Thank You For Caring

My daughter recently rang me out of the blue. She was listening to people talking about this “green wave” and voters wanting action on climate and the environment. She considered how trendy it is now and wanted to thank me for being at it so long, before it became trendy. That was a good day, a strange yet beautiful experience that means more every day and will keep me going when it all seems hopeless. It brought tears of happiness at being thanked by someone special whose future I am fighting for but also tears of inadequacy and sorrow because there is so much more that must be done.

When I first got involved with the transition process back in 2007, in order to dismiss me, politicians and the media referred to me, like many others, as an “environmentalist”. What is an environmentalist? There are lots of definitions thrown up in an online search but mostly it is a term used to discredit people who care about the environment, often implying that they are anti economy or capitalism. It was used to put me in a box but when I considered what it actually means I decided to embrace it! To me an environmentalist is someone who cares and wants to protect their environment for this and future generations. It is nothing to be ashamed about and using it to belittle someone demonstrates an amazing lack of understanding, an intelligence deficit perhaps.

The world needs more environmentalists. Now more than ever. It needs more people standing up for the future. Stopping the destruction now that will prevent our children having the standard of living we have. Aware of the uncertainty around their basic needs to survive. As fish, insects, bees, so many species go extinct and pollution is rife in our waters, land and air. It is that stark yet simple. The world needs care givers. It needs us to care about each other and about our environment. Care enough to restore and regenerate earth to a state where it is worthy of passing on to our children. We need to care enough to be environmentalists and be proud of that fact.

If you want to be an environmentalist in your area and don’t know where to start contact your local Public Participation Network PPN who will have the details of local environmental groups. Full list of PPNs and contacts here. Any trouble contacting someone get back to me and I’ll do my best to help you get involved. It’s all well and good doing your bit at home but now we really need to join forces to combine our efforts and demonstrate to government and industry that we are not taking this destruction any more. Show that we are working together to improve our home, village, town, county, country and beyond for now and the future. Collaboration is key.

Theresa O’Donohoe

June 2nd 2019