40 Shades of #GlobalGreening

I have to admit it – I LOVE St.Patrick’s Day! I love the parades, the eccentricity, the creativity and the sense of community spirit. Where else in the world would you get a whole country coming out in such a vibrant way to celebrate their national Saint? The essence of St. Patrick’s Day for me isn’t found in the big city parades in Dublin or New York – but in the hundreds of local parades up and down the country. Children are a big focus of activities, as are sports clubs and people with disabilities. Literally everyone who wants to has a chance to march!

A big feature of the national day is of course the colour green. It is everywhere – green hats, green hair, green pints… more cheap imported green paraphernalia than you could shake a stick at. Despite the fact that blue is the official national colour, green is the colour we associate most with St.Patrick and Irishness. The link dates back to the stories about the shamrock – the small native plant that Patrick used to explain the Holy Trinity. Of course, green also reflects the lush vegetation on his temperate island with rolling hills in the middle of the North Atlantic. An emerald green jewel. In the late 1700s when Ireland was struggling for independence, green was worn in sympathy for the Irish cause to such a degree that wearing it was outlawed around 1776. The colour has deep roots in Ireland’s history and its nature.

Sadly, there is little reflection nowadays on what the colour green signifies. For politicians, the colour green has taken on very pragmatic, global dimensions geared at marketing Ireland as a prime location for business investment and tourism. Evidence of this is the fact that back in February the government made a big announcement around 27 ministers travelling for St.Patrick’s Day – and the return on investment that this would bring. It is also seen in the buildings across the world which ‘turned green’ as part of a global strategy called #GlobalGreening.

Some may think this is harmless – and maybe it is on one level. But it strikes me that this kind of ‘green washing’ (or green lighting) risks becoming a parody of what the colour green stands for both in Irish history and in relation to its natural environment. At a time when concern for ecology is an absolute imperative, the disconnect between Ireland’s green image and green credentials is striking. In Trócaire’s recent policy report Feeling the Heat we highlighted the fact that Ireland’s climate emissions are currently among the highest per capita in the world, and that our emissions would be the equivalent of 400 million Africans. Ironically, it is our green fields – or rather the cattle that graze on them – that contribution to a large part of our emissions. Our national policies and are increasingly at odds with a truly green agenda, as I blogged about a few weeks ago.

But surely the Irish love affair with everything green – and the global love affair with everything Irish, at least for a day – is a massive opportunity to reclaim the #GlobalGreening for a more worthy green agenda – an ‘integral ecology‘?

I was very excited this week by the start of our Irish #climate conversations. The initiative brings together many sectors of Irish society to create a new narrative on climate change. It follows similar initiatives in Germany and Holland. The launch event took place in Liberty Hall and involved fantastic contributions from artists, musicians, faith -leaders, composers, politicians, business, campaigners, PR gurus… (If you missed it, you can watch the recording and find out about future events here). It is an opportunity to come together as a society – as concerned citizens of the small patch of ground called Ireland on planet earth – and to reflect together on the new conversation we need to have to respond to climate justice.

As Eamon Ryan put it so well on the night: ‘we need to slow down to speed up. We need to ‘put the kettle on’ and reflect together before rushing to save the world.’ There is something so true in that. It is a mammoth challenge which requires us to find new ways to come together and dialogue together. As I said at the recent Trócaire lecture, solving the problems of the future is all about collaboration rather than competition. It is about together discerning collective wisdom. Perhaps a new vision of Christianity rooted in St.Patrick’s Trinitarian God – a three-in-one God, ‘persons in community’ – could point us in the right direction.

What better country than the emerald isle to lead the way in going green for real. What’s stopping us!

Published by lornagold

Lorna Gold currently works for FaithInvest, a UK based charity working to support faith -based investors to align finances to climate and social justice. She previously worked with Trócaire, the Irish Catholic Development Agency. She is a specialist in International Development who has worked in an academic and NGO context for almost two decades. For ten years she headed up Trócaire’s Policy, Research and Advocacy team. Currently, she is leading a project on how the Irish Church can implement Pope Francis message on integral ecology, articulated in Laudato Sí. She writes and speaks extensively on Pope Francis’ vision and was responsible for chairing an all-female panel at the launch of this encyclical in the Vatican with world-renowned author, Naomi Klein in 2015. She holds a PhD in Economic Geography from Glasgow University and as well as working for Trócaire, lectures in Applied Social Studies in Maynooth University. She has published widely, being the editor and author of numerous books, journals, policy reports and academic papers. She is a regular contributor to public debate in Ireland and internationally on climate justice and helped co-found ‘Stop Climate Chaos’ Ireland in 2006. She is vice-chair of the Global Catholic Climate Movement and a member of the Irish Government’s Advisory Group on the national Climate Dialogue. She is originally from Scotland and is married with two children. Her most recent book entitled “Climate Generation – Awakening to our Children’s Future”, will be released in June 2018 by Veritas. Inspire deeply by Pope Francis, it tells the story of a mother and activist awakening to the plight of the next generation. Recent publications of note: 2018, Climate Generation: Awakening to our Children’s Future, Veritas 2017, ‘Laudato Sí – A Dangerous Book’, essay in ‘Laudato Sí – An Irish Response’, Sean McDonagh ed. , Veritas 2017, Ethical Investments in an Era of Climate Change - A Guide to Reviewing Environmental and Social Governance of Catholic Investments, Tróciare and GCCM.

2 thoughts on “40 Shades of #GlobalGreening”

  2. Pingback: “Credibility Costs” – Coherence and Ireland’s New Foreign Policy | charityandjustice

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