Dublin - School Strike for Climate

Last Friday more than 11,000 young Irish people marched to the Dail (Irish Parliament) in Dublin, in support of the #SchoolStrike4Climate to try to create awareness about climate change.

Inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, more than a million young people in over 130 countries, came out in support of the #climatestrike.

Twelve years ago, watching and listening to the Mueller glacier melting and enlarging the glacial lake below Mount Cook in New Zealand, it was the first time I saw climate change actually happening. Melting glaciers are the canary in the coal mine - they are an early warning that something is wrong. (see - My most frightening photograph)

When I returned to Chamonix Mont-Blanc in the French Alps in 2015, for the first time since I was a student, I could not believe how far the glaciers had retreated. In the comparison photos above, the Mer de Grace glacier (One of Europe's largest) lost a depth of more than 100 metres over a 28 year period. (The far side of the valley in the photos is more than 2 Km away) 

Obviously something is happening and an encouraging proportion of the young generation seem to realise that!

The climate is changing every where and it isn't always dramatic. These cherry blossom trees at Dublin castle were photographed in January (rather than March) The daffodils in my garden also bloomed in January this year. They used to bloom in mid March. By this St Patricks day they had already died off!

What these kids did last week was inspiring and it gave me a sense of hope.

 There is a lot we can do to lessen our impact on the climate. Perhaps we just need to do it sooner, rather than later!