December Newsletter

Young FoE December Newsletter

Greetings you terrific Young Friend of the Earth and a happy new year to all of you! We hope the Christmas season was peaceful and restorative; it certainly was for yours truly (Aidan), hence the slight delay in producing this newsletter, the last one for 2017! Hopefully, it will round off the year’s activities nicely and generate a bit of a buzz about what’s on the calendar going forward.

Upcoming events:

• On Tuesday January 16th we're being treated to workshop on debt and tax justice and how that relates to environmental issues with Debt and Development Coalition Ireland. Register via Eventrbite here if you'd like to join as places are limited! It will be from 6-9pm in Comhlámh, 12 Parliament Street (ring the buzzer).
• The Irish Climate Case brought forward by Friends of the Irish Environment mentioned above will be appearing in court for the second hearing on January 30^th. The response of the Irish government to the accusations of negligence will be made public and, hopefully, they will be held to account as other governments have been throughout the world! You can follow the case on their page or show your support by turning up on the day! https://www.facebook.com/climatecaseire/
• If you haven’t been to a Young FoE meeting yet, then why not pop along to our next meeting specifically designed to welcome new members and get up to speed on what we’re working on! It will take place on Tuesday January 30^th from 6-8pm in Comhlamh, and will be facilitated by David and Aideen.
• On February 7^th, the Climate Emergency Bill will be debated in The Dáil. This bill was introduced in response to the egregious lack of focus at COP23 on reducing fossil fuel use and the inadequacy of measures resulting therefrom! You can follow proceedings on the Twitter page of our esteemed colleagues at NotHereNotAnywhere and, of course, showing up at government buildings and making some noise is always an option.

Something YOU could help with!

A YFoE subgroup, along with some associates, have spent the Eco-Christmas Party raffle money on buying over 300 trees worth of tree packs to be planted at various sites around Dublin on February 10^th ; we are still in need of a few more sites to plant for this beautiful project and have just under a month to source them so if any of our dear readers think they might have an appropriate site where a land-owner might want or need a few trees, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

Public Participation Networks (PPN)

On Tuesday, December 5^th, we had our first campaign meeting of the month which was quite a momentous one! It featured two special guest speakers who were good enough to drop in; Catherine from the Irish Environmental Network (IEN) and Councillor Nial Ring of Dublin City Council (DCC). Catherine informed us about a community initiative known as Public Participation Networks (PPN) and encouraged YFoE to get involved. The implementation of PPNs is a UN initiative which is supposed to facilitate a voice for local communities in political decision-making; PPNs have environmental, social inclusion and community pillars. They meet about five times per year and we at YFoE are currently putting together a team to sign up to be a part of this wonderful undertaking!

Engaging with Dublin City Council

Councillor Nial Ring is an independent councillor who is passionate about the environment and was good enough to use his position of power to ask questions of the DCC Chief Executive about Bridgefoot St Community Garden. He came to our meeting to discuss the reply, to offer advice as to what to do next. He also offered general advice about the inner workings of the DCC and other public bodies and how to effectively influence them as well as mentioning several sources for funding. The current situation with the Bridgefoot St Community Garden, after a productive meeting between Robert Moss of An Taisce and the City Parks Superintendent Leslie Moore, is that they will be able to renew their lease on a monthly basis, an outcome which is considered a great success (month-by-month can sometimes go on indefinitely!). Councillor Ring also reminded us of the power we have as citizens to get our voices heard; we can use social media for pressure, we can make submissions as part of public consultation, we could attend Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) meetings and air grievances and we can target specific people within the DCC for particular purposes. All in all, we came away from this meeting feeling very empowered!

Litigating for Climate Change

On the eve of Wednesday, December 6^th, a few of us attended a seminar on ‘Litigating for climate change’ with Dennis Van Berkel and Dr. Andrew Jackson, an event which examined climate-related lawsuits that have been taken against governments around the world by citizens of their countries. Our very own David McMullin described it thusly -

“It was really good. Very interesting to get an overview of climate change cases worldwide, from the successful case in the Netherlands (which Dennis Van Berkel litigated) and the political results of that success, to a case in Switzerland being taken by older women on the basis that their demographic is the most likely to die as heat waves get hotter and more frequent. It was also great to get information about the climate case underway in Ireland right now being taken by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) on the basis that the National Mitigation Plan does not fulfil the action required by the climate act. The case in the Netherlands incorporated a large campaign of public support which, regardless of the outcome, made it clear to the government that greater action was required.”

That’s right, the FIE are taking a case against the Irish government for inaction on climate change right now! If you'd like to help build a public campaign around the Irish case, you can like the climate case facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/climatecaseire/ - or come along to the next court appearance on January 30th. These are exciting times!

Eco-Activism Christmas Party

On Friday, December 8^th, several of our members organised an Eco-Christmas Party to raise funds to buy trees for the Trees on the Land project that was mentioned in the last newsletter! The event, which was subtly titled ‘All I want for Christmas is (Eco)-Activism!’ on facebook, took place downstairs in Madigan’s Pub on O’Connell St and was a smashing success; the room was full with about 70 people at one point and the atmosphere was vibrant! It brought together representatives from over fifteen different environmental activist groups and initiatives from around the country and was a great opportunity to network and spread ideas!

It involved eco-arts & crafts tables, elevator pitches from each group, speed-greeting, a table quiz, a raffle, vegan finger food and any amount of festive tomfoolery! The raffle was run entirely on donated prizes and raised €263.50 to be spent on buying trees to be planted around Dublin, a task which we are now in the process of carrying out. I know we wax lyrical about this a lot in these newsletters but it is always truly uplifting to have an event like this which reminds you, once again, just how many people there are out there who really do care and are willing to help make a difference. Thank you to our very own Aideen, Ciara, Meaghan, Allan Clem & Mícheál for organising it! Thanks too to everyone who joined on the evening.

Bridgefoot Street Community Garden

Bridgefoot St Community Garden became an outdoor concert venue on the 10^th of December, when a lovely little carol service was held there and the Christmas lights were officially turned on! This involved various members of the Bridgefoot community, along with a few Young Friends of the Earth, sharing song sheets and trying to remember the melodies of various Christmas classics! We won’t claim to be the next NYPD choir singin’ Galway Bay but we certainly gave it socks and, since it was a very cold, still day, the sound carried a good distance, much to the dismay of neighbours. On this same day, Adrian O’Connell filmed a short video interview with Robert, the head honcho over at the garden, which will be released soon. It was also the day when Aideen brought along some of her famous baked vegan brownies which went down a treat as always! The garden was looked lovely as well, with many vegetables soldiering on through the harsh weather!

RAMSI Solidarity Dinner

On December 16th, a refugee and migrant solidarity dinner was held in the venue Jigsaw in Dublin 1 which a few of our members attended. It was organised by a coalition of The Irish Housing Network, Refugee and Migrant Solidarity Ireland (RAMSI) and the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI). Sinéad Mercier gives us a moving account of the event at the bottom of this newsletter (see below)*

Food Sovereignty Webinar

Finally, the first in a series of Food Sovereignty webinars was hosted by Young Friends of the Earth Europe’s Food and Agriculture Working Group on December 18th from 18.00 – 20.00 on the online meeting platformIMG_20180112_105808_01_01 Zoom! Since this is exactly what our current campaign is about, we are delighted to have the opportunity to gain further understanding. This first webinar explored what the term 'Food Sovereignty’ means and was led by guest speaker Sunčana Pešak. The structure of the webinar entailed a presentation which lasted for half an hour and then an open, facilitated discussion with an intriguing range of questions from all involved. This generated a very engaging discussion which benefited greatly from the expertise of Sunčana Pešak; she is an activist and author from Croatia who specializes in topics such as permaculture, peasant rights, protection of traditional varieties of seeds, sustainable food systems and more. This was, overall, a highly stimulating discussion which we are happy is taking place and are even happier to be a part of! The more perspectives we can gain on a topic, the better we will be able to implement actions around it!

Chew on This!

And finally, exciting news! We will be launching ‘Chew on This’, an educational and event series all about food sovereignty on March 31^st! This series will include monthly events which will be examining some aspect of food sovereignty. We will, of course, be making plans more public closer to the time so watch this space, dear readers, and we will keep you posted!

That’s it for 2017 folks. Even though we’ve only been delivering the news for the latter half of the year, it’s truly been a pleasure to do so! Thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to see what this year will bring us to write about; hopefully plenty!

Until next time,

YFoE Team (words by Aidan Ring)

Quote of the month: Hannah - "Veggies rule!"

*RAMSI Solidarity dinner* Words by Sinéad Mercier

"The dinner was a simple and humane coming together of refugees and migrants in Direct Provision, housing rights campaigners and others in solidarity with those groups in Jigsaw Community Centre. There was a birthday for two Syrian lads staying in a Reception Centre in Ballaghaderreen under the Government's much-criticized refugee resettlement programme. We spoke to one young man (fab dancer and birthday cake organiser) who told us of his father being killed in bombings in Damascus and his and his wife’s fight to secure protection for his wife's family still in Syria fleeing war. He spoke of the flaws in the current Irish refugee program which have prevented him from completing his Accountancy studies and led to deep feelings of intense isolation in his temporary community. We also spoke with people who have fled the effects of climate change in Pakistan where melting glaciers and increased heat-waves have damaged communities. Michelle Russell, from the Irish Housing Network, spoke passionately about the connection between struggles for housing and the rights of refugees and migrants. Both issues involve exploitation of ordinary people by private companies facilitated by the state. Dodgy landlords and untaxed vulture funds are exploiting lax vacant sites and tenant protection regimes in Ireland to introduce high rents, dereliction and illegal evictions. All of this contributes to the current homelessness crisis and an inability for people in DP to leave their containment. It was an event structured on meaningful speeches that outlined the situation, campaigns in progress, successes in protecting tenants from illegal evictions and existing problems of people facing eviction from a direct provision centre in Mountjoy Square. But ultimately it was an event about talking, laughing, eating. An event accepting, and in that forgetting, all the differences and complexities of these situations and simply being with others; breaking down the cold boundaries that neoliberalism has built between people to stop them realising they have common aims and can work together to achieve a better, flourishing community. A great letter which explains far better the solidarity aims of the dinner was written by Rosie Southgate to the Irish Times last month."