Season's Greetings!

We have reached the end of yet another year. A year full of challenges and accomplishments. And now it is time to take a break and renew our hopes and aims.
To all those of you who have participated... a million thanks. To all those of you who are yet to participate... what are you waiting for?!
Season's Greetings to each and every one of you. And when you write down your New Year's Resolutions, don't forget to include one in particular: To make an extra effort to protect our environment!

Noise Pollution & Buenos Aires

My opinion of noise-pollution in Buenos Aires is that there is a lot and people are not conscious about it.

My first idea is to make people realise what is happening in our country. To make it, I think that the government should organise a big and serious campaign. That will include information about the risks of this kind of pollution, on tv, on the streets, on the radios, etc.

Once the society is conscious of the risks that noise-pollution brings,I think that a second message should be introduced to it the same way as the first one. The second message should try to make people walk more and use cars and means of transport a bit less, or to put cell phones in a vibe mode, or try to make people talk in a lower voice instead of shouting.

My other idea is to make a law so as to prohibit the construction of more than three buildings per neighbourhood at the same time. The reason for this is that the construction of buildings brings a lot of noise and it also brings visual-pollution.

Emilia Colusi

Pump Mills: The Uruguay River will get polluted

Hi everyone! We are students from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We want to tell you that we are worried because one of our most important rivers may get polluted.
The Uruguay River is between Argentina and Uruguay. And there is a real problem in that area because Uruguay wants to build two new pulp mills in Fray Bentos, and these mills will dump chemicals into the river. One of these chemicals is carbondioxide, which is toxic and dangerous for both people and animals, who will drink this water.
Nowadays, people are blocking roads connecting Gualeguaychú in Argentina with Fray Bentos in Uruguay, and they are writing letters to the presidents of these countries telling them about the problem. We think we should support them and cheer them up!
We should collect signatures asking the government of Uruguay not to construct the pulp mills on the coast of the Uruguay River.
We could also ask our president to talk to Uruguay's president and tell him about the consequences these pulp mills may bring.
Have you got another idea? Please, tell us!
J.A.R.
Jimena F., Andrea G. & Rocío D.

Pollution in the Riachuelo

Hi! We are a group of teenage students from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and we want to tell you about the serious problem of pollution in one of our most important rivers, the Riachuelo.

This river is in the neighbourhood of La Boca, in the south of Buenos Aires. This is a very important tourist spot where people used to fish because there was a lot of fish in the past. But now the problem is that the water is pitch black with pollution bacause factories dump chemicals and people throw rubbish into the river, and now, there is no life there.

We don't live in La Boca, but if we lived there, we would ask the government to make a dump. Yet, we can try to solve the problem by throwing our rubbish in the right place when we go there. Or we could recycle, too.

We could also ask the government to pass a law prohibiting the factories from dumping chemicals into the river.

What do you think we should do?

Alan A., Christian L., Federico V., Francisco R.,

Gastón C. & Matías M.

Noise Pollution in Buenos Aires

Hello everyone!

We are Eugenia, Soledad, Agustina and Nahir. We would like to tell you about pollution in our city.

We are from Buenos Aires, the capital of our country (Argentina), and this is the third most noise-polluted city in the world.

This pollution is produced not only by traffic -which represents an 80% of all noise pollution- but also by ringing cell phones, tooting horns, demonstrations, construction sites and loud music coming from gyms and shops.

Two of the most polluted parts of Buenos Aires are our downtown and Retiro. In those places, you can't hear cell phones ringing or people talking next to you because of the terrible noise.

We should do something to solve this problem. For instance, we could use our cell phones in vibe mode, try to walk more, and use cars and means of transport a bit less. And gyms and shops could play music, but a little lower.

We should also show people the consequences of pollution to help solve this problem.

We would like to know your opinion. So, could you tell us your ideas to solve this noise pollution problem in our country?

Agustina S., Eugenia P., Nahir G. & Soledad M.