Wednesday, 11 May 2016: Dr Ian Humphries: Keeping Northern Ireland Beautiful
Dr Hunphries began by stating that the only way to keep Northern Ireland beautiful was to inspire people to create greener and more sustainable communities. Considerable progress had been made through a variety of programmes, including Eco-Schools, Blue Flag Beaches and Green Flag Awards for institutions that had demonstrated commitment to waste reduction. He set this against a background of global warming, world population growth and declining biodiversity. In Northern Ireland over £40,000 was spent in 2015 picking up litter. In April each year teams of volunteers collect litter from selected beauty spots with over 20,000 items being recovered from some popular beaches. A change in attitudes is clearly required which is why the Eco-schools Project is so important; children are keen to engage and learn a lot by participating in the programmes encouraged by “Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful” campaign. Getting the message to a wider audience is more challenging and useful ideas have come from a public education programme in the USA called “Don’t Mess with Texas” However the slogan “Don’t Rubbish Northern Ireland” regrettably never caught on and has been replaced by “Live Her Love Here”. Dr Humphries concluded by saying that most people are now aware of the issues, and things are improving. Following a lively question and answer session he was thanked for his talk by club member Oliver Loughran.