Sep 29 Re-Design Ireland
Review by Ray Murray
Over the course of the last 3 weeks, the Transition Year group of 2022/23 took part in a full day environmental workshop called ‘Redesign Ireland’ covering the issues of Climate Change and preserving our world’s beautiful wildlife and nature. The man behind the brains of Redesign Ireland is James Fahy. James studied Zoology in college and during that time, had the opportunity to travel across the globe. James travelled through the Americas and South-East Asia working with animals such as pandas, capuchin monkeys, snakes, and scorpions, just to list a few. Picking up a few bites along the way!
We started off the day by being introduced to James and we were shown a slideshow of countries he had been to, supported by videos of animals he had worked with and seen on his travels. We were shown a wide range of videos from spider monkeys in Costa Rica swinging from trees to Siberian Tigers in North China chasing a tour bus. Along with videos of animals, we were shown the nature that James had visited, Rainbow Mountain in Peru and Jasper National Park in Canada are just a few that we were shown. We were highly recommended to travel when we get the chance, to experience the way people in the 3rd and 4th world countries live. Experience a unique way of living, diverse cultures, and different people.
We followed that by being sorted into groups which would later be the people you would make a video on climate change issues with. We partook in a few Kahoots on questions to do with The Earth’s spheres {Atmosphere, Biosphere, Cryosphere, Hydrosphere & Lithosphere} and one to do with Climate risks causing global warming. After, we took two carbon footprint tests online to see how many tons of carbon we used in our daily lives through transportation, food, and appliances at home. For most of us, we were in the double digits when it came to carbon wastage. In the second test, we discovered how long the earth would last if everyone on earth lived the same way we do, (spoiler, most of us did not get through half of the year!) It was a great insight into the way most of us live, which is constantly having a harmful impact on the earth.
We ended our day off by making short videos covering climate issues, most of them with a humorous twist, topics such as ocean issues, agriculture, and biodiversity were covered.
I do believe that this workshop gave us an insight into everything that is damaging and harming our earth is masking the wonderful nature and beauty that desperately needs preserving.