Carbon Concentrations - think globally, act locally

A CAMPAIGN set up by two TY students from Coláiste na Toirbhirte aims to provide people with simple ideas to help change their behaviour for the betterment of the planet.

‘Carbon Concentrations’ is the brainwave of Katie Hannon from Bandon and Aisling O’Connor from Kilbrittain who are taking part in the Eco-UNESCO or Young Environmental Awards.

The eco-conscious duo recently qualified for the semi-finals of the competition and they hope to do one better and reach the finals next month.

‘We got the idea because we were hearing about global warming and carbon dioxide concentrations and we wanted to see was our own local area was being affected by this,’ Katie told The Southern Star.

‘We carried out an online survey about global warming on Microsoft Forms and received nearly 200 responses. We also set up social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to raise awareness in our community.’

They also set you weekly challenges called Carbon Neutral Thursday at their school – CNT @CNT – which involved simple and easy challenges to make positive changes for the environment.

‘We asked our followers to send us picture of their participation each week and received some brilliant responses. It was great to see that people were actively involved in the campaign,’ said Aisling.

‘We also post factual information in small and fun ways to help educate people on some environmental terms. Our motto is ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ and we believe that small gradual changes made by people in their locality all contribute to the wider global issue.’

Kaite and Aisling also contacted their local public representatives and as well as businesses to get them to act on the climate crisis.