The ClimateTimes

The objectives of this fundraising campaign are threefold:


 A city location

To provide a tangible focal point to bring people together in a physical setting. We feel there should be a 'Climate Times' centre in every town in Ireland! A place to work, meet people, discuss ideas, get information, socialise and get assistance in any aspect of the climate and environmental crisis. Where to get info on heating your home in a sustainable way, growing food, scientific developments, political situations, protest and more. The climate struggle is a lonely one, as is the internet a lonely place. We will open somewhere. Come for coffee!

Exhibitions

To provide a local focus through exhibitions that will combine art, the personal stories of those who have experienced and continue to experience the dreadful consequences of rapid global heating and environmental breakdown, and through the presentation of facts of science that show us the connections between global heating, our consumption practices, bio-diversity, agriculture, industry, soil-retention, water quality, the oceans, the air and so on. These exhibitions will be designed for indoor spaces - galleries, schools, workplaces - and for outdoor spaces. 

Performances and public events

While individual behaviour and action is hugely important, it is through collective endeavour that we achieve the most.  A group with unity of purpose will always be bigger than the sum of its parts. It is vital that all people recognise the need to embrace the realities and implications of rapid global heating, and if possible, to incorporate this awareness into their life practices, and into their political focus and decisions. The role of art in this is hugely important, and to that end, as well as exhibitions, there will be performances bringing together artists of various genres presenting their ideas in their different formats.

Projects

On February 1st, 2021,  Covid restrictions permitting, in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, there will be a performance entitled The Climate Times: Earth, Air, Fire and Water featuring a number of Galway-based artists, including poetry, music, song and more. In between short texts on these elements, the performers will provide their interpretations of how they see the world in this climate emergency. Assuming the absence of an audience due to covid, the show will be live-streamed. This will run at the same time as an exhibition with the same name, and the online audience will be asked to pay €5, or a donation to watch. Hopefully, there will be a live audience too.

An alphabet of giant letters is being created to be worn like advertising sandwich boards for use in street events and protests, or as promotion for events. 



There is huge anxiety and fear surrounding the climate emergency. Fossil fuel, agricultural and mining industries have huge financial incentives to spread confusion and disinformation on this topic, using the same tactics that were used by tobacco companies, namely, to sow doubt and confusion, thus leading to inaction and apathy. But the majority of people in the world are aware of the huge risks we are taking with our children’s futures, with the future of wildlife, the oceans, the air,the forests, and the quality of life itself. Petteri Taalas, the Secretary-General of the World Metereorological Organization, recently said on Irish radio that just 50% of the effort and resources spent on the covid-19 crisis up to now would be enough to fix and mitigate the worst excesses of the climate emergency. This is a crisis of a far greater magnitude than the pandemic we are now experiencing. This pandemic has, however, shown us that life is more important than money and material possessions, and that people can co-operate when it is seen as being for the greater good. 

The Climate Times is a tiny project in the face of a global crisis. But by acting locally on a social and community level, and by engaging in something positive, no matter how small and insignificant it seems, we can make giant strides taking little steps. We need a new economy, where people are paid to do jobs that do not extract precious resources from the land, but sustain communities in a system less geared to growth and ever greater extraction of resources, but more to co-operation and collective happiness and health. 

Your contribution to this project will be repaid in the growth and fostering of a collective energy dedicated to improving our communities in terms of education, social engagement and artistic endeavour. Our artists should be paid to be artists, as our teachers should be paid to teach, and nurses and doctors to care for our health. This is what a green economy looks like. A green job is any job that doesn't damage the sustainability of our ecosystems and environment. The fight to save our planet is also a fight for social justice, for economic stability, and for the future generations that will look to us as either those who almost killed the planet, or as great ancestors who did what they could to mitigate the worst effects of industrial and agricultural folly and rampant greed.          

Your contributions will be used to set this project in motion. All projects will be publicised on our new website, www.theclimatetimes.com     Any comments, input and knowledge of anything pertinent to this cause is also welcome, and can be sent to  [email redacted]


The team

Grace O'Malley is an artist from Connemara who responded to a request for artists to present work in the upcoming exhibition. She has provided invaluable assistance to this project, and, like all of us, is shocked at the lack of urgency and participation in the struggle to mitigate what is now an existential crisis for humankind and the entire natural world.

Grace O'Malley with works from 'Disappearing Landscapes'

Lily Forrest is a young Galwegian of Scottish heritage who has recently finished her Leaving Certificate and has joined the team to help with the management of social media and general energy levels. She is a talented musician and artist and keen to help on this project that sees the role of art as having an important role in the winning of hearts and minds in the struggle against environmental destruction, and for the future of a sustainable and healthy planet.

Lily Forrest

Bernie Logan has lived in Galway since 1994, with a seven year break in Berlin. He used to run a small gallery, The Logan Gallery, in Woodquay, Galway, and a cafe called O'Shakespeare's, and then Cafe Con Leche. He studied History and Philosophy in NUIG, and has an MA in Philosophy. Until covid-19 he was teaching English in the Galway Cultural Institute.

Bernie Logan with sunflowers and nieces. This project is for them (the sunflowers and the nieces)

Taisce Clare has worked in hospitality, acting, teaching, sales, marketing, mental health. The thread of human relationships connects these diverse fields as he now seeks to synthesise these experiences as a therapist and yoga teacher and include our beautiful home planet in exploring how we relate.

Taisce Clare


While this project began largely as a  personal project, there are people wanting to participate and contribute. Your contributions will enable us to develop and grow this idea into something active and vibrant, and to bring more and more people into believing that while the future looks bleak, change is achievable, and participation in this change will be fruitful and enjoyable. 

Many thanks and best wishes for all of you,

Bernie Logan
Lily Forrest
Grace O'Malley
Taisce Clare