Community workers seek to harvest ideas for the future

By Robert McNamara and Allen Meagher

INTRODUCTION

A new way of looking at communities in Ireland is being sought in the run-up to the 20^th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit.
President Michael D Higgins thought this work was important enough to officiate at the opening in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary, of Convergence 2012 which was filmed by 'Changing Ireland'. The move is towards promoting “community resilience” in place of “sustainable development.”

BACKGROUND

A wet summer's day in Cloughjordan

Most of the global promises made in Rio in 1992 were not honoured while economic growth continued to be promoted, destroying ecosystems and increasing Ireland’s temperature in the intervening two decades by 0.75 degrees, meaning we’re on course for a four degree rise here within the lifetime of some of today’s children. 

The message 20 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio is that too few people took notice of the “Think Global, Act Local” slogan to change their lifestyle, become more active citizens and embrace sustainable development.

Instead we’ve had industrial and economic development on a global scale and that’s despite nations promising to slow down to avoid irreversible climate change, the destruction of habitats and so on.

But if the doomsday predictions of societal collapse and species wipe-out didn’t get the message across, what will people listen to? What values shape our behaviour?

That’s the question being discussed around the country this year as part of what’s called Convergence 2012, led by environmentalists and community workers in County Tipperary, who feel we’ve reached the point of “Peak Everything” – a time when the best ideas are likely to come to the fore – as nations and societies begin involuntarily to slow down.