with the book. Sarah took the tablet but when she saw the book, she was shocked. Sarah knew that it was a book. She took it and looked at it carefully. She told Jenny that this was a book made of paper. Paper was made of trees and trees were grew from seeds. Jenny asked Sarah how she knew everything. Sarah said “ I learned this from the website called “Old Years”. There were forests and trees and flowers everywhere until they were used to evolve technology. Sarah also told her that there were trees only in “Home of Nature” city. Their technology was very good so they wanted to teleport to the Home of Nature, but first they asked their parents. When they teleported to the Home of Nature, Jenny and Sarah started looking around. They didn’t want to walk because they had virtual seats but when they saw everyone walking, they walked too. First they bought a map and tried to find a tour guide. Tour guide took them to different forests. One of them was being destroyed to build higher builginds. When Jenny and Sarah came back to Jenny’s house they saw that everyone was wearing helmets. Jenny’s mother quickly told them to wear the helmets too. These helmets looked like space helmets. When Jenny asked her mother what was going on, her mother told them that the machines letting them breathe weren’t working. Sarah remembered that trees were natural oxygen sources. Sarah and Jenny quickly teleported back to the Nature of Home and warned the people not to destroy forests. They bought some seeds for trees. When they came back again they planted them nicely and sprayed them with “SUPER DUPER FAST GROW”. Trees grew in one minute and started to give oxygen. After a month there were forests, trees, flowers everywhere! Mayor thanked to Jenny and Sarah. Mayor also changed the name of the city: “Nature Land”. From that day this city had an amazing technology and amazing natural views. Irmak Işık, 5D, Erenköy Işık Ortaokulu

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NATURE-HELP ME!

A long time ago there was a beautiful forest. In the forest, there were lots of colorful flowers, colossal trees, long lakes and small forest gnomes. Under the trees there were holes. And the forest gnomes lived in these holes. They always kept their forest clean and all day they were planting trees. But they had a problem. They were scared of giants. Because giants didn’t like forest gnomes. Forest gnomes called them “blighters”. Forest gnomes knew that they were lurking in the shadows and waiting for them.

One sunny day, the forest gnomes heard big footsteps. The forest gnomes were trembling and shaking. They saw the blighters. The giants were in a rage. ”It’s been many years but we still cannot win and we are enemies. Now we are going to win this war! We will destroy this place!” The forest gnomes were very scared. There was nothing they could do. There were very small and weak, but giants were very big and strong. The only things they could do was protect their families and hide somewhere. They gathered their families. A few days later they came out of their hiding places. They saw that the trees were cut down, the rivers were polluted and the whole place was dominated by a bad smell, the flowers had been snapped one by one.

Later, lots of forest gnomes became critically ill and some forest gnomes began to die. Because the trees were cut down, there wasn’t enough oxygen. The lakes were dirty, so they couldn’t take a bath. They smelled very bad. Life without nature is very difficult. And they were very angry with the giants.

Later, the oldest and cleverest forest gnome said: “We must do something. They have to get their punishment!” He was right. They had to do something. Then an idea came to mind. “What is the result of nature and the habitat getting dirty, you will see!” they said. Their plan was like this: At night, they would go to the giants’ island. Because they lived in caves on this island. While they were sleeping, millions of forest gnomes would move the giants in their boats and leave the giants in their forest. So the giants would understand how difficult it is to live in a dirty forest. They liked this plan. They didn’t want to any power. They wanted only the cleverest plan.

The next night they would implement the plan. That day they took everything that they needed. They chose millions of strong forest gnomes, they took their boats and they took their ropes. It was very hard and it took a long time but the forest gnomes didn’t mind. That night, nobody could sleep properly. When they woke up, their eyes were bloodshot. They checked their preparations again. They were ready. They waited with excitement for that night. Now it was time! They put their ropes in their boats and they disappeared into the dark of night. Their moms, dads, sisters or brothers said goodbye and good luck to them because they needed a lot of luck too. (continued on next page)

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After they had left their families and homes, they felt a little bit scared. Later they arrived on the island and found the cave. It was very hard because they had to climb an enormous tall mountain. Two hours later they had crossed the mountain and found the cave. The cave was frightening. Then they started to laugh. Because the giants were snoring so loud. Then, one giant woke up. The forest gnomes hid in the darkness. They weren’t laughing now. They were very depressed and scared. Later when the giant went back to sleep, one forest gnome said: “Oh, I’m okay, I am relaxed now.” The other forest gnomes felt the same. They took the giants and rolled the rope around them. When they were finished, they were so tired. They went to the boats.

When they got to their forest, they hugged their families and showed them the sleeping giants. All the forest gnomes were very happy. And then, they went to their holes. They stayed there because they wanted to see what happened. They tried to be invisible. In the morning, the giants were shocked. They tried to leave but they couldn’t. It was locked. The oldest forest gnome had hidden the key. For now, they must live there. A few days later they understood. Because of the damage they had done to the nature, life was impossible. In fact, it is nature that allows them to have life. They were very sad for what they had done. Later, they had an idea. They tried to help nature. They started to plant flowers, trees and clean up the garbage in the lake.

Then, the forest gnomes saw what they were doing. They were so happy but they were shocked too. They came out of their places and went next to the giants. “Thank you for your help.” they said. The giants said “Don’t say thank you. We are trying to be forgiven. And we want to say sorry. We acted like monsters.” The forest gnomes said “We forgive you. Do not worry.” The giants said “Maybe we can help you to safeguard nature and fix this place. I think we can do lots of nature conservation works.” and they smiled. The forest gnomes said, “We are looking forward to them!”. Then, the giants and the forest gnomes held hands. Everybody said “Nature Forever!” They were so happy.

In this story, don’t you think we, the humans are the giants and the animals are forest gnomes? We have only one difference. In the real world, humans keep on destroying nature. I wrote this story because I want to try to show you I don’t want to live in this kind of world. In my world, I want to respect nature and all living creatures. I have hope. Nature said to me “help me” and I want to say “Please Help Nature!” Melek Lalin SAĞLIKOVA, 5B, Nişantaşı Işık Ortaokulu

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NATURE

Hi! My name is Aslı. I am 19 years old, I’m a typical college student. I am studying Drama in London. I feel so lucky, because I always dreamed of living and studying here. I have great friends in London. We are studying in the same department and also living together. I am literally living my dream right now. But now I really want to tell you a story that happened 2 months ago. This experience taught me so many important things about myself, especially about my lifestyle. It was a normal lesson but suddenly our drama teacher started to shout at us. She was complaining about how addicted we are to technology and that we care about nothing else. At the end of the lesson she gave us a homework which was about going to the countryside to have some good time and she told us not to use any technology during our trip. She said that this homework was due to next week. Of course like every teenager first we thought that this was an unnecessary homework. It was so old fashioned for us. When technology could provide everything to us, why do we just stop using it... While we were talking about this homework in the break, we thought that we can do tracking or camping. These were the most enjoyable ways to do this boring homework. At this moment Sarp, who is my Turkish boyfriend, came and suggested a very good plan. Sarp's mother was sick and he had been wanting to go and visit her for a very long while. He thought that this could be a very good opportunity to visit her and at the same time to go camping or tracking in the village. We all agreed. Especially it could be a good opportunity for me to meet his parents. As 6 friends we looked for some tickets at night and we found some cheap ones. In a very interesting way we all became so excited for this plan because it was the experience that we never tried before. We bought tickets and we all agreed that we were not going to

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

-Stephen King

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For me not using Instagram for four days seemed so terrifying. Then we went shopping and bought some stuff especially for camping. While we were shopping I saw that Sarp was so happy about going to his village. In our vacation Sarp would stay in his house, but we would do camping in the forest. After two days we went to the airport and took our last selfie. Air travel took about four hours and then we got on the bus and take the road for the village for one hour. In the road Sarp told us about his childhood memories. He told us how he was climbing the trees, how he was scared of the fishes in the lake. I heard these stories for the first time and this was so special for me. I was getting so excited about. This trip and meeting his parents. After one hour we arrived the village. First of all we went to his house. I was so affected when, I saw them hugging each other. This was really special moment especially for Sarp. Later, me and my friends met his parents and spent time with them, we went outside to discover the area. First we saw the old men playing game in the coffeehouse, after that we saw women carrying stuff which they picked up from the field. We thought that this place was so natural and peaceful. But at night we thought that this place got damaged and changed too much. Trees which, Sarp was climbing, were not there now, or the fish which Sarp was afraid of, were not in the lake. In every green place, companies were making power plants which would damage both the nature and people in the village. After this we went outside to explore nature with Sarp. The nature was destroyed from the companies. Because in a few days building machines were coming to start building new power plants and damage whole environment . Nature was definitely shouting ‘Help me!’ ‘Help me!’… After that, at night me and my friends talked about this situation and tried to find who was guilty. We all knew the answer. Because the answer was ‘us’. By saying us I mean that the people who are addicted to technology and like my teacher said not caring about nature. Especially new generation just cares about social media. In this century companies think more about making buildings than worrying about nature. I am really grateful to my teacher for sending us here and making us realize how important nature is for us. Now me and my friends are ready for to help environment.

Selen Şiriner, 10D, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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A DAY Amelia woke up at 07.00 p.m. brushed her teeth, changed, put on her shoes, left her house and started to walk to the subway. On her way she counted ten different cars that she could not afford. Twenty three designer clothes and coats. She got into the train and looked at people. Two unemployed people left at the first station. "Sad." She thought. A group of students left at the second station. "What a waste of time." She huffed. "They could have been studying. She left after them. While she was walking to her cubicle, she politely smiled at her co-workers. She sat down, stared at her computer. Completely stressed-out. "What if I can't get a rise?" Then she couldn't be able to buy her dream house that she would live with her perfect family that is close to his perfect future children’s school. Wasn't that what everyone was supposed to worry about? While she was lost in her thoughts, typing, her heart ached as she heard a scream from the corridor. She stood up rushed to help the poor man. She stood in front of the poor man and shielded him. The police officer asked Amelia to move aside, but she didn’t. She asked the policeman why he was hitting the poor man. And he said it was because the poor man was standing in front of him. Was this even fair? Amelia took a deep breath. She was so angry. She asked the policeman who gave him the right to hit an innocent person. The policeman chuckled and said “Isn’t it obvious. Government.”He said with a cocky expression on his face.“Wasn’t government supposed to protect us?” Amelia turned her face to the poor man and made him read her lips. “run.” She said silently. When the poor man started to run the police man tried togo after him, however Amelia didn’t let him do it. She took his stick and ran as fast as she could. The policeman was following her and he was running as well. Amelia entered the woods, so the policeman, too. (continued on next page)

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Amelia was running faster and faster in every second. Suddenly she stopped in front of a big tree. The policeman stopped as well and took a deep breath. Amelia was staring at the big tree. The policeman tried to understand why she was staring at the tree. He stepped closer to her, but Amelia turned her head to the policeman and shouted “NATURE, HELP ME!”The policeman started to laugh so hard. Amelia chuckled as well and said. “The one who laughs last, is the winner my darling.”She said as the tree vines started to move by themselves towards the policeman. He screamed like a little girl who just touched an insect. The vines wrapped up the policeman’s ankle and raised him. Another tree vine showed up and started to slap him. The policeman started to cry and begged Amelia to be forgiven. Amelia laughed and turned her head to the vines, then nodded her head with a smirk on her face. The vine which was slapping the policeman stopped. “Now you can go and tell your damn Government that nature is going to slap them too!”she shouted and pointed her hand to the city. “Release!”she shouted again as the tree vine threw the policeman to the city. Amelia sighed and smiled. She inhaled the air of the woods. “I think from now on Im going to stay here.”She said and walked through the woods. Now she was free at last. She could speak whatever she wanted to. Think whatever she wanted to. Moreover do whatever she wanted to. Right now she was unstoppable. And she has no plans to be stopped, she was going to change the world and its ugly laws. Someone has to start somewhere and that someone is going to be Amelia.

DİDEHAN ŞİŞİK & MELTEM DERELLİ, 9, Erenköy Işık Lisesi

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NATURE HELP ME Today is a very special day for me. It’s my 11th birthday and we are going to celebrate it on a field. I really like fields because, when I was growing up my grandmother owned the house on top of a hill next to a field. We would always go there on special occasions such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. And so, I had a lot of great memories playing around on a field. So, on my special day, we rented a van for me and all my friends and family. My dad never really liked the idea of renting cars but my mom insisted so he had to say yes. So we got on the car and my dad started driving. When we are going there, we played games and talked, we had a great time. It was a long drive; however we finally got to the field. Around the field, there were lot of different plants, trees and wildlife so we decided to take pictures of animals. Everybody had portable cameras, so my mom said “Everybody can take as many pictures as they want, until the cake is ready.”. After that, me and my friends decided to go and explore with our cameras. We saw tones of different stuff. From plants to flowers to even bugs, there were lots of stuff to be looked at and admired. However, I got caught up in the wild and I lost the group. While I was yelling for help, I heard a strange noise behind me. When I turned around, what I saw amazed me. Behind me, was everything I had seen so far in the field except now, they had eyes and mouths. At first I thought I was dreaming but after a while I realized I wasn’t. So I let out a huge scream. Right next to me I heard a very high pitched and soft voice. It was white daisy talking. It said “Don’t worry John, we are not here to hurt you. We are actually going to ask for your help.”. That made John feel more relaxed. And than a deeper voice behind my back said “John, you have always been kind to nature sadly not all humans are like you. Nowadays, even nobody cares about nature. If they continue with their current behavior, we will not be here in order to help humanity. Many of you don’t know this but we are actually the reason that you can live in the first place. We are your supplier of oxygen. So we carry a bigger role than many of you think. John replied “What do you want me to do?”. To that the forest replied all together “If you can educate the people around you about the nature, then if they educate their surroundings, soon everybody will know the importance of us.”. John said “Thanks for letting me know how important you guys actually were I will do my best to educate the people around me.” And so, everybody thanked him and started to go back to his parents. (continued on next page)

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As John was walking back, he saw the rest of the group which were searching for him. He ran toward his friends in joy and excitement. They were happy to see John as well. While they were walking back to the field, John told them what he had seen and how careful they should be about nature. All of his friend were amazed at his knowledge. When they finally made it back, they saw that John’s birthday cake was ready. John was very excited and happy. That night, John decided to make a school project regarding the importance of nature. His project was a huge success, almost everybody in school now knew how important nature was and how they haven’t been treating it the correct way. John was happy that he had reached his goal and he made a promise to himself that from that day forth he would let everybody know how important nature was so that they would never say “Nature, Help Me!”. Doruk Can Metiner & Derin Atıl, 9, Erenköy Işık Lisesi

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

– Dr. Seuss

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Essay

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IT STARTS WITH YOU For the last 5 years pandas have been endangered. There are only 2.000 of them right now. Can you believe that? They live in China, Burma and Vietnam. They eat bamboo. The problem is people are cutting down bamboo to build factories for gardening and to use as raw material. I can (we can) understand the villagers. They cut down the trees to make money, but what about the people who do not have money problems? They just cut them down for fun. We need to stop this! We need to share this information with people who don’t care and make them care! Pandas are fluffy, white and black animals. Pray for them. There are so many projects that are trying to help protect them. Search for these projects. If you want you can support these projects too, or you can donate money to protecting groups. Do you want to help the environment? You can start with yourself. Protect your house and your garden, and then your community. Carry a bag for rubbish with you.When you see rubbish while you are walking on the street, pick it up and put it in your bag. If everyone had a rubbish bag with them that would be amazing. Can you imagine if there were no more black or grey concrete in the environment? All of the animals could live peacefully, we could be healthier, there would be more oxygen. Animals...Everyone likes animals. But there are over 50,000 animal species which are close to being extinct. We think that we are animal lovers. How can we be animal lovers? Animals are DYING! Do you want to live alone on this planet? No. So protect the animals that live near you. Give them food and water. You can give them a better life if you want to. Give them a warm house! Actually in winter, take them to a warm place or send them to a good vet. There are so many choices that you can make. Help animals and nature, you can’t live without them!

Ezgi Savcı, 6E, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

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NATURE: HELP ME! The world’s trees are disappearing faster and faster. Look out your window. How many trees can you see? Probably, not many. Why are the forests disappearing? Why do we need trees? What can we do? Trees are cut down for agriculture because we have to grow more food for all the people of the world. Forests are also disappearing because of gold mining, oil drilling, logging, making paper and construction of new buildings and skyscrapers. In 2005 statistics, it says that each year 60.000 square kilometers of trees are cut down. All of this causes many big problems. Many animals lose their homes. Children unfortunately, have to grow up with fumes from the cars and factories instead of oxygen. Instead of those, we can recycle and avoid reducing the trees. Trees make oxygen that we need to breathe. Just one pine tree gives oxygen to 40 people. Trees hold water so it prevents floods from happening. Also important medicines come from rainforests. Probably, we always have aspirin for our headaches. But do we know where this comes from? Many medicines come from trees like Salix trees. We get aspirin from the Salix trees. Our environment is slowly disappearing so that’s why we have some organizations like, TEMA and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program). These organizations protect nature and the environment. If we want, we can subscribe to these organizations and buy a tree. In my opinion, trees are so useful. We make our books and notebooks from the trees. But many people try to cut the trees and make some buildings but it isn’t good. I think that all of us should recycle paper and try to use less paper. So finally, nature is so valuable. Shouldn’t we help nature?

Ayşe Çelebi, 5C, Nişantaşı Işık Ortaokulu

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NATURE: HELP ME! A famous poet, William Henry Davies, once said, ‘‘what is this life, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.’’ We might die at 25 or 100; it really doesn’t matter if we don’t have a world great enough together. Over the years, people’s awareness of Mother Nature grew though the pollution did too. If we don’t protect it and show it the care and appreciation that it deserves, there is no point in any of what we’re doing right now, we are it’s only protectors and it’s our responsibility to nurture it. We shouldn’t leave the world as it is to give to the future, we should contribute to it. Social media is also a big part of our lives but the pictures and captions (/hash tags) on them that are about nature and wild/free spirits attract more people to it and get much more likes and positive comebacks (comments/reposts) Nature also provides us with what we need the most; oxygen & water. But that’s not all; think if there wasn’t any soil? What would we do? Where would we build our countries, cities, areas, and villages? We wouldn’t even be able too. If there was no nature there would be no people, no countries, no schools, no rivers, lakes, ponds; no nothing. No world.

Nature is a man’s best friend, and best friends aren’t supposed to bail on one and another. They’re supposed to look out for each other, protect each other. ‘’What comes around, goes around.’’ protect it, be protected. Yasmin Victoria Welsh, 7D, Ayazağa Işık Ortaokulu

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”

-Neil Gaiman

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IT IS OUR TURN As we all agree, mankind would not exist without the world’s nature. Because we can find water, we can grow food that we need to survive because of nature. So it is a critical thing for whole humanity to be able to protect and use the natural environment in an efficient way. However, right now, we can easily say that we failed at doing it. In today’s world, the most important problem is population. There are 7 billion humans in the earth and this is too much for a planet which is not so big in comparison to the other planets in our system. The reason why it is the biggest problem is that every natural problem that we can witness nowadays is caused by this main problem. The thing is there would not be any food sources or shelters for the entire humans if we did not destroy some important parts of our nature. It means we have to destroy the thing that we desperately need to survive because of this major problem. If we have to talk about the examples of the things that destroy our nature, the biggest thing is buildings. There are maybe more than a million buildings that have been built for some purposes. Some of these purposes can be so important for the welfare of the world’s population but the thing is these buildings can be built in the places which are vulnerable against human activities or profits like the factories in Greenland or Alaska or even in Artic, the houses near the seaside or a place in the middle of a high quality green area. These human activities in this kind of natural area causes many problems like water, air pollution or climate changes and these things can make our nature so bad in a way that cannot be recovered for centuries. Furthermore, there is some stuff that happened because of humans that hurts our nature like wars. The point is that years ago, war was not a bad thing for the nature itself because humans were fighting using some tools like swords, bow and arrows or things like this. However today, we are using some dangerous things like nuclear bombs, grenades or vehicles which use oils and can be collapsed when it has been shot enough. So after the century, war started to be a huge problem for the nature because of technology and science. This thing can be extremely dangerous that makes nature beg for some help from us with warning us with the problems that I have counted. That is why, we should not just think about ourselves when we fight, we should also think about the nature to be able to prevent some sort of natural problems that can easily change our lives in a bad way. In conclusion, the thing that we need to understand is we are in danger. We are damaging the thing which tries to help us to live happily. It is nature… from the beginning of the history of mankind to 2015 it has helped us a lot although we could not be so grateful to it. Nevertheless, right now things have changed a little bit. Nowadays, nature is about to stop helping us and say “help me humanity!” instead. Gürcan Kara, 10B, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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HELP ME

If nature could talk, what would it tell people? ‘’Help me!’’ There are many environmental problems such as pollution, global warming, climate change and overpopulation. Nowadays, population has been increasing in many countries; as a result, overpopulation is one of the most important reasons for environmental destruction. For example, the population of Beijing is around 22 million, New York City is 9 million and Istanbul is 15 million. The population in the world is a problem that is constantly increasing Overpopulation is having too many babies more than older people in a society. There can be three solutions to overpopulation; creating job opportunities in the rural areas, making laws to limit the use of resources such as water, fuel and food, and educating people about birth control.

One of the solutions to the problem of overpopulation is creating job opportunities in the rural areas. Because of immigration from the countryside, population in the cities has been increasing. As a result, natural resources aren’t enough anymore and people destroy nature by building more houses and residences. People immigrate to cities because there are better job opportunities. If we can create job opportunities in rural areas people will probably stop immigrating. We can create job opportunities by building more hospitals, schools, and offices. Also, by developing educational standards, we can help people to find jobs more easily. Therefore, we can protect our natural areas and resources.

Another solution to the problem of overpopulation is limiting the use of resources. As long as people have more children they will use more natural resources like water fuel and food. Moreover, when people use resources without thinking, they run out more quickly. Governments can make new laws in order to limit the use of resources. For example there can be limitations for all the families to use water, fuel and food. If a family exceeds the limit, they should pay monetary penalties. Also, families must teach their children how to use natural resources carefully. In this way, quick depletion of natural resources can be prevented. (continued on next page)

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A final solution to the problem of overpopulation can be educating people about birth control. When a family has many children they use more natural resources and destroy nature. Too many children contribute to overpopulation. As a result there are more environmental problems in the world. Families can be educated in public courses in order to teach them why to make fewer babies. If people have fewer children less resource will be used and nature is protected. So governments have an important responsibility to protect nature and because of this they should educate the citizens.

In conclusion, there are three solutions to overpopulation. These solutions are giving people more job opportunities in the rural areas, limiting the use of natural resources and educating people. If these solutions are not tested, nature will be destroyed. If we can hear the cry of nature when she says help me, we should take this into account and care more about nature. We need to convince others around us and tell them why this is so important. Two heads are better than one. Orhun Yağcı, 9C, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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DEVELOPING WORLD

According to research in 2014 there were 342 shopping malls just in Istanbul. It is a worrying situation that people let shopping malls, buildings and factories destroy our nature and no one is aware of the fact that we can live without them. Nature needs our help and if we keep ignoring, it might be too late to save it.

Today, the biggest reason why nature needs help is because of our greediness. We are destroying everything for the sake of developing, but to develop we have to protect our natural areas and try to expand them as much as we can. Development does not only mean constructing high buildings, we can also evolve our agriculture. For instance, the Netherlands is famous for its agriculture and it is also one of the well developed countries. So, that is proof that destroying nature is not the best idea for development, on the contrary protecting and improving it will be beneficial for the country.

Moreover, nature is a vital need for humanity. It is a habitat for animals and for us. We all know that trees are the source of oxygen and we need oxygen to live. Isn't it weird that we cut off our source of life even though we know how important it is? Again, we pollute water sources and air. We are killing animals by polluting nature, lots of species are becoming extinct because of us. If we keep living like this and waste nature, unfortunately, one day will come and we won't be able to find clean water or food. Even now, there are countries that can't access clear water and suffer from famine. Instead of helping them and trying to stop using resources carelessly, we keep ignoring them.

In brief, people are harming nature and ignoring the fact that it is very important. Hopefully, as soon as possible everyone will notice that we should stop damaging environment. I would like to end my essay with a well-known Native American saying: When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.

Ayla Altunlu, 11C, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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POLLUTION AND GLOBAL WARMING

For thousands of years, the Earth has been a home for human beings and all living things; but humans have been polluting and harming the Earth with their actions. These actions lead to many environmental problems like pollution and global warming, which brings harm to the natural balance of the world and puts many living things in danger. First of all, I am going to talk about pollution which is one of the most important environmental problems of the 21st century. Pollution is the contamination of our surroundings by harmful substances. There are many types of pollution; like water pollution, soil pollution and air pollution. Water pollution is usually caused by factories dumping their harmful wastes into water bodies. In polluted water, animals or organisms cannot live. Soil pollution is the result of the usage of pesticides or insecticides. These chemical substances affect the soil negatively and the plants which are living on this soil cannot get more nutrition from it. Air pollution is caused by factories releasing toxic wastes into the atmosphere. We can see that no matter what type of pollution it is, it causes damage to our world and our surroundings. What’s more, many animal species are in danger because of the never ending pollution caused by the humans. As a result, it destroys the overall balance of the nature. Another environmental problem which harms the Earth is global warming. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth because of certain conditions like the emission of the carbon dioxide gas. The excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere covers the Earth and prevents the heat from escaping; thus causing the surface of the Earth to get warmer. The emission of the carbon dioxide gas is usually the result of burning of the fossil fuels. In the modern age, humans use fossil fuels in many aspects of life. For instance, they are used in transportation vehicles such as cars, busses, planes and ships. (continued on next page)

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They also are involved in the production of medications and cosmetics which are important in our daily lives. Even though fossil fuels are essential for humans, they are harmful to the world when they are burned. In other words, they cause global warming. Global warming flips the balance of the nature and causes not only the animals, but the humans too, to be in danger. Many animal species have gone extinct and many are endangered. For example, the golden toad, which lived in the mountaintop cloud forests, is an extinct species. They were last seen in 1989, and the forests they lived in disappeared because of climate change. Polar bears are an example for endangered species. They depend on the sea ice to hunt seals, which is their food source. Unlike other whales and other aquatic animals, polar bears are not aquatic. They can only have access to the sea by sea ice; but because of global warming, the sea ice started to form later in fall, and started melting earlier in the spring, which significantly decreases their time to hunt for survival.

In conclusion, the world is suffering because of our reckless behaviours towards the nature. Our acts have triggered certain problems named environmental problems such as pollution and global warming. Pollution and global warming both put many living things’ lives in danger. If we want to live on this world, we should learn to be in sync with the nature. We shouldn’t think about dominating or taming the nature, but instead, learn how to live together with it.

Rüya Mutlu, 11A, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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Resources: - 10 of Today’s Most Important Environmental Issues. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/08/18/most-important-environmental-issues-of-today/ - Cameron, C. (2012, April 22). The World's 6 Most Pressing Environmental Issues. Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://inhabitat.com/why-we-need-earth-day-7-most-pressing-environmental-problems-we-need-to-solve/ - Global Warming Causes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.climatehotmap.org/about/global-warming-causes.html - Urgent Issues. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/ - What is Pollution? (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/PollutionTypes.php - Global Warming FAQ. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.nmsea.org/Curriculum/Primer/Global_Warming/fossil_fuels_and_global_warming.htm - Dell'Amore, C. (2014, March 31). 7 Species Hit Hard by Climate Change—Including One That's Already Extinct. Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140331-global-warming-climate-change-ipcc-animals-science-environment/ - Polar Bear-Sea Ice Relationships. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/polar_bears/pbear_sea_ice.html

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Believe it or not, there was actually a time when mother earth had a say in man’s lives. Just like a regular child, man had to obey the Earth’s rules in order to carry on a peaceful life. It’s needless to say that time has changed and now humans have more or less claimed dominance over nature. The wild, millennia ago, was a harsh obstacle in human’s lives, however, nature’s effect on man in the old times was nothing compared to the torture it is being exposed to now. That being said, I’m not going to write another essay for you to pity the magnificent beast that is called Nature. No, this essay is about the times when wise men with great respect to the earth kneeled before Mother Nature, as an act to remind you of the times when the nature wasn’t in need of our help but instead was appreciated for its wisdom and beauty.

The wild has always been an inspiration for artists, however, it was Everett Ruess who first ventured into the American wilderness in 1934, other than natives, cowboys and Mormon pioneers. Ruess enjoyed exploring landscapes all by himself and used his experiences in his art. He documented the natural beauty he witnessed in his letters and diaries. Unfortunately, he was lost in the desert of Utah and his fate remains a mystery ever since. In his last letter to his brother, he wrote: “I have not tired of the wilderness... It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty...” lines which show the influence the nature had on the young artist.

Another ill-fated adventurer who was also very fond of the wilderness, the legendary Christopher MCcandless, mostly known by the name Alexander Supertramp who was an n idealist who gave up everything to be one with the wild. Alex was 23 years old when he went on a 6-month adventure which would lead to his death. He hitchhiked from North Dakota to Alaska where he stayed in an abandoned bus for 3 months. He died from starvation due to the consumption of toxic seeds. Alex, as stated in his journal, wanted nothing more than to experience wilderness, and he managed to live his ideal life even though it eventually killed him. He had great respect for the nature and believed we had a lot to learn from it. He lived by the nature’s means and benefited from it spiritually. (continued on next page)

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People today have lost respect for nature; therefore it is being exploited for human benefits. We need to look at these adventurers, nomads, explorers before us who have embraced the wild, and regain a respect for the nature. Humans have forgotten their origin, the wild. If we try to understand these men who died in the wilderness, we can understand the wisdom of the nature, and then maybe we can answer its call for help.

Selin Öncel, 11B, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

HEAR THE NATURE!

Imagine you are forced to live without plants, forests and natural resources. Your life becomes artificial and dull. You are not able to go for a walk on the seashore or go fishing. Nobody wants to live like this. However, people are losing nature and its benefits every day. Human beings are the most dangerous threats for nature. They cause pollution and consume all natural resources. According to statistics, pollution kills more than 1 million seabirds and 100 million mammals. It is such a crucial thing that it doesn't let living creatures continue their lives in this world. Human beings are the one and only cause pollution. Poisonous smokes coming out of the big factories cause air pollution. Spilling toxically wastes to the seas or the oceans cause water pollution and directly threaten various kind of animals and plants which live in water. Furthermore, to make money and build houses, trees are cut and buildings are constructed. While making living areas, we ruin our main life sources. Without forests, air lacks oxygen and becomes dirty. Everything is made of water: The earth, human beings, animals, plants. It is vital for life. We can only survive three days without drinking water. However, we are still not aware of its importance and we over consume. It is the most fundamental natural resource in the world. It is getting more difficult to find clean water in nature because of the many chemical substances we create.the wars for water between countries have already begun. We need to hear the desperate voice of nature and help it to remain pure. It is better to find great solutions to decrease pollution, to save endangered species and water. Leaving a livable nature to the future generations should be one of our goals.

Melis Kaynak, 10C, Erenköy Işık Lisesi

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NATURE - HELP ME! In the world we're living in, there are lots of environmental issues such as climate change, waste disposal, loss of biodiversity, natural resource depletion, overpopulation, pollution, global warming and the science of public health issues. Among all these problems in this essay I'll be explaining to you the ones about water. Water is highly invaluable to survival; already 70% of our body and the world is made up of water while everything else also runs on it; farms, cities and economies. At this point, it is not possible for a human to survive from its absence, in other words; it is vital. For this reason, water sources must be cleaned up and preserved from any further pollution that might put lives in danger which I think is critically substantial. First of all, although the majority of the world consists of water that does not mean all of the 70% is drinkable. It's quite the contrary as a matter of fact I am afraid: less than 1% of the water is accessible and drinkable. Thus, many places in the world are already lacking water to meet their need in food, power, and human consumption. Also, in other places development and economic activities are polluting water supplies. Today, almost two billion of people don't have access to water, and it is predicted that by 2030 the world will need 40% more than we are able to access. One of the examples of misusage of water is that for one pair of jeans takes 2.900 gallons of water to grow the cotton. Unfortunately, 2.900 gal of water equals 8 glasses of water/day for one person for 15 years which is a great quantity of water. Secondly, since this precious resource is highly essential and worth to protect; it is without a question that everybody must do their part to hold it in our reach. Because of the problem being serious, reducing the time you shower won't prevent it. To accomplish this goal, citizens simply can increase the awareness of the subject primarily in their milieu, and later the public. Also, they can donate money, or become a member of the organizations which are trying to solve this issue over 60 years. (continued on next page)

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Organizations like The Nature Conservancy for instance. They are working on hydropower, source water protection, agriculture water, water markets and floodplain restoration. Or as an alternative they can turn of the faucet while brushing their teeth. Even though it does not seem profound; gaining this simple everyday habit can help to us to save 2.880 gallons of water that is; more than four times the Mississippi River's annual flow of water. Lastly, I presume this essay will be helpful to understand the predicament the world is in, and yet the one that is to come. However; a disaster doesn't have to actualize. By understanding the costs of not caring, and being determined to exclude it from happening is a good start than nothing. Since water is indispensable and if we don't do anything about it our doom is inevitable; doing as much as we can do to survive is a must. Resources: http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/08/18/most-important-environmental-issues-of-today/ http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-current-environmental-problems.php http://www.nature.org/photos-and-video/video/water-is-essential http://water.nature.org http://www.nrdc.org/issues/ http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/green-living/things-save-water

Ezgi Çakır, 11A, Ayazağa Işık Lisesi

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