DCU Institute for Climate and Society

Thanks for joining us today Alex!

Mary Lawlor @marylawlorhrds.bsky.social, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, delivers keynote address at DCU Institute for Climate and Society @dcuclimate.bsky.social annual conference.
Read more here: launch.dcu.ie/4lQ77Ju
#DCUClimate2025

Summing up today's discussion, Professor Brereton asks a simple question to send us off with: "How do we create an active hope?" #DCUClimate2025

To close off #DCUClimate2025, Institute for Climate & Society Co-Director Professor Pat Brereton offers some reflections on the day's events

Really nice illustration of a common theme of the discussion today: the power of the language we use in discussing issues of climate change - or, as panelist AlanJames Burns prefers, "climate love"

In Lebanon, a guy being interviewed by
@hannahmcccarthy.bsky.social objected to the term ‘seed bank’, because they hate the banks, which have recently collapsed. They call them ‘seed libraries’.

#DCUClimate2025 @dcuclimate.bsky.social

@eamont.bsky.social: there is a lack of hope in how we report climate

@hannahmcccarthy.bsky.social: we need to pay more attention to the language we use in reporting

Priyanka Borpujari: we could look more at indigenous ways of living on the land

#DCUClimate2025

@dpmrobbins.bsky.social: what does media get right and wrong in reporting on climate?

@marcusstewart.bsky.social (Earth Horizon Productions): we need more climate literacy in newsrooms.

Priyanka Borpujari (PhD student, DCU): we need to ask questions, listen to people's stories

#DCUClimate2025

A beautiful reading of some new work by poet, Grace Wilentz, on the reintroduction of the lynx into Europe. Fabulous that the arts have been so central to this year’s conference.

The panelists discuss their experiences of reporting on the climate front lines, noting the intersection of climate change with the social, political and economic. If you just write about climate change “you’re not getting the full story” - @hannahmcccarthy.bsky.social #DCUClimate2025

Our final panel of #DCUClimate2025: Reporting from the climate front lines

On the theme of this year's conference - activism, storytelling and the arts - up next is a poetry reading by poet and writer, Grace Wilentz, Writer-in-Residence at Notre Dame, Dublin #DCUClimate2025

AlanJames: the language used around climate issues “is devoid of any emotion” - let's think not of climate action but “climate love”

Trish: “it absolutely needs to be all hands on deck” - let's each of us think: "well what the hell can I do with my few skills?"

#DCUClimate2025

On the role of mobilisation in art, AlanJames says: “My entire practice is about mobilising people around ideas”. Why engage with art? “The only way I can learn and explore the world is by creating and doing” #DCUClimate2025

Thinking about climate science, art and activism @dcuclimate.bsky.social #DCUClimate2025

AlanJames Burns talks about the real impacts on disabled communities of climate change, and the lack of access to knowledge & nature.

Dr Trish Morgan describes the importance of de-siloing.

@trishmorgan.bsky.social from DCU School of Communications challenges our use of the word 'art', which "puts a moniker" on something “intrinsically human”

Rebecca Wilson of @researchireland.bsky.social highlights the need to "empower" the public by making research more accessible

#DCUClimate2025

Artist, curator and festival maker AlanJames Burns, highlights the challenges faced by disabled and differently abled people in engaging in climate action - and how they are often forgotten in activism #DCUClimate2025

Dr Eileen Hutton, Artist and Head of Art and Ecology, Burren College of Art, discusses "how we read the landscape" - how we can foster place-based responses to environmental challenges #DCUClimate2025

Up next ▶️ our third panel of the day: Climate science, art and activism #DCUClimate2025

“We want to live in community like the mosses do, like the trees do” - write Kerri Ní Dochartaigh at the #DCUClimate2025 annual conference

“Be more oak!” Kerri Ní Dochartaigh describes how a single oak tree cares for more than 2,000 species.

Rosie O’Reilly on the rights of nature: “where is nature in the university?” She calls on us to de-silo & apply critical thinking.

#Art and #environment

@dcuclimate.bsky.social #DCUClimate2025

Luke Casserly, multidisciplinary performance maker, discusses slowness, intimacy and care in their artistic practice

@lnhowley.bsky.social from the DCU School of English discusses the use of eco-criticism in teaching: “It is easier to engage with your environment through art”

#DCUClimate2025

POV: writer Kerri Ní Dochartaigh asks us to close our eyes, root ourselves in the ground and think of the structures that support us - most of all, the earth. "Art is mother earth." #DCUClimate2025

"Art doesn't give us something. It is something... Art is nature, and nature is art" - visual artist Rosie O'Reilly offers reflections on the arts and the environment #DCUClimate2025

Dr Diarmuid Torney

“At our annual conference today, we are delighted to be able to spotlight a diverse range of contributions to the climate and ecological crises through activism, storytelling and the arts.” says Director @dcuclimate.bsky.social Dr Diarmuid Torney @diarmuidtorney.bsky.social #DCUClimate2025

@dhandprof.bsky.social opens our panel with some reflections on the role of art: “Art can give us a narrative around this crisis”, creating stories we can engage with #DCUClimate2025

Up next ▶️ our second panel of the day: The arts and the environment #DCUClimate2025

Some great responses from our panel to the question of how we can best support human rights defenders. Panelists noted the role of collaboration, training, the media, but also, importantly, respecting human rights defenders' own agency. Now to audience Q&A #DCUClimate2025

Good to have you hear Maeve! Sounds like you'll enjoy our afternoon panels on the arts - stay tuned 😁

Dr Walt Kilroy from @dublincityuni.bsky.social School of Law and Government also stresses the agency of human rights defenders themselves: "we need to listen to them". At the same time, we can be on-hand to offer support: "activism can come at an enormous emotional cost" #DCUClimate2025