September Newsletter
August Newsletter

Welcome to the Young Friends of the Earth monthly newsletter, a round-up of our activities and campaigns this August.

The month began with the inspiring protest against offshore oil and gas drilling, Protect Our Seas, Ditch The Drills on the 6^th August. The drilling in the Porcupine Basin off the south-west coast, approved by the Irish government, would have serious environmental affects both for us and Ireland’s marine life. Protests were held concurrently across the country in the Forty Foot in Sandycove, Co. Dublin, and in Galway, Clare, Cork, Sligo.  Young FoE members were among the protestors, who held red banners and wore red face paint to form red lines on the Irish coastline, to represent a line that cannot be crossed. This protest is part of the Not Here, Not Anywhere campaign, which aims to protect the Irish coasts from oil and gas drilling, for more information, see their Facebook page.

The Citizen's assembly on ‘How the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change’ welcomed submissions from both the public and advocacy groups, by the 11^th August. Young FoE collaboratively wrote their submission, using input from all members, with assembly and editing by Meaghan and Emma. Suggestions and concerns related to non-polluting energy, more climate-friendly transport, waste management, agriculture, government funding to environmental issues, and more were included. The Assembly, a randomly selected group of 100 people, will meet over two weekends to consider the submissions and to submit recommendations to the Houses of Oireachtas on the issue. This was an amazing opportunity to get our voices and knowledge heard on the issue of climate change - well done to everyone who submitted suggestions and made their own submissions to the assembly. Submissions received and more information can be read here.

On the 20^th August, as part of National Heritage Week, Young FoE organised a public wildflower and edible plant walk on Sandymount Strand and Irishtown Nature Reserve in Dublin. Jonathan Roche, medical herbalist from Bray Clinic of Natural Medicine was our guide, teaching us which plants are edible and the medicinal benefits of wildflowers. Despite some not so wonderful weather, the walk was an informative and enjoyable experience, helping us to reconnect to our inner tree hugger selves!

Young FoE also won a heritage week competition for a picture taken on our 'Wildflower and Edible Plant Walk' in Irishtown Nature Reserve, Sandymount. The prize was the picture printed on a water resistant 'Wild by Water' drawstring bag.

On the 23^rd August, we had a Community Composting Workshop at Bí URBAN in Stoneybatter as part of our Food Sovereignty & Urban Greening Campaign. Kaethe Burt O'Dea, owner of Bí URBAN, told us about setting up the Sitric Community Compost – a composting site and community garden in Stoneybatter, and other community events in her area such as the Sitric Picnic. She discussed how these initiatives have played a positive role in addressing various social and environmental challenges. She also explained some of the practicalities of composting, such as what to compost: green and brown materials – sources of nitrogen and carbon respectively, and the types of bins that could be used. This information was invaluable and inspiring to Young FoE, as we would like to support setting up a ‘street composting’ network in D7 & D8 – to connect people who would like access to composting facilities with community gardens who need organic waste for composting.

As a follow up to the wonderful information Kaethe gave us, and to gain more hands-on experience with composting, we're hosting a free composter workshop in Bridgefoot St. garden on Saturday September 16th at 10am. An expert composter from Stop Food Waste will be on hand to demonstrate how to compost effectively, how to make a composting site, how to set up a wormery and how to set up any of this this within your own home and community. Gardeners from Bridgefoot St. will be there too, so a good opportunity to get to know some of them better and you'll most likely pick up a few gardening tips on the day too. All welcome. Bring a packed lunch and tea will be provided.

One of our members Aidan visited Brussels representing Ireland in a Young Friends of the Earth International event. Here he accounts the experience in his own words:

“For the second part of the three-part Erasmus+ project organised and funded by Young Friends of the Earth International, I visited Brussels for a week of workshops. These encompassed the general theme of strengthening the north-south divide. The project involved an exchange between 7 member countries in Europe and their partner countries in Africa. The exchange in Africa had already happened and so this was the European leg.

Conveniently, YFoEI's office is located in Brussels, the centre of EU policy and legislative bureaucracy. The part of the week I derived the most valuable input from was the Brussels lobby tour; while slightly disheartening to become familiarised with the great forces of injustice we're up against, it was also quite effective at stoking the fire of activism in me. Through examples, our tour guide brought us up to speed with the exact methods employed by lobbyists for big tobacco, oil, agriculture and pharmaceutical companies and corporations. These methods undermine the public interest in favour of profit margins. This creates a suboptimal value system; here, law firms can drown environmentally beneficial policies in litigation and misinformation and big oil companies legally have the right to sue countries they have polluted for not letting them pollute more. Needless to say, I came away more determined to make a difference than ever before.

And, overall, I found it to be a very inspiring week, possibly the most inspiring time of my entire year. It's just fantastic to know that there are such a number of very intelligent, passionate and decent people working away on the problems that threaten the fabric of human civilization, in spite of how thankless the job is! It makes one feel less unfortunate about giving a shit.”

Thinkhouse, a youth marketing agency have written an interesting article, garnering opinions on whether young people care about climate change, you can read it here.

We will also have a meeting on September 19^th at 6pm in Comhlámh specifically for new members – please feel free to come along if you’ve never been to a meeting before, and would like to gain more insight into Young Friends of the Earth, what we do, and how you can get involved.

Hoping to see you at a meeting or event soon, and wishing you all the best for September,

Young Friends of the Earth