Students think green

Reporting back from the Céifin Environment and Climate change conference.

The Shannon-based Céifin Centre for Values-led Change held their second student conference in the GMIT, Galway recently. On the topic of the Environment and Climate Change, there was a wide range of speakers from university lecturers, eco-friendly business leaders and climate change experts.

The festivities opened with welcome addresses by GMIT Student Union President Padraic Flesk and an inspirational speech by Céifin Chairman Fr. Harry Bohan, who paid tribute to the young victims of recent tragedies in Galway. The first night concluded with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, which got a rapturous reception that would set the tone for the event.

The conference hall was filled to capacity for the beginning of the event proper, and all through the day the speakers were met with numerous questions and inquiries from the floor. Fáilte Ireland’s Environmental Officer, Paddy Matthews, then gave a talk on the challenges and opportunities affecting Ireland’s tourism industry. He drew a pretty positive picture of the current state of tourism in Ireland, pointing to a survey they conducted that stated Ireland’s perception abroad was still that of a scenic and green nation. In a similar survey taken with recent visitors to Ireland, the country scored very well in nearly every facet, with the exception being the low volume of litter bins across the country.

A panel discussion on energy efficient solutions, which was notable for being critical of the current Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who had not made himself available to attend the event, nor send a spokesperson. One of the main organisers of the conference, GMIT lecturer Ivan McPhillips, said, “He should be ashamed of himself”, a thought that was met with loud applause from the audience and later emphasised during the students’ feedback session.

Dr. Rowan Fealy, a climate analysis expert from NUI, Maynooth discussed the likely impacts on the Irish landscape of climate change in the coming years. He has considerable gravity of argument and statistics, stating that our current rates of climate change have been accelerating at such an unprecedented level in the history of the planet that even if we could immediately redress the balance it would still amount to a change of .2 of a degree on our climate, going on to say that a rise in Ireland’s average temperature could contribute to a new agriculture boom, with vineyards and even growing olives a distinct possibility in coming years.

Following that the attendants broke into working groups, after which their findings and opinions were presented to the rest of the audience. The final speaker was Dr. Chris Shaw, Professor of Drug Discovery at Queens University Belfast, who spoke about the importance of finding remedies for all types of illnesses, pointing to various cures for afflictions derived from snake venom and frog genomes. He also discussed the possibility of having simulated rainforest environments, similar to that of the Eden Project, here in Ireland. He is currently involved in the development of a new initiative near Bedford in England which will incorporate a visitor’s centre, research facility and even a water park as well as a simulated tropical habitat for both plants and animals.

The USI’s Environment Officer, Dave Curran, and Padraic Flesk then wrapped up the conference, with the outcomes and findings of the two days to be presented at the 10th National Céifin Conference entitled “Tracking the Tiger: A Decade of Change”,  held on the 6th and 7th of November.

Find out more about the Céifin Conference.

By: Paddy Duffy