In a groundbreaking week for Northern Ireland, MLAs debated the ‘existential’ issue of Climate Change in the Assembly chamber for the first time.
I know that it’s not an issue at the top of everyone’s agenda.
And with everything else going on with the DUP pulling their First Minister, trying to stop border checks and the constant drama we can’t seem to escape in this wee place - I can’t blame folks.
Like many of you, I’m feeling the sting of rising food prices and the ever growing cost of staying warm as I work from home.
And I’m still making my way through the Covid nightmare of the last two years that hit each and every one of us.
With so much always going on, it’s totally understandable why many feel their brains have no room to process any more misery or think about how the climate crisis will hurt us in the future.
For some, the here and now is literally all our heads have room on a daily basis - and I get it.
But you should care about the climate crisis and whether we see a Bill passed this Assembly mandate - and this is why.
For all the ridiculous remarks about how warmer weather can only be a good thing and how it really won’t hurt us here - that’s wrong.
Because rising global temperatures can and will.
Already we’ve seen floods, freak weather and a rise in storms coming our way.
Yes, it’s not as bad as what was witnessed in Germany when torrents carried away whole towns or in America, Canada and Australia when wildfires ripped through vast areas leaving everything dead in their wake.
In Northern Ireland, we know air pollution is killing hundreds every year - and it largely comes from the burning of fossil fuels.
We know that people care a lot when the trees along their walk to school or canals are cut down without any consultation - even if it is to strengthen flood defences to save homes in coming decades.
Government stats show that our rivers and lakes are filthy and that Northern Ireland has shocking tree coverage.
Even a child knows we need trees in order to breathe and we all need clean water - they’re both vital for life.
And we are very well aware that what we’re doing is hurting literally every living creature we share NI with - the numbers of bees, butterflies, birds, wild animals and insects are plummeting at alarming rates.
But not only that.
While many of the devastating impacts of greenhouse gases, extractivism and pollution are having on us and our biodiversity happen quietly right under our noises - people in other countries are dying because of global warming.
The climate crisis and biodiversity crises we now face aren’t going to announce our failings with a loud bang or the gusto of Democratic Unionists intent on getting their own way - they are whirring away in the shade many of us constantly throw on both issues.
I don’t blame people with so much on their plate all they can do is get through the day.
But the time is coming when it will be too late and we need everyone who can and is able to start making major changes and educating themselves on the issue at hand.
Did you know Northern Ireland is a bigger emitter than China per head of population?
Did you also know that if our houses were insulated properly, we wouldn’t have to spend nearly the same to heat them?
But to listen to some MLAs you would think the only thing a strong Climate Bill will do, is decimate farming.
I’ve said it here before - and will again - growing food for 10m people when 1.8m live here is one of the major reasons biodiversity is crumbling.
And the money agrifood firms are making from that is the real reason the Ulster Farmers’ Union bused hundreds to Stormont on Tuesday to protest an amendment that would make Edwin Poots’ Bill net-zero.
UFU don’t speak for all farmers though.
They have 11,500 members when NI has around 25,000 farms.
And others who eke out a living on the land spoke in favour of net zero climate action - and the tools to help them make it reality.
What you might not know, is that over two long days of debate, changes to Edwin Poots’ Bill secured funding to help all farmers do what is necessary - something omitted from the DUP Minister’s own legislation.
But agriculture is only a third of our climate problem.
Other amendments to Poot’s Bill will help us drive down emissions in transport and energy by giving active travel 10% of Transport budgets and aiming for a more ambitious renewable energy target.
Changes like that will help us all - because I don’t know about you but I am sick to the back teeth of being held to ransom by oil and gas companies who are hiking their prices even as wholesale cost falls.
But climate legislation also opens up a world of opportunities to help us all lead healthier, happier lives with new green jobs and investment.
Let’s hope Environment Minister Edwin Poots’ and the DUP don’t manage to scupper all the gains of the past week in a last ditch attempt to secure reelection.
He may well pull his Bill after the First Minister resigns but I’m hopeful that with the coalition’s legislation waiting in the wings, we may yet see some legislation this Assembly mandate.
Food for thought
A quarterly environmental event that brings environmental campaigns across NI together in Derry, is meeting today.
And this time the focus of ‘The Gathering’ will be on the stories and politics of seeds.
As well as a workshop on seed planting, all those attending can expect to learn a little about a new seed-saving initiative and hear from Ballycastle youth campaigners.
There will also be music, craic and dance as well as stalls from UseLess Shop, Cycle Recycle and Traidcraft.
Speakers include Eamon McCann, Joanne Butler from OURganic Gardens, Seed-IT Union member Sean Barr and Conor O’Kane from Social Farms and Gardens.
You can register for the event, which will take place from 1-3pm followed by refreshments at St Columbs Park House, by emailing nuala@stcolumbsparkhouse.org.
Green heroes
Two more Northern Ireland councils have passed fossil fuel divestment motions.
Mid Ulster and Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council have added their names to a list that now totals six out of the 11 local government authorities in Northern Ireland.
That means over half of councils here want NILGOSC to ensure no money from the Local Government Pension Scheme they manage to be invested in greenhouse emitting fuels within two years.
Newry Mourne and Down, Belfast City, Fermanagh and Omagh, and Derry City and Strabane previously called for the move.
Dr Seamus Campbell of Fossil Free NI said: “With COP26 highlighting the necessity of urgent climate action, it is imperative that our communities are not fuelling climate catastrophe.
“Calling upon NILGOSC to divest from the fossil fuel industry is one way to do this.”
NILGOSC previously told this reporter they don’t ‘hold any direct equities in coal, oil or gas companies’ but they could not say the same for ‘constituent parts of the indices’.
Quick swap
This weekend, I plan to have a peek in my blue bin to see what I’m chucking in there that I can avoid using in future.
It’s amazing that more and more people are recycling and I for one have managed to cut what goes in my black bin massively - but I think we could all do with an audit on what we are throwing away, whether into the blue bin or black.
I go through a lot of oat milk and while that packaging is recyclable, I’m gonna see what I can do to avoid buying it in cartons at all.
Refill Quarter has a great new oat milk machine where you bring your own bottle and fill it up.
I think it’ll make a big dent in what I tip in the blue bin.
This Feb, why not try something similar?
