Eco-Warriors: Dr Alyssa Peleo-Alampay on making topics of sustainability and climate change accessible to children

Canvas, whose primary mission is to give away books to children, has so far distributed the book to about 25,000 readers in the Philippines. It was produced with the help of the Union Bank of Switzerland, which also distributes the book to the communities it supports. The book’s contents take after Peleo-Alampay’s dedication to her job as a geologist and her interest in fossils.

According to Peleo-Alampay, the Earth has endured excessive damage due to climate change, and the only way to mitigate its effects is to reduce them. “This reality comes from studying the earth and its processes. The best that can be done is to curb its rise at least and keep global temperatures from rising even further,” she says.

She says it is imperative to communicate the message that we should be “kinder to earth” by avoiding using fossil fuels and other producers of greenhouse gases in our lives. She believes that one of the best ways to do this is through mediums children can understand. “How to drive that message to children is a challenge, especially as the topic is shrouded in technical language,” she says.

Peleo-Alampay laments that for many Filipinos, climate change and global warming remain abstract ideas, which puts the country in a paradoxical situation considering that the Philippines is among the most severely impacted by these environmental challenges. “The melting of ice in once permanent glaciers and ice caps in the polar regions will make their way as liquid water in the oceans and seas of the world, increasing sea levels,” she says. “Seas surround the Philippine islands, so every rising sea level affects all our cities and coastal towns because most of us live near our coasts. Flooding of once dry areas will more and more become a reality.”