One small, but perfectly formed, climate change video goes viral

DESPITE only being uploaded to YouTube less than a week ago, a video by Cappabue NS students has already clocked up over 47,000 views.

And that’s set to rise even further with upcoming television appearances on RTÉ and even Euronews planned.

The rap ‘One Small Change’ was written by the pupils as part of a Song in a Day workshop run by city-based Garry McCarthy of GMC Beats.

The video was shot by past pupil Elaine Lucey, with help from local drone photographers Darren O’Sullivan and Daniel Lucey, on location in places including the Pass of Keimaneigh, Glengarriff, Gougane Barra and Snave.

Speaking to The Southern Star, school principal Norma Healy said it had been an exciting week for all 23 pupils and staff members.

‘We’ve had photographers and TV crews here and we have even got a request from Euronews to do a Skype interview. The UN Info centre in Tokyo even subscribed to our channel and sent us a tweet, but we can’t read it!’

Junior teacher Olive Creed said that some of the pupils were being asked for autographs and being recognised locally. ‘The whole idea behind the video was to get the message out about making one small change. All the words are their own. They have a great knowledge of climate change and they wanted to tell other schools about it.’

One pupil, Páidí Ó hArgáin, summed it up perfectly in class when he said on Wednesday: ‘Our 13,000 views make 13,000 differences.’

Ms Healy said Garry was ‘an inspiration’ and worked wonderfully with the children. ‘He is a true professional.’

It all started in May when the school took part in an environmental competition run by Bantry Bay Port Co. They came up with a 3D installation called ‘Moby Sick’ made from a discarded mussel barrel and filled with marine litter. It won the competition, with thanks to environmentalist Jessica Mason, who also helped.

The pupils then began to implement simple changes in the school and the idea to make a music video about climate change stemmed from these initiatives.

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