The recently-concluded Shanghai International Children's Culture and Arts Festival has brought together almost 2,000 children from 17 countries. The event aims to help the kids picture a greener future for our planet.

A green and low-carbon life style' is the theme for the Children's Arts Festival, echoing the call for "sustainable living" from last year's World Expo.

A green and low-carbon life style' is the theme for the Children's Arts Festival, echoing the call for "sustainable living" from last year's World Expo. Pictures painted by children from different parts of the world show off their imagination of a greener future. The children also speak out on ways to cut down carbon emissions, and their ideas for innovations that will change contemporary ways of living.

11-year-old Hungarian boy Lazar Toth is already somewhat savvy in science and technology. He showed off his thoughts on necessities some 20 years into the future. A car powered by water, a house run by solar energy, and an intelligent android that assists people in daily activities.

Lazar Toth said, "I think it's easy to live a low-carbon lifestyle, if we can design more user-friendly automobiles, robots, and houses. I think, these cars, houses, and robots will use more solar energy, and power generated by water."

Yang Xinyu, a boy from China, also thinks science and wisdom show the way to create a greener lifestyle. He even set his goal to become a designer for green products.

Yang Xinyu said, "In my understanding, to reach a low-carbon goal, we will need minimum gas emissions. We won't rely on natural gas and electricity to have a normal life. I will create some strange things that have zero gas emission, such as a cooking machine without burning fuel or gas."

The forum also extended the topics from living, eating, clothing, and traveling to broader issues concerning the world, such as climate change, renewable energy, and animal protection.

Georgie Bolton from Australia said, "An ideal planet is a place that doesn't have much pollution, is where everyone can enjoy environment much more, where animals are taken good care of, where we cherish everything we've been given. I think we have hope, we need to unite like a big united nation, because nobody can succeed on one's own."

Unification is indeed important part of saving the planet. As children make friends from different backgrounds, we see hope for the future generation and for our planet.