We have a decade left to avert a complete climate breakdown yet our emissions are still rising. To change this we need to first recognise and verbalise our current predicament: we are in a climate emergency. In itself, it is a small, symbolic step - but declaring a climate emergency is an effective way to engage the public sector, business and society in stepping up action to the level needed.

Given the grave challenges posed by climate change it's time to embrace more sustainable - and less stressful- approaches to travel than flying. Emissions from flying within Europe increased by 26% in the last five years and Ryanair has gained the dubious distinction of being in the top 10 of European carbon polluters.(1) The industry needs to be regulated and taxed more effectively (1) but all of us also need to fly much much less if we are to have any hope of limiting global warming. Similar to those who support the Swedish campaign Flygfritt 2019 this campaign is asking you to pledge to stop or at least reduce air travel. By signing you are pledging to take meaningful action to reduce or ideally stop your air travel, by for example: - using alternative travel options such as sea/rail for work and personal travel - taking one trip of longer duration rather than multiple short breaks/visits - eliminating all but the most necessary work travel (e.g. using online technology for meetings and conferences) My name is Karen Smith and I teach and research in the area of childhood equality. If we are to deliver any kind of justice to the children of today, let alone the children of tomorrow, we need to drastically reduce emissions, without delay. The window of opportunity is small and I hope that as many of you as possible will take this pledge (1) https://www.transportenvironment.org/news/airline-emissions-growth-out-control

This development would destroy our beautiful and unspoilt beach which is a valuable public amenity for the entire area. It is completely unsuitable for this location and presents a danger to all those who use the beach and the sea, threatens protected flora and fauna and will ruin the peaceful enjoyment of our beach for everyone.

We need to encourage people to recycle glass responsibly. At the moment there is no recycling bank in Macroom and the one in Clondrohid was removed and not replaced. The nearest recycling bank is in the Civic Amenity site, which costs 3 euro. It is inaccessible on foot for those who do not drive. These are barriers to responsible recycling.

Tá na crainnte seo níos sine ná aon bhall den phobal, ós cionn 100 bliain d’aois an ceann. Is peaca marfach a bheadh ann cead a thabhairt do chrainnte chomh h-álainn a bheith bainte chun spás a dhéanamh do charrchlós agus d’fhoirgneamh beag. Seo crainnte a chur ár seandream, a chonaic ár seandream agus iad a dul ag an Aifreann. Is cuid lárnach den phobal iad mar go bhfuil siad ag fás in aice le Teach an Phobail agus Scoil Náisiúnta Mhic Dara. Má éiríonn linn stop a chur leis an ngearradh síos, feicfidh ár ngasúir iad agus cuimhneoidh siad orainne, na daoine a shábháil na crainnte álainne seo.

Over the past few years, there has been a sense of worry and shock among people living and visiting Cork who wish to protect the natural heritage of this city. The following events have caused irreversible and profound damage to trees in the city: -Storm Ophelia: Over 500 trees blown down. No replanting schemes. -Pruning works to mature trees at the Lee Fields and The Lough -The removal of trees in the city centre on the grounds of 'health and safety' -The removal of mature trees in the St. Lukes area -The paving of paths along Centre Park road where historic Lime trees were blown down during Storms Ophelia and Ali. With significant development planed for Cork over the next 20 years it is important that the City Council have a strategy for how we protect existing trees in the city and introduce new trees.

The Four Masters' Park is a small green lung on Berkeley Road in the heart of the North inner-city; one of the very few. It has many historic resonances, as it commemorates the Annals of the Four Masters while the memorial itself was commissioned by Sir William Wilde and executed by James Cahill. It was given by the Sisters of Mercy for the benefit of the local community. The current plan for the new MetroLink is to consume a substantial part of our green space for the new metro station. Less than 100 metres away from our park is a station already built under the Mater Hospital. This was a part of the old Metro North plans at the time Leo Varadkar was Minister for Transport in 2012. €20 million was spent on installing a station box beneath the new adult hospital. The Metro North enabling works were completed in 2013 under the Mater Whitty Building by BAM Contractors Ltd on behalf of the Railway Procurement Agency. It makes no sense to waste €20 million of public money and destroy a beloved local park. Recently, two vacant industrial sites nearby have been identified as possibilities, yet neither have been investigated by MetroLink. The beginning of 2020; a New Year of campaigning and we're delighted to welcome the support of the DUBLIN NORTH CITY BUSINESS & CULTURE COMMUNITY which comprises of 107 individual businesses from Parnell Square, Frederick Street, Upper and Lower Dorset Street, down to Croke Park and the Croke Park Hotel, who have added their signatures to the petition. Please join us in supporting this campaign.

Every year, tonnes of perfectly good vegetables are thrown away because they're not the right shape. Lidl had created a fantastic initiative where they sell these wonky vegetables directly to customers. There's no reason why they can't bring this to Ireland too! If we build enough customer pressure, we can make it happen.

These trees provide homes to wildlife, shade, beauty, and so much more. These are old trees, taking them out affects the environment in a very hurtful way.

In a very wild and barren landscape, there are very few forests in Glenveagh National Park. The trees offer protection for wildlife, allowing many mycelium species to flourish, insects, birds, and all wildlife benefit from the forest. The roots help reduce flooding with this enormous amount of rainfall, and the lake often coming up on the banks. The Trees, take in this access moisture. They also are wind shelter and the original estate owners planted these forests for this reason. Wind Shelter, Nature Preservation, Wildlife shelter, and simple enjoyment of the beauty and peace of the forest. These trees that are already being cut along the river path, are well over a hundred years old. What the Native Americans call "Grandmother Trees". Please stop cutting and start loving the trees of Glenveagh!

Current Irish government forestry policy is causing huge damage to communities and the environment in our county of Leitrim and all across Ireland. The planting of conifers on bogs and on soils with high organic matter on an industrial scale is releasing very large amounts of carbon and seriously damaging our environment. The trees in these plantations are not tying up or storing as much carbon as is being released by this highly damaging practices. Peatlands are the superheroes of ecosystems: purifying water, sometimes mitigating flooding and providing a home for rare species. And they beat nearly every system when it comes to carbon storage. Known peatlands only cover about 3% of the world’s land surface, but store at least twice as much carbon as all of Earth’s standing forests. In addition, at least one-third of the world’s organic soil carbon, which plays a vital role in mitigating climate change and stabilizing the carbon cycle, is in peatlands. It has taken 11 thousand years to grow these bogs and soils and these very sites are being destroyed in a matter of hours by forestry practices. We call on the Irish government to immediately cease this damaging forestry system.

To date, 25 species of cetaceans have been recorded in Irish waters (Lusher at al., 2018). All cetaceans, pinnipeds; including harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) are protected in Ireland under a range of national and international legislation. Under the Wildlife Act (1976) and amendments (2000, 2005, 2010 and 2012), it is an offence to intentionally hunt, injure, wilfully interfere with or disturb or destroy the resting or breeding place of a protected species (except under licence or permit from the department). The 1976 Wildlife Act applies out to the 12 nm limit of Irish territorial waters. Additionally, all cetaceans, pinnipeds and otter and are protected under the EU Habitats Directive, where all cetaceans are included in Annex IV of the Directive as species ‘in need of strict protection’. Under this Directive, the harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), grey seal, harbour seal and Eurasian Otter are listed under Annex II, which identifies these species of community interest and whose conservation requires the designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) (O’ Brien, 2016). 3. Man-made noise generated from dredging operations, both from the physical presence of the dredger, and increased water turbidity within the area have potential to cause low levels of disturbance, including the masking of communication and induce behavioural impacts such as displacement from important habitat (O’Brien, 2016). Recently published literature on the impacts of dredging on marine mammals in Aberdeen Harbour found that bottlenose dolphins exhibited avoidance behaviour to dredging in a highly urbanised foraging patch, despite the expected high level of tolerance given the high level of vessel activity in the area (Pirotta et al., 2013). A similar review by Todd et al., (2014) found that in regard to dredging activities, the effect on marine mammals depends on the type of dredger used, state of operation, local sound propagation conditions and the receiver’s sensitivity and bandwidth of hearing. It also highlighted the potential for accidental collision with marine mammals. The review concluded that noise from dredging although perceived as being below the injury threshold for permanent hearing loss (PTS), according to criteria outlined in Southall et al., (2007), highlighted the potential for temporary damage to hearing (TTS) to marine mammals, such as the harbour porpoise after prolonged periods of exposure, also found in a more recent study (Kastelein et al., 2012). Indirect impacts from exposure of marine mammals to anthropogenic noise from dredging operations can result in changes to protected species physical environments, affecting prey distribution and introducing toxins and pollutants from dredge spoil.