by Roisin Dolliver
Third level students have always been primary drivers of political change. We’re keen, curious, privileged in our education, and precarious in most other aspects. We are a community of likeminded people and have access to numerous resources. In short, we’re pretty perfect activist material.
So why hasn’t there been a greater collective push for climate action from third level students? It’s not for lack of trying. In Trinity alone, I can count eleven separate student bodies addressing environmental issues. And we aren’t so special: this response is occurring in almost all educational institutions around Ireland. Our issue is that we’re all acting in silo and lack coherence. Apart from the odd email, we have no established connections to environmentalist groups on other campuses.
“Fridays for Future showed us what was possible when secondary students come together”
Fridays for Future showed us what was possible when secondary students come together and speak out against our government’s inadequate response to climate change. I reckon its high time we started pulling our weight!
‘Time to Act’ (who you might remember from their march last semester), were approached by both the UCC Vegan Society and Maynooth Environmental Society about possible collaborations and prompted us to start a Student Climate Coalition. The main goals of the coalition are to share information, to organise large scale demonstrations, to support climate action campaigns, and to form a body of support and solidarity.
“None of us can make lasting impact on our own, especially on the issue of climate change, where change sometimes feels like an impossible task”
None of us can make lasting impact on our own, especially on the issue of climate change, where change sometimes feels like an impossible task. The power of peer support is not to be underestimated. Building better lines of communication and consolidating our voices are incredibly powerful and positive actions. Even in helping this far, I’ve been so energised by the enthusiasm of those we reached out to. Already, we have members from DCU, TU Dublin, NCAD, MTU, NUIG and UCC – all of whom unhesitatingly committed from first contact. We’re already talking about organising a climate camp where we can hold workshops, share activism and environmentalist tricks, and maybe hold an action or two.
Before that though, we’ve got marches to go to. On March 3rd, Fridays for Future will protest against Fossil Fuels and Fossil Finance. At the time of writing this, some of the details are still up in the air but hopefully all will go well. For now, the Student Climate Coalition is in force and ready for action.
Evergreen Trinity 