“We are in a crisis!”
Mary Robinson’s keynote message was the right way to open her Climate Conference – which she promptly re-named the “Climate and Nature Conference – don’t you agree?” The whole audience agreed enthusiastically.
Tom turned to me. “Mary Robinson CAN!” he smiled. A fitting acronym for “climate and nature”!
Shortly after, Mary’s team had changed the backdrop to its new moniker, “The Mary Robinson Climate and Nature Conference.”
Everyone agreed to the change in the knowledge that climate change and our respect for and valuing of nature are directly related. In fact, a repeated message during the week was the inter-connectedness of issues and challenges including gender, place, security, energy consumption and climate and energy justice. It is nature in crisis that is causing climate change. We are gobbling the Earth up. Eight billion people need to eat; and we continue to rely on pesticides, herbicides, mono-culture, and meat-based agriculture to feed ourselves. We can, and do, work with nature to feed more than half the global population, yet the destructive impact of our current agricultural practices are killing us slowly.
It’s been a huge pleasure and honor to count ourselves as sponsor of her conference. Feast Upon The Earth was exhibited at the Ballina Civic Centre for the week. Depicting existence, Earth and humanity, the timescape examines these connections in a visual, graphic way. Visitors to the Ballina Civic Centre immersed themselves in the big picture story, encouraging us to continue to share the thought-provoking work widely (next stop: dlr Lexicon!)
We were delighted to find ourselves at dinner with Mary at a friend’s house (there was an 80th birthday cake involved) the same weekend as we wrapped up the MRCC. Right after wrapping up her own conference, Mary had crossed the country to speak at the Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas. Indefatigable and a self-described “angry granny”, Mary is enthusiastic about Project Dandelion. We first heard her talk about it at DCU’s climate conference in April. Dandelions are “resilient, global; regenerate the soil with their deep roots”, which are detoxifying, and the entire plant is edible. Dandelions aren’t just a symbol, they’re part of the solution – recognising that we have natural solutions right under our noses, and using them to best effect.
I bought a copy of Mary’s Climate Justice book, expecting impressive but dry UN-speak. What a revelation it was to read about women’s experience when climate disaster strikes. American, South American, African, Asian – Mother Nature does not discriminate, only humans do. The parallel between gender, race and socio-economic struggles is depicted through several very personal stories of overcoming the massive price that climate change exacts on women, economically disadvantaged communities, and the “global South”. Get the book, it will clarify how big the problem is and what can be done to mitigate the harm we (the Global North) have done to women – all women, not just those in the Global South, itself a re-framing of the issue as I had understood it.
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