Helen Scullion, Sustainable Skerries & Skerries Community Association Board of Directors, shares her impressions of the Opening Night (1 September 2023) with us.

The first event of the 2023 Skerries Eco Festival was packed with expert speakers, uplifting music, and stunning images of water in and around Skerries.

We were delighted that the Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Adrian Henchy, and local TD, Minister of State Joe O’Brien, were both in attendance for the opening night, along with many others.

The evening got off to a harmonious start, with a wonderful selection of water-themed songs from the very talented Skerries Ukulele Strummers. From Bad Moon Rising to The Wellerman, they set an upbeat tone.

John Gibbons: Climate & The Everything Emergency 

The first speaker, John Gibbons of climatechange.ie & thinkorswim.ie, gave a riveting and often alarming talk about the seriousness and urgency of climate change. More than once, there were audible gasps in the room at the scale of the emergency.

One image really hit home for me; it shows that 19% of the planet could be uninhabitable for humans by 2070, if things continue the way they are. Within my children’s lifetimes, 3 billion people could be displaced. A crisis of that size would have a huge impact worldwide.

Another fact which has stayed with me, is the chasm between how scientists view climate change and how that is presented in the media, and the impact this has on public perception. Perhaps this isn’t surprising given how the media is owned and funded, but it presents a huge challenge for those trying to raise awareness and seeking action.

Speaking to people over the course of the Festival, there was agreement that we should try to ensure John’s message is spread as widely as possible.  There was so much more than I have space to mention here, all of it riveting.  I urge everyone to take a look *here* and to share it far and wide.

Hans Visser, Fingal Biodiversity Officer: Restoring Fingal’s Rivers, Wetlands and Marine Environment

Next up was Hans Visser, Fingal County Council Biodiversity Officer. He spoke about some of the challenges we face here in Fingal, and some of the many projects already underway to restore Fingal’s waterways, wetlands and marine environment.

Hans highlighted the importance of coastal ecosystems for climate change:

He explained that 2 of the biggest challenges in Skerries are the surrounding agriculture and the fishing locally.  Clearly these are both complex issues to address, the need for food and local jobs must be balanced against their environmental impacts.  It’s also clear though, that the potential benefits of improving water quality, and of restoration of ecosystems are massive.

Again, Hans made many more important points than I can summarise.  See the full deck *here*.

Skerries Ukulele Strummers

Both talks were compelling, but they also made for very tough listening at times, so it was fantastic to hear from the Skerries Ukulele Strummers again. They finished with “What the world needs now is love”, which felt very apt.

Questions…

The first question put to the experts after their talks was “what can we do now?”.  The answer on the night was to engage with politicians from all parties and make it clear to them that tackling climate change is an urgent and important issue to us.  The size of the response required clearly means that structural change is needed.  However, there are also actions which individuals, organisations and communities can take, to help at local level.  Throughout the Festival we learned more about a number of these.  We’ll share some of them in the coming weeks and months.

Skerries Eco Festival Photo Challenge

We closed the evening with the unveiling, by Skerries News’ David Diebold, of the water-themed photos he selected for our Eco Festival exhibition.  The reasons for his choices were fascinating, and the variety and quality of the images submitted by Skerries photographers was very impressive.  You can see more on these **here**. It was a beautiful reminder, if one were needed, of how lucky we are in Skerries to be beside the seaside, and how important it is for us to preserve and protect our shoreline for future generations.

DAA: Despair – Accept – Act

John had explained that the 3 stages of grief are, “Despair, Accept, Act”.

I left the Little Theatre on Friday night feeling inspired to learn more about what we in Skerries can do to help combat climate change, and to improve the quality of, and biodiversity in, our streams, rivers and shoreline.  I was excited for the rest of the festival, and determined to do my bit to spread the word and figure out how we act.

What the world needs now is love. And action.