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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
FLossie Donnelly

Coronavirus Ireland: Dublin teen climate activist Flossie Donnelly on why we can’t go back to the way things were pre-lockdown

COASTAL crusader FLossie Donnelly made headlines when she started collecting plastic and other rubbish from Dublin’s beaches and installed Ireland’s first sea bin in Dun Laoghaire.

The 13-year-old, from Sandycove, is hailed as Ireland’s Greta Thunberg. Here she explains why we can’t go back to the way things were pre-lockdown and how we can all help save the planet.

Hi my name is Flossie and I am 13 years old, I am a local beach cleaner and climate
activist who, like everyone else, went through lockdown.

It was a mad time for us all but it was a mini blessing for the biosphere.

During lockdown we were not allowed to do some of our everyday activities. Most of us were not allowed to drive to work or take the DART to school and fly to exotic places for holidays or business trips – but just those three simple things made a difference as it was.

It meant we weren’t using as much carbon emissions and we weren’t poisoning the earth as we have been for so many years!

During lockdown mother earth pulled a harsh trick on us. For most of lockdown it was sunny and really hot but we were not allowed to swim or to go and hang out with friends.

Since it was so hot – climate change hot! – and no one could make the excuse of being cold and needing a fire, we weren’t burning so much coal or peat.

Also a lot of people talked about how loud the birds were. I wonder if this is because the planes stopped flying or was it because the birds knew we were taking a break to breathe?

All these simple things together made a huge difference.

For example, where I live the seals were able to come closer. There were loads more fish in the sea for the seals and turtles on remote islands on the other side of the world were coming to lay their eggs on the beaches.

They were able to do this due to a lack of spectators and humans littering the beach.

The water became crystal clear here and all over the world because there were less boats.

We didn’t have any mad storms and in places like China, carbon emissions dropped by 100 million tonnes over two weeks which means carbon emissions were down by 25%.

And it seems so many countries in South East Asia had incredible views for the first time due to lack of smog.

Lockdown gave us a small climate change and biodiversity reboot. We’re seeing what our earth should look and sound like and there is nothing to describe it except beautiful and peaceful.

It was incredible what happened whilst we all felt like we were in the movie Groundhog Day.

The biosphere became a lot more healthy and happy. Sadly we are now out of lockdown and I do fear things will spiral back to how they were before. I feel some people have already forgotten how happy nature finally is – but others I don’t think they will ever look at our earth the same way again.

I’m hearing loads of people saying that from now on they are going to work from home two days a week.

Others say they’re going to carpool to work and so many people have found the joy of cycling.

I know loads of people were shocked and amazed about what has happened to our biosphere and want it to stay this way.

I’m very happy to say that now some of the Green Party’s demands are being met and they are going into government as a coalition [partner] so hopefully we are finally not going to be one of the countries in Europe with a bad reputation for climate change.

These are just some of my wishes for the Government to take seriously after Covid-19:

Make Ireland cheaper to holiday in so people won’t fly abroad therefore creating carbon emissions.

Make all public transport cheaper for everyone and there should be stations all over Ireland that rent out electric cars, electric scooters and electric bikes.

Fast fashion needs to come with a label explaining how far the item
has travelled and how much damage it has created to the local environment on the other side of the world!

The Government should really create a law that recycling actually does get recycled in this country – 70% of our recycling is sent abroad, which is horrifying, and we don’t actually know what really happens to it after that.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) – it would be amazing if the Irish Government found a way for it to be recycled.

Doctors and nurses have to put
on a lot of PPE gear whilst working
(all made out of non-recyclable
single-use plastic). However, when they leave the room they have to change out of all of their gear and put a different PPE outfit on to enter
the next room so as to not cross contaminate. Sadly all PPE just gets put in a bin.

In England alone 14 million pairs of gloves, masks, aprons and so much more PPE is thrown away every day!

There has to be an answer to
solve this terrible problem which is being created.

During lockdown Ireland worked together and we managed together to come out the other end like we knew we would.

It’s the same with climate change but we are not going to succeed unless we work together.

Thank you and stay safe.

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