";This bewildered earth";

In this update:

• A poem
• A blog
• A video

... hope is never dead / until this bewildered earth stops  /  throwing up roses.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Donegal poet Moya Cannon until Olivia O'Leary read part of her poem "Flowers Know Nothing of Our Grief" in her RTE Drivetime slot last week.

Although written a couple of years ago, it seems especially apt as we huddle at home watching this invisible plague sweep the globe while Spring bursts forth outside our windows.

You can play the 4 minute podcast of Olivia's column, always worth listening to, here. And the full text of Moya Cannon's poem was published in the Donegal Daily on Thursday.

5 things we can learn from COVID 19

In my email last week I pointed you to a blog by our current Chairperson, Marion Briggs, comparing the response to COVID 19 with the response to climate change.

This week I'm delighted that our former Chairperson, now Environmental Policy Fellow in UCD, Dr Cara Augustenborg has a written a piece for us on 5 things we can learn from the COVID 19 pandemic as we struggle to contain climate change. She also summarizes the short-term impact of the pandemic on nature and pollution and asks what happens next. Read Cara's blog here. And listen to her discuss the same topics in this week's installment of her weekly chat with Ivan Yates on Newstalk.

How can we talk about climate at a time like this?

Last week over 90 people attended the One Future webinar my colleague Áine and I co-hosted on the topic "How can you talk about climate change at a time like this?". Watch or listen back here.

Our expert panel was Sadhbh O'Neill, longtime environmental activist and now policy advisor to the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, Dr Sandra Green of Irish Doctors for the Environment (just off her shift in hospital) and Cliona Sharkey, policy advisor in Trócaire.

There was a really vibrant discussion with the attendees in the webchat, which you can read here.

What's next?

We plan to run a series of One Future webinars and trainings over the coming weeks and months, as we grapple with the challenge of climate campaigning in an age of coronavirus. And we'd love to know what you'd find most useful. Please let us know by filling out this short survey.

I'll TELL YOU WANT I WANT

See you online soon.

Meantime, stay safe and stay sane.

Oisín Coghlan
Director, Friends of the Earth
Co-Covenor of the One Future Campaign

the roses, pink and delicate, / unfurl their buds in the sunshine ...
their indifference should break us,
instead they shore up a dyke against despair