SKIBBEREEN climate activist Alicia O’Sullivan said she would turn down an invite to address councillors about climate change if she was to receive one.
She was speaking after Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg turned down an invite by Cork County Council to address councillors by video link on the importance of climate action.
While Alicia said she was grateful that Cllr Danny Collins had mentioned her as a possible speaker when the motion was originally raised, she said if she was asked she too would decline an invite to speak.
‘I would decline because the science is already out there and I would rather they spend the time implementing action for Cork county rather than listen to me talk about climate change,’ said Alicia.
‘On the greater scheme of things I don’t think it’s necessary that they need the likes of us to address them anyway and there’s not much that I can tell them that they don’t know already.’
Councillors were told recently through correspondence that Greta Thunberg would not be able to address them.
‘Unfortunately Greta has very limited time for requests nowadays, due to her busy schedule. So unfortunately she won’t be able to participate in a video link,’ said the reply. Cllr Gearóid Murphy (FF) suggested that perhaps local climate change activists should be invited to address them instead.
Leaving Cert student Alicia – who was chosen by the Department of Foreign Affairs to attend the Youth Climate Action Summit in New York last year – thinks that Cork County Council is one of the more pro-active councils when it comes to tackling climate change.
She also said that if councillors want to find out more about climate change they should talk to another Skibbereen climate activist, Saoi O’Connor, ‘She is part of the global Fridays4Future school strike movement and she has protested outside Cork City Hall every Friday since January of last year and she would be able to tell them a lot.’
In fact, Saoi entered her 60th week of protesting last Friday and her sign ‘The Emperor has no clothes’ is a familiar sight outside Cork City Hall.
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