Education

Uimhir Thagarta Uathúil: 
WFD-C20-CAP23-17
Stádas: 
Submitted
Údar: 
Patrick Kirwan
Comhairliúchán: 
Climate Action Plan Pre-Draft Consultation
Líon na ndoiciméad faoi cheangal: 
0
Teorainneacha Gafa ar an léarscáil: 
Tá
Údar: 
Patrick Kirwan

Litir Chumhdaigh

I am teacher of science and sustainability in Ardscoil na Mara. I've been working on engaging students and the public with nature for over a decade in the UK and Ireland. I am deeply concerned about the twin climate and biodiversity crises. In March 2021 I founded the Irish Schools Sustainability Network to bring together teachers and students to work together to change the education system from within.

The climate and biodiversity crisis is terrifying. The more you know the more terrifying it is. The lack of public awareness about the scale and magnitude of the emergency and urgency needed for action causes me further anxiety. I teach sustainability to about 300-400 students a year. I have many climate and nature conversations with students, colleagues, people in the community, people who are outside of my own echo chamber. The public at large do not understand the basic science. They do not understand what the future looks like for themselves or their children. We are not connecting the dots between climate, biodiversity loss, the housing crisis, health and healthcare, the availability of food, air pollution, the cost of living , inequality, and the standard of living.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres said

"Current policies are taking the world to a 2.8 degree temperature rise by the end of the century. That spells catastrophe. Yet the collective response remains pitiful. We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open with far too many willing it all on wishful thinking and unproven technologies and silver bullet solutions. It's time to wake up and step up." (June 15, 2023)

It is well recognised that we need rapid transformational change but I don't understand how this will happen if the public are deeply unaware of what is going on. We need public support for the monumental actions that government and business need to take.

Addressing the climate and biodiversity crises will pave the way for a better quality of life. Having uncomfortable conversations will help us to recognise where we are and address the perilous situation we are in. I am frequently asked how can you teach this to children without terrifying them. There are strategies that we as teachers can use, leaning into action, cutting through fear and anxiety with interest, but we cannot diminish their anxiety when they see their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers and principals, continuing to go about their lives as normal. They have seen what an emergency response looks like when they experienced covid. To date they have not witnessed this response for the climate and biodiversity crisis, a far more complex and existential crisis.

Observations

Land use for climate mitigation & adaptation, community resilience and boosting biodiversity.

Caibidil: 
Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)

'Waterford City and County Council is responsible for monitoring and protecting Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protected Areas, many of which are wetlands. The Council has also committed to increasing tree cover on council managed grounds to 20%.'

Looking at Lemybrien as a case study (the area where I grew up).  There must be 2 acres of land or more in the community space that is just mown grass.  It's valuable space that could be used to build a more resilient community.  Planting trees, pollinator patches, community composting, micro solar & wind power generation, rainwater harvesting, community orchards and vegetable plots, seating areas.  This could address a myriad of issues, isolation & loneliness, climate adaptation (cooling & flood reduction), boosting biodiversity, improving community mental health, youth engagement etc.

If we want this to happen it depends on voluntary action. Some are fearful of putting their head above the parapet.  Others already have lots of responsibility and feelings of guilt in their own lives with jobs and families. Understandably they don't want to take on more responsibility and associated guilt.

Here are some solutions:

Employ 'roaming' sustainability leads for communities.  These people are trained in communication, relationship building, permaculture and have a wide range of skills to build resilience in the community.  They would have responsibility for taking on projects in community settings and working with locals to develop them.  These people have the responsibility and are supported by locals.  I've used this model in a community setting in the UK and welcomed locals into a 'guilt free zone'.  Without the feeling of responsibility local people gave up a lot of time to work in a community setting because they were welcomed, appreciated, they got to socialise, and they didn't feel guilt or a crushing weight of responsibility.

Provide a list of actions that communities can take with an associated pot of funding.  Planting Trees - 1000, creating meadows (signage) - 500, micro-solar generation - 50 000.  Make it easy for people and put the resources in place for it to happen.

 

 

 

Main opinion: 

Communities need support to better use council land for climate adaptation and mitigation, building resilient communities, addressing biodiversity loss.

Main requests: 

The support needs to be in the form of funding for materials and paid sustainability community leads who are attached to communities.

Main reasons: 

We are requiring individual champions in communities to step up and volunteer their time when they already have numerous responsibilities tied to their jobs and families.

Conflicting information

Caibidil: 
Agriculture

I feel for farming communities.  They have been driven down a direction for a very long time by big agri business and poor government policy that doesn't serve their needs or the needs of the public.  There are many farmers out there who feel marginalised and worried about what the future looks like.  Misinformation doesn't help.  We live in a very noisy environment with conflicting messaging.

Ireland is not food secure.  We import over 85% of our fruit and vegetables.  This needs to change and farmers need to be supported and incentivised to make this happen.

'The Council will look to liaise with farmers on climate action.'

Serious investment is needed for education to build confidence among the farming community in understanding the issues we face, what that means for them & their families and the industry, and better environmentally friendly regenerative farming practices.  We should also be paying farmers who use regenerative farming practices to deliver peer-peer support.  Perhaps the council could set up a paired buddy system.  We need to build community in all industries.  The council could facilitate this.

'The Council has responsibility for enforcing Nitrate and Water Quality legislation and carries out farm inspections to ensure these pieces of legislation are adhered to.'

This needs proper resourcing so the council can test water quality and enforce this legislation.

 

 

 

 

Main opinion: 

More support is needed for the farming community for a just transition.

Main requests: 

Pay farmers who are using regenerative farming practices to offer peer-peer support.

Main reasons: 

The agriculture sector is the sector with the biggest emissions. The voice of the small farmer is lost. We need to heavily resource education so we can cut through the noise and better support farmers.

If we want to change behaviour we need to put the resourcing in place.

Caibidil: 
Waste

Changing knowledge, attitudes, and practices takes grit, time, resources and and a lot of energy.  Students deserve this education but adults to do and they are not receiving it. 

In my school, as an example, we have bins for recycling & waste, in numerous places on numerous floors.  The signage associated with these bins is incorrect.  The only bin for compostable waste is on the ground floor.  Waste in all bins ends up being mixed.  I am not sure if anything gets recycled.  To address this, one solution would mean correcting the signage, adding additional bins for composting, an educational campaign and re-launch across the school, regular audits multiple times a week across the year, and the results regularly communicated.  This is a phenomenal amount of work and no teacher will take this on as they have enough on their plate with other extra-curricular activities etc.  When adults or students are asked what can we do? The main answer we get back is recycle and we still don't get that right.  Other teachers in other schools in the Irish Schools Sustainability Network report back the same thing.  We should be talking about not generating the waste in the first place as well as a host of other things.

Solutions I would suggest are:

Employ a sustainability officer in each school who builds confidence among staff and students.  Their remit should include: buildings, outdoors, curriculum, procurement, waste management, catering etc.  They would be coordinating the work in school.  This is a mammoth job and it needs resourcing.  In time hopefully the role would be dissolved as sustainability will be everyone's job!  If I was personally offered such a position for a few days a week I wouldn't dream of taking it as it would give me sleepless nights.  It's a big job and we have a long road to travel. Schools vary in science in places you could have roaming sustainability officers who are attached to X number of schools and work in each school for a day or two a week.

Run courses for adults in schools and communities to help them to connect with and understand all sustainability issues.

 

 

 

Main opinion: 

It takes grit, hard work, a lot of resources, and a lot of energy to change knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Main requests: 

Employ a sustainability officer in each school. Run courses for adults in the community.

Main reasons: 

We need rapid transformational change and the resources that we currently have to hand are not enough.

Suímh a bhaineann leis an submission seo agus le observations

Faisnéis

Uimhir Thagarta Uathúil: 
WFD-C20-CAP23-17
Stádas: 
Submitted
Dáta a cuireadh isteach: 
23.06.2023 - 14:03
Líon na ndoiciméad faoi cheangal: 
0
Teorainneacha Gafa ar an léarscáil: 
Tá
Comhairliúchán: 
Climate Action Plan Pre-Draft Consultation

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