Green Drinks - 4th February Pedagogy Plant

This month the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch at its Green Drinks Dublin event, came along to hear Adrian Bannon, author, entrepreneur, lawyer and founder of multiple initiatives such as the wonderful Pedagogy Plant, an initiative aiming to connect creative people, companies, industries and colleges all over the globe through collaborative tree planting. Inspired by the famous copper beech 'Autograph Tree' in Galway, a tree home to the signatures of many of Ireland's greatest artists, writers, thinkers and activists, Adrian aims to inspire us into positive movement and change.

The goals at Pedagogy Plant are 'TREEFOLD': Awareness, Creativity and Talent (A.C.T):

1. to encourage schools, community colleges, universities, CEO's of companies and other creative institutions in several countries to plant their own AUTOGRAPH / ALUMNI TREES (a single copper beech tree or other suitable tree ) that will house the 'autograph' signatures of those college achieving students' and employees' in 10, 20, 30, 40 and 100 years time.

2. to have citizens, friends, families, groups and pro-active communities , grass-roots developments to plant trees to celebrate their LOCAL creativity, milestones and successes and take PHOTOS / VIDEOS of the planting to send it to Pedagogy Plant on Facebook or via email.

3.apart from local creators to also have a national Pedagogy Plant Facebook Page for every country in the world.

As well as Ireland Pedagogy Plant have helped to create tree planting in Spain, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon and India among other places. Truly a GLOBAL initiative!

December 3rd - Green Drinks Antarctic Adventure

This month the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch heard the wonderful Eimear Carlin come to talk to us about her adventures to the ends of the earth! Eimear was selected as the only Irish participant on the 2041 Antarctic Youth Ambassador Programme in 2013. The present Antarctic Treaty which states that Antarctica is to be used only for scientific and peaceful purposes expires in 2041, and the aim of the programme is to create an international coalition of youth defenders who will champion renewable energy as the path to saving the continent in the future.

In March she completed an expedition to Antarctica with representatives from major oil and gas companies, and 18 young future leaders from around the world. The aim of this expedition was to raise awareness about the Antarctic Treaty and the importance of protecting the continent for future generations. In June, Eimear also travelled extensively in the Canadian Arctic and saw first-hand the effects of climate change, and intensive destruction of natural resources on Indigenous populations and the natural environment in the North. 

17th November - birdwatching for beginners at Booterstown Marsh

The Dublin Branch of IWT went birdwatching for beginners at Booterstown Sanctuary on Sunday, 17 November. Once again we were fortunate to have Sean Hogan (Birdwatch Ireland) as our guide for this event which attracted some 20 IWT members. As ever, Sean had everything well prepared; with background information about the marsh and its history, handouts containing information about the species in residence and good advice about bird identification guides and the best binoculars to use. We were very lucky to spot many of the birds that Sean had highlighted in his handout. All in all a very enjoyable few hours with very positive feedback from those in attendance.

Barbara 

Eoin leads the way

Looking out over Booterstown Marsh

I wonder where the birdies are?

Sean gives us the benefit of his wisdom

12th November Green Drinks - Granby Park

On Tuesday November 12th the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch gathered in J.W. Sweetmans (formerly Messrs Maguires on Burgh Quay to hear Annemarie Ní Churreáin a, writer, arts worker and co-founder of the non-profit voluntary arts collective that is the wonderful Upstart! The mission of Upstart is too highlight the importance of creativity and ingenuity in solving society's problems, and in particular by bringing arts to the community. Upstart's first project was to put 1,000 images of public art to the streets of Dublin during the last general election, which turned into one of the biggest public arts projects in the history of the state.

Upstart 'election' poster

This year, Upstart transformed a vacant space on Dominick Street, in the center of Dublin city, into a pop-up park over four weeks from August to September. Granby Park consisted of up-cycled, recycled, donated and found material and featured some of the city’s most talented artists, architects, performers and planners contributing to making an empty space a playground for all. For four weeks the park hosted free arts events, an outdoor theatre and cinema, live music and educational activities and a pop-up café. The park was made possible by collaboration with Dublin City council, planners, landscape planners, architects, designers, research and education groups and most importantly, the local community. The aim of the project was to show how vacant spaces in the city could be used creatively and to bring something special to Dublin city and its residents. It also aimed to provide a lift to people's spirits and counter the apathy and negativity so prevalent in these austerity times.

Panoramic View of Granby Park

Music event on the stage made from pallets

October 1st Green Drinks - Exotic Pets

This month the IWT Dublin Branch heard Kayleigh Keegan, founder of Kayleigh's Sanctuary for Exotic Pets, talk about the weird pet fads created by cartoon classics, and the disastrous environmental effects that follow.

A lot of fads for exotic pets start from films. A love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films brought a mania for terrapins, and  the Harry Potter films created an urge for owls. But what happens when the films end? Buyer beware: Michelangelo will live for 40 years, Hedwig will not nip you affectionately, and Babe is listed as one of the worst invasive species in the world.

The most common exotic animal to be sold is the terrapin. So many are being bought and then dumped that populations have become established in many places, like Dublin's canals and St. Anne's Park in Raheny. Terrapins are tough animals and can hibernate in cold weather, so many are able to survive for years. More worrying still, if we have a hot enough summer, they could breed successfully in Ireland. There are unconfirmed reports of breeding populations, and if Irish summers become hotter due to global warming it is only a matter of time. Terrapins feed on fish, small frogs, newts and ducklings, so their impact on local wildlife could be devastating. Another successful invasive species is the last thing we need!

 Kayleigh explained how so many people buy terrapins, because many pet store are less than honest in what they tell people. The favourite ploy is to say that the cute baby terrapin will never grow any bigger, and that all it needs is a tiny little plastic 'pond' to survive. In fact the terrapin will grow to the size of a dinner plate, will live for decades and needs a specialist tank with a heat lamp, a UV lamp and a dry land area for sunning itself. Oh and it also needs proper food, clean water changed regularly, etc. The result is that a lot of people realise that terrapins are a much bigger commitment than they had realised and end up dumping them in a local pond or river, where most will die.  Fortunately there are sanctuaries in Ireland that take in unwanted terrapins and Kayleigh is happy to provide details if the sanctuary is contacted.

To sum up: Next year's release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could become the ecological crisis of the decade.

I may be cute but I need lots of long term care!

12 October - Royal Canal Day Clean up

The Dublin Branch of IWT helped out on October 12th, Royal Canal Day when there was a massive-scale clean-up along the length of the Royal Canal from the city centre all the way out to Blanchardstown – a distance of 10km! Dublin Branch members met at 9:45am at Broombridge railway station to begin the clean up which will took about two hours. In total we gathered seven large plastic sacks full of rubbish, plus several large pieces of wood, plastic, and of course a large trolley! The event was very well organised by the Dublin City North Volunteer Centre who supplied us with gloves, plastic sacks and litter pickers. They even had the Civil Defence out on boats along the canal to pick up that hard-to-reach rubbish out in the water.

Afterwards, we all headed to the Brian Boru pub in Phibsboro for some welcome tea, coffee and finger food where we were entertained by a local choir. The Dublin Branch also had a stand there where €46 worth of merchantise was sold, a new member was signed on, and the badger petition received about twnety signatures.

In the afternoon there was a Family Friendly Walk with Botanist Doogue, a Walking Tour with historian Pat Liddy and a Social Cycle along the Canal w/ Dublin Cycling Campaign.

Lastly it would be wrong to forget to mention that all who took part in the clean up got goodie bags, with a cool Irish Waterways water bottle, a Mars bar and lots of interesting info - including about the IWT!

Niall & Roisin with furry helper

Barbara and Roisin beside our trolley packed with rubbish bags

Kate and Sarah at the Dublin Branch stand

September 3rd - Green Drinks - Eco Cement

DID YOU KNOW that if the construction industry reduced their construction emissions by 50%,4,000,000 tonnes of CO2 could be saved annually?

At the September meeting the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch and Dublin Green Drinks heard Susan McGarry, Environmental Manager with the innovative Ecocem Ireland talk about the importance of embodied carbon in the built environment; how we need to shift our focus on to the embodied carbon of construction materials rather than the operational energy of buildings, and how low carbon, long-lasting, recycled materials like Ecocem's cement replacements can make a huge difference. Embodied carbon means the amount of carbon that is used making the material, as opposed to operational carbon that is emitted to produce energy.

Susan talked about Ecocem's low carbon cement which is based upon iron slag and as such is based on a 100% recyclable material. It therefore creates far fewer carbon emissions in its production than ordinary cement. This base also makes their ecocem GGBS cement very long lasting and durable, generally doubling the life of structures made from it, in comparison to similar structures made from ordinary cement. This of course reduces the amount of carbon emissions overall. Most of the carbon footprint of any structure is made during its construction, so if this is reduced there is a significant saving. 

Climate change concerns us all. Despite repeated warnings, and its effects being felt around the world, we have yet not managed to do very much about it. Ecocem products at least offer one way we can help to reduce carbon emissions.

Its durability means GGBS ecocement can be used for structures like seawalls
- useful at a time of rising sealevels.