Labour Forum with Environment NGOS in Kinsale
Posted on April 26, 2010 at 04:05 PM
Kinsale, Home of the Transition Town Movement, was the location for Labour's second Environment NGO Forum. The Forum was formally opened by Mayor of Kinsale Tomás O'Brien and addressed by Senator Michael McCarthy, Labour spokesperson on the Marine. Michael commended the people of Kinsale for their initiative in founding the Transition Town Movement and suggested that the transition town model could provide a means for economic activity in towns such as Kinsale, which are experiencing the negative impacts of the recession and other factors such as the regulation of the fishing industry. I also addressed the Forum welcoming the participants and explaining that the forum was organised for us to learn from environmental non governmental organisations and local environmental activists who work on the ground.
Labour Environment and Sustainability Policy Group Co Chair, Bronwen Maher chaired the proceedings which centred on presentations by groups affiliated to the Cork Environmental Forum. Patrick Treacy, Development Coordinator of the Cork Environmental Forum, introduced these presentations. We then had a presentation by Phoebe Bright about the experiences of representatives from the Environmental Pillar on local authority Strategic Policy Committees. She also highlighed the need for us to examine our use of language when it came to concepts such as sustainability, and, how often people used the word sustainable when it was not appropriate to the context. Klaus Harvey, from the Transition Town Movement, spoke about the transition town model and the Kinsale transition town model. He gave examples of the projects carried out by local people to achieve transition town status, including the promotion of locally produced food and efforts to initiate renewable energy projects. Tony Cain from the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) spoke about the need to get River Basin Management Plans right. Richard Auler from the Friends of the Irish Environment finished up the presentations with his address on the issue of GMO foods and their impact.
Following a break for coffee and scones and a chat, we re-assembled to hear Declan Waugh from the Partnership For Change give a presentation on the issues of climate change and peak oil. Of particular interest, for the audience, were the maps Declan showed us that illustrated the population by County in Ireland just before the Famine. Cork at the time had by far the biggest population, with Mayo holding the next highest number of residents. The famine had a huge impact in both reducing the population of Ireland and also in terms of shifting the balance of population from West to East and to Dublin. The impacts of Climate Change, such as water scarcity in parts of the world, could dictate where people would choose to reside on our planet in the future.
We then had a question and answer session with myself, Bronwen Maher, Ciaran Lynch T.D. and Senator Michael McCarthy. As well as the Mayor of Kinsale, the Mayor of Bandon, Gearóid Buckley also spoke and Kinsale Town councillor, Cllr. Tony Cierans also participated. There were many contributions from the floor from local environmental activists and members of the local Labour Party in Cork South West, including Kevin McCarthy, Constituency Secretary, and Carmel Nic Airt, Constituency Chairperson. Our event was also, coincidentally, well timed. It took place the same day that Kinsale held its Eco Spring Fair, which was launched by Labour Mayor Tomás O'Brien.
For me, as Labour Spokesperson on Environment and Heritage, I learnt a lot from the Presentations made by the members of the Cork Environmental Forum, Partnership for Change and the Friends of the Irish Environment, as well as the contributions from local activists and Labour members and public representatives. I hope that Labour can use the exchange of information that took place at our forum to inform us when we build on and deliver our policies on the Environment. Many thanks to all involved in participating and organising the event.
Bronwen Maher, who coordinated the Forum has also blogged about this event at
www.bronwenmaher.com
Photographs taken at the event are available at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/labourparty/
Tweets from Labour Kinsale can be viewed at
Comments
Was there any questioning of the conservative position on g.m. food? I asked the dept. why g.m. was restricted in Ireland and was essentially told that it was because the Greens in govt. wanted it. I was stupidly opposed to G.M. until I started to question and discovered no significant opposing scientific data. There are - as with all things - anti-capitalist concerns.
Colum,
No one questioned it. The gist, as I understood it, of what Richard Auler was calling for was there would be no growing of GM crops for 5 years to allow time to carry out research. I think a lot of people feel a bit agnostic about the issue.
I probably would be inclined a bit like you, that my initial inclination was anti gm, but now I am questioning why. I know the arguments for organic food are different but I was tending to go for organic food and presuming it was better, but less so now because of the recession and also publicity for research that indicated no qualitative difference between organic food and food not identified as organic. I do like the idea of food that is from small local farms with less pesticides and all of that though. I would tend to react against this idea of patented food and big corporations controlling food output, which is the perception I have of the gm food producers. I think I need to read up on the issue a bit more. Interestingly didn't the Roman Catholic church come out in favour of gm food a couple of years ago?
Apparently a lot of food we buy as it stands includes gm incredients.
Joanna,
The following might interest you. There are anti-gm docs available too on the second site.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/can-gm-food-save-the-world/
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