Created COMET, IPB Students Won the First Winner for National Week Competition on Climate Change 2017
Climate change in Indonesia is receiving a lot of attention as the country is the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which are the root causes of the current global climate change. As a country extremely vulnerable to climate change, Indonesia must adapt to these various environmental pressures. Sea level rise, disturbance in the agricultural sector and food security is a threat in sight. The shocks of climate change are already harshly felt in Indonesia, with additional droughts, heat waves, and floods. Land fires are the toughest challenge. The agricultural sector faces serious challenges in today's changing climate. Climate change has caused agricultural loss. The impact of climate change on Indonesian agriculture, and existing policy instruments concerning disaster risk reduction in agricultural sectors must be reviewed. There should be prevention and education efforts related to climate change issues, because climate change is impacted in various sectors, such as the number of natural disasters caused by climate change.
From that point of view, Ilham Maulidin, student of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) created the COMET Media Game (Eco-Meteorology) of Education in both disaster risk reduction and climate change. This Media Game is implemented as a form of environment and atmospheric environment education strategy based on natural disaster mitigation adaptation. This COMET game is reserved for children of early age who live in disaster prone areas. Such idea, then was transformed into the essays and was submitted into the prestigious event Pekan Nasional Perubahan Iklim (PNPI National Week of Climate Change) 2017 held by the Ministry Forestry of Environment of Republic of Indonesia.
We may proud to say that Ilham has successfully made achievement with his idea. He won the first prize in the PNPI 2017 Competition for essay category on 4 August 2017. For the second winner was won by Alumni IPB, Iman, who raised about the role of the botanical garden to reduce carbon emissions. The third winner was achieved by ITS students on the concept of environmental investment.
"Education strategy for disaster risk mitigation adaptation effort is very needed at this time. As there are large number of young people who have not responded to the major disaster. This game media can be the solution for the education of atmospheric and earth environments, "said Ilham.
Ilham elaborated the importance of recognizing climate change and the knowledge of disaster mitigation and adaptation, and disasters should be the life style of individuals to create the culture of “safe life”. This step is important in order to increase the capacity of communities to cope with disasters.
Therefore, disaster education is important, especially in areas prone to natural disasters. There are many important aspects of disaster. For example, the key to reducing loss of life, personal injuries, and damage from natural disasters is widespread public awareness and education. People must be made aware of what natural hazards they are likely to face in their own communities. They should know in advance what specific preparations to make before an event, what to do during a hurricane, earthquake, flood, fire, or other likely event, and what actions to take in its aftermath. As the definition suggests, disasters are highly disruptive events that cause suffering, deprivation, hardship, injury and even death, as a result of direct injury, disease, the interruption of commerce and business, and the partial or total destruction of critical infrastructure such as homes, hospitals, and other buildings, roads, bridges, power lines, etc. Disasters can be caused by naturally occurring events, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, or tornadoes, or they can be due to man-made events, either accidental (such as an accidental toxic spill or nuclear power plant event), or deliberately caused (such as various terrorist bombings and poisonings).
COMET (Eco-Meteorology) is designed with interesting and educative, so the results of this game media is the integration of disaster risk management in the education sector to increase awareness of the effects and causes of disasters. The game is like a ladder snake game, with added innovation and education in it. It is expected that children in disaster prone areas can adapt and respond to disasters caused by the environment and climate.
Disaster can happen at any time without predictable before, be it natural or social disaster. Education for disaster preparedness can provide life-saving and life-sustaining information and skills that protect in particular children and young people during and after emergencies. Preparedness focuses on understanding how a disaster might impact the community and how education, outreach and training can build capacity to respond to and recover from a disaster. Through disaster education, it does not mean the risk of disaster impacts can be reduced so that there is no impact at all. (Wied)
