"I came, I saw, I canvassed against climate change"

15th March is known rather infamously as the Ides of March, the date on which Julius Caesar allegedly muttered his immortal “et tu Brute?”. It is also the date the 2019 Greenpeace rally for change took place around the world -in Belgium, in Scotland, in Uganda, in Greece, and in our very own Belfast. It is during this school strike for climate change (#fridaysforfuture on Greenpeace’s instagram page) that I stumble across a small gaggle of Belfast Royal Academy students who have been standing for the past 4 hours chanting and informing and fighting against both climate denial and the blustery chill being delivered to an exposed Corn Market.

Rally culture in general has increased for Belfast young people over the past few years with controversial issues such as repeal of Ireland’s 8th amendment making abortion legal south of the border, the Ulster Rugby rape trial and BREXIT all becoming hot topics of the day. With this comes an increasingly informed younger demographic of upcoming voters and, on a lighter note, an increasingly witty collection of phrases used in both chants and posters. Resources supplied to my sources by their own school’s art and technology departments shows a very physical support within BRA for their pupil’s passion projects. In a time where young people are often criticised for being ‘turned off’ to big news, these young people are the ones pioneering and steering the helm of climate change awareness. Where politicians are still preoccupied with the same issues they have been regurgitating for the past two decades and Stormont stands empty, these students are dedicating a day off school to what they believe in and deem important.

This is the second environment rally to take place in Belfast in the past two months and there is a distinct increase today from the 40 or so people who turned up to Corn Market in February. Despite the crowds, no mainstream media turned up to cover the rally, perhaps revealing a skew in the priorities of Northern Irish news outlets. Of course, at that stage, there wasn’t a small army of students taking a stand against climate change and that truly by the looks of things makes all the difference. This was the first rally attended by the first environmental society of BRA. It is their mission to spread awareness around their school to become Belfast’s first eco-school and forge “their own legacy” as they prepare to leave school in May. Already role models to the young pupils in their school, as they talk with pride about the year 8s who had joined them previously in the day.

How was their experience of their first rally? “Lots of pictures, lots of people stopping and listening”. One student identifies a correlation between ignorance and lack of interest in the environment; “that’s the point of today - we’re not looking to solve climate change with a protest, we’re looking to raise awareness because awareness leads to solutions”.  Another student notes “It’s an important cause now - older generations may not care as much because it’s not affecting them right now but it’s my grandchildren and great-grandchildren that will be suffering the consequences of our actions”.

For these students, motivation is simple when it comes to the environment - “I live here and I really value that - I want to continue living here for as long as possible”. The discourse surrounding the media language of climate change versus global warming is all highfalutin jargon that tangles the real urgency of this cause for this group of young people - whatever its name, it’s happening and it’s not good and we have the chance to change now. Today. New immortal words were spoken today, those more relevant than the dying phrase of a Roman emperor -  “I just love the planet, so I do”.

By H.R Gibbs.