Upcoming Food and Farming Events - Join us this Harvest Season
Issued in the blog on August 26, 2020 at 20:15:00.
Harvest season is upon us - it’s time to start enjoying the fruits of our labour! It’s also a good time to think about saving seed and showing gratitude to the farmers and producers who have been working hard over the summer months to feed us. With this in mind, we are very excited to announce a month of nationwide activities to promote sustainable food production and celebrate agriculture and farming!
We have a suite of workshops and talks coming up over the next month and we hope to see you at some of them! All workshops are free to attend. Our events will be in strict adherence with government guidelines on COVID-19 – please see our COVID-19 event precautions.
Workshops & Talks
Supreme Court climate ruling must spur urgent Government action to reduce emissions faster
Issued in news on July 31, 2020 at 13:01:00.
For immediate release
31st July 2020
The judgement will have significant ramifications both nationally and internationally.
Government must act now to reduce emissions in the short term and deliver a new stronger climate law within its first 100 days with ambitious 5 year carbon budgets.
Make your promise on LNG a policy!
Issued in campaign actions.
We want to see a robust Government policy statement on Liquefied Natural Gas
Transformative Political Education: Read and Watch Lists
Issued in the blog on July 03, 2020 at 17:37:00.
A commitment to a continuing process of critical thinking is a necessary tool in every change-maker’s repository.
The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.
- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
By expanding our critical awareness of the world around us, by interrogating the root causes of systemic injustices, and by challenging ourselves to unlearn what has been inculcated within us, we transform ourselves and the world we live in.
PfG Your questions answered
Issued in the blog on July 01, 2020 at 14:16:00.
In advance of our webinar on the Programme for Government (June 23rd), we asked our supporters to submit questions about the proposed Programme that we could put to our panellists. We received over 300 questions, which were grouped into topics that then formed the basis of our webinar discussion. Unfortunately, we didn’t get time during the webinar to address every question or topic, but here is a flavour of what issues did come up, and what was particularly important for our supporters to have more information on.
New Government "gets Ireland to the starting line" on climate action
Issued in news on June 27, 2020 at 12:34:00.
Strong climate law in first 100 days essential to ensuring Progamme for Government is delivered
Commenting on the formation of a new Government Friends of the Earth Director, Oisin Coghlan said:
"The Progamme of the new Government is the strongest we have ever seen on climate action. But it only gets Ireland to the starting line in the race to contain climate breakdown. Our emissions were the same in 2019 as they were in 2009.
"The focus is now on delivery of the commitments in the Progamme for Government, and especially a new stronger climate law within the first 100 days. A climate law that will see the Dáil adopting two 5-year carbon budgets making the pledge to cut emissions in half by 2030 legally binding.
PfG: 'Our best chance of faster and fairer climate action over the next 5 years
Issued in news on June 15, 2020 at 17:40:00.
Commenting on the proposed Programme for Government, Oisín Coghlan, Director of Friends of the Earth said: “This is by far the strongest Programme for Government on climate action we have ever seen.
“Is it perfect? No. Is it everything we need to do? No. But it can put Ireland on the path to implementing the Paris Agreement and shed our climate laggard label. And in some areas Ireland would become a genuine world leader.”
“The commitment to an average 7% annual reduction in polluting emissions is a huge step forward. “And crucially, a new climate law will translate that 7% target into legally-binding 5-year carbon budgets, which will specify a limit on how much pollution each sector can emit.
Have your say on the future of fossil gas in Europe!
Issued in the blog on June 10, 2020 at 15:04:00.
Join this zoom call with Friends of the Earth, Not Here Not Anywhere, Food and Water Action Europe and the Gastivists Collective on June 18th to learn how to have your say on energy policy in Europe.
Register here at this link!
On the call, you will be:
- Brought up to speed on the TEN-E (Trans-European Networks-Energy) Regulation
- Learn how this impacts the notorious PCI Process which facilitated Shannon LNG
- Receive submission guidelines from some of those working on resisting fossil gas across Europe
Black Lives Matter
Issued in the blog on June 10, 2020 at 11:28:00.
Although we may not understand what it’s like to experience violence and discrimination due to racism, we stand in solidarity with those in the United States and across the world whose lives have been and continue to be severely and negatively impacted by structural racism.
The discrimination, brutality, violence and murder that caused the deaths of George Floyd, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Breonna Taylor, to name but a few, is a manifestation of the same false and dangerous perception of difference based on skin colour that is rampant in Ireland, and visible in the way this country treats migrants & asylum seekers via the abhorrent system of direct provision.
Public support for climate action in Ireland among highest in Europe
Issued in news on June 05, 2020 at 12:16:00.
Large majorities in rural Ireland support greater climate action on transport, housing and farming
Public support for climate action in Ireland is among the highest in Europe, according to new analysis of opinion poll data published by Friends of the Earth to mark World Environment Day. Asked whether government should prioritize climate action in the economic recovery from Covid-19, 63% of the Irish public said yes, the joint highest in Europe along with France and Italy. And asked whether their government would be failing its people if it does not act now to combat climate change 71% of Irish people said yes, with only France and Spain registering a higher percentage. On that question Ireland is significantly ahead of New Zealand (63%), Canada (60%), Germany (58%), US (57%) and Sweden (55%) [1].
Commenting on the results, Oisín Coghlan, Director of Friends of the Earth said:
