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Climate change and the youth movement in Ireland
Rallying the troops.
I was drawn to learning about nature years ago. This passion brought me towards the stark reality of climate change. I started reading about deforestation, our depleting rainforests, desertification, increasing ocean acidity, increasing green house gases and species mass. I couldn’t just sit there and let it happen.
Going to college gave me the opportunity to speak up and to listen. The word ‘justice’ came up a lot. I set out to find out how environmental activism is related to justice, what I needed to do to help the environmental movement in Ireland, what solutions existed and, how we, as students and young people, could make a difference.
Climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, mainly in agriculture. Most theorists believe that it is caused by the increase of greenhouse gas emissions in rich developed nations. However, people who live in undeveloped countries are suffering and facing disasters such as drought, flooding and disease. We, in the developed world should accept responsibility for this now and clean up our act.
Translating this to our government is not as easy. As an environmental activist, I knew that the best way to send a message to the government was to gather a large group of people who feel the same way and who want change.
On Wednesday 23rd March 2011, Young Friends of the Earth and Union of Students Ireland organised a ‘Rally for Environmental Justice’ with 60 young people dressed in Penguin costumes marching from the Dáil Éireann to the Department of the Environment in Custom House. Our message was to call for the government to create sustainable jobs, provide more investment in renewable energy research and technologies in Ireland and to switch to clean fuel.
We used every power we had to promote the Rally by going to every college, setting up information tables and putting up posters. Thankfully, the penguin costumes were a hit with the media and we presented our ‘Sustainable Ireland’ petition, signed by the students of Ireland to the Dáil in an ice block.
The island of Ireland has so many low carbon energy sources and we need to push the government to implement strong energy efficiency actions that radically reduce energy intensity and usage. We need to do this by accelerating the development of green technologies. With this, we can support new enterprises that are working towards a low carbon future for Ireland, Europe and the rest of the world. By doing this we are creating more jobs for our graduates and saving government spending on non-renewable energy sources.
We have to accept responsibility for out impact on the planet and to continue the fight for environmental justice.
By: Tara Clarke - USI Environmental Officer
