Belfast Exposed

Today I went to an event at City Hall organised by Friends of the Earth. City Hall has a grand staircase.

And the city crest is in the carpet on the landing.

The event consisted of four short films about environmental issues in Northern Ireland – organised along the lines of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Earth is the sad tale of the necklace of quarries surrounding Belfast that have expanded willy nilly through the years, eating entire farms as the explosions collapse massive walls of rock. Air is about the level of air pollution in Belfast, partly due to massive lorries taking tonnes of rock from quarry to port. Partly due to our intensive factory farming. Fire is about a community fighting an incinerator that would dominate Cave Hill, the picturesque mountain overlooking Belfast. Water is about the 20 million tonnes of sewage flowing into Belfast Lough, due to a neglected sewer infrastructure.

A month or so ago I pitched two book ideas to the head of Friends of the Earth, James Orr. One was based on an educational boardwalk at Stormont Estate with a fiberglass butterfly, a dung beetle, a giant ant, etc., and information boards about the ecosystems where they live. I thought this was an epic level of hubris – on the hill above this wetland sits the building where our national assembly fails to protect these ecosystems – I mean an epic fail. The other idea, which James preferred, is a counterfactual. Where would we be today on a variety of issues if the assembly had approved an independent environmental regulator in 2008 (a bill scuttled by the DUP)? I have been trying to set up interviews with activists to explore where we might be today on their issue vs. where we are. Toxic pollution in Lough Neagh, a massive illegal dump on the Faughan River, massive quarries...

After today's event, I had a third idea, which I began drafting today. I'm pretty excited about it. I have been bored by my work for so long – it's nice to have something to feel energised about.

24 April