On Wednesday 17th of January, TY Geography students took part in the first of seven workshops run by Climate Smart. In these workshops the students had the opportunity to learn about the challenges of climate change and the opportunities for taking climate action to deal with them. In Workshop 1 the students learned how different countries are trying to raise awareness of climate change, such as in Salthill where LED lights have been placed on the famous Spanish Arch to show the predicted sea level rise in the area and in Egypt where a pyramid of rubbish was built using rubbish dumped in the country from Northern Hemisphere countries.

 The students were asked to come up with ideas on how to raise awareness locally. Students came up with some excellent ideas such as putting a tax on plastic bottles, drink dispensers in shops rather than plastic bottles, creating works of art using rubbish gathered from the beach clean up and a water tank which would fill up to the predicted sea level rise Kinsale and Ireland could experience. Students really enjoyed this workshop. Our TY students will participate in the Climate Smart Workshops over the next six weeks.