Category: Environmental Justice

Breathing Together

  In the midst of a global pandemic our perception of what is important in the world around us can shift. Foreign holidays pale when compared to the freedom of being able to visit our families, and the appeal of a healthy natural environment gains relevance when we have the opportunity to experience it more.… Read more »

trees in a forest

Agriculture Appeals Bill Must be Redrafted

  The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has made a submission to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the ‘Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2020’. With this submission we hope to contribute to the to the ongoing discussion of the importance of maintaining and enhancing the ecological integrity of our ecosystems through… Read more »

Friday's for Future climate protest

Supreme Court sides with Climate Case

On July 31st 2020, in an historic judgement, the Irish Supreme Court found in favour of Climate Case Ireland, quashing the National Mitigation Plan (NMP), a major component of the State’s climate change policy. Climate Case Ireland’s lawyers successfully argued that this plan was inadequate in terms of reducing our emissions by our fair share.… Read more »

Climate Case Ireland

  This week saw Climate Case Ireland take to the Supreme Court to bring their case against the Irish Government for its failure to take climate action. The central challenge of Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), a voluntary network of citizens bringing forward the Climate Case on behalf of the people of Ireland (https://www.climatecaseireland.ie/),… Read more »

World Environment Day 2020

  June 5th is World Environment Day 2020, which is happening against the backdrop of seismic global events including a pandemic, the mounting consequences of climate change and widespread protests against systemic and institutionalised racism, triggered by the murder of George Floyd by US police. Looking through an integral ecology lens allows us to see… Read more »

Cycling Works for the Common Good

  There’s a kind of knowledge about the city that you can only learn on a saddle. It’s not just a familiarity with the camber of Dublin’s streets, or the distinctive staccato vibration brought about by tarmac as it degrades, or how the traffic lights are engineered so a cyclist has to move out into… Read more »

Climate action without social justice will not work

  This week is Laudato Si Week 2020, the 5-year anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’ Encyclical  on Caring for our Common Home.

Environmental injustice is highlighted by Covid-19

  The Covid-19 pandemic is not just a public health crisis, it also highlights and compounds layers of pre-existing social and economic injustices and inequalities that already exist in our society. There have been many analyses of how marginalised individuals and communities are being disproportionally impacted by this pandemic. The injustices of homelessness, direct provision… Read more »

We are living through two global emergencies

  We are currently living through two global emergencies. Covid-19, an acute onset crisis, and the climate and biodiversity emergency, which is chronic. Both of these are urgent and require an immediate response.

Will EU-Funded Project Save Our Blanket Bogs?

Ireland has been awarded €12 million by the EU for the LIFE-IP PAF Wild Atlantic Nature project that will focus on the protection and restoration of its blanket bogs in the western and northern parts of the country. While this news suggests the prospect of healthy, better-functioning bogs, what does it actually mean for these… Read more »