Don’t Come Fly With Me

Bullet the blue sky

s social media has proven with a resounding thud, there are two types of people on this shaky little planet of ours…

Those who dream of free flights to see the world, and those who who dream of a flight-free world.

Greystones’ Niamh Gurrin clearly belongs in the latter category, having signed up as a Climate Ambassador at UCD this year, and, among other initiatives, pledging to keeping her feet firmly on the ground when it comes to travelling.

Her sterling work in this area has now seen Niamh receive an Outstanding Achievement gong at the virtual Climate Ambassador Awards. There were only 12 such awards, handed out to individuals and teams for their work throughout 2020 in communicating and taking action on climate change.

And it’s been a busy year for Niamh. Signing up in February, the UCD student quickly went about organising monthly clothes swaps between hundreds of students, running plastic-free campaigns and organising film screenings. Switching online after the Covid-19 lockdown, the wily Gurrin lass then offered green lockdown tips, an upcycling tutorial, a slow fashion celebration (whatever that is) and a climate strike.

There was also her work on the Campus Plastic Free blog and the Instagram page for Ireland’s Zero Waste Festival, was a key organiser of the Eco UCD Climate Justice Week, and has even convinced her own family to go meat-free on Mondays.

Moom!

With 164 people signing up to be Climate Ambassadors at the start of the year – including not just students but farmers, academics and business people – being one of the twelve awarded Outstanding Achievement status was no mean feat.

Presented by Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, this is just the third year of the Climate Ambassadors programme.

Hopefully, the human race will be around to see its 100th birthday celebrations…