A SEMESTER OF ACTIVISM

Some committee members at the last meeting of the semester, from left to right Lois, Jason, Sarah, Karly, Adam and Mark.

Well everyone this has been our most active Semester since our creation last year! We have achieved so much in such a short period of time and it has been the best of craic the whole way!

Heres a summary of what we have been up to and achieved this academic year so far:

Our first activity was taking part in the annual Belfast Pride Parade. QUB Greens and Green Party members took part and showed our support to the gay community and to express our belief that the bigotry and hate of the DUP and the wicked witch of the north is completely unnaceptable in todays society.

At the Freshers Bazaar we managed to sign up 67 interested students! We met so many people that day and once again we could see that Green Issues are top of the agenda in many students books and shows the need for a progressive, environmental, activist society at QUB, the QUB Greens!

We took part in the Irish Language Rally and Parade in Belfast in October. The Young Greens believe that an Irish Language Act is long overdue as a result of the shortcomings of the Stormont Assembly. The Irish Language has become a political football at Stormont, it needs to be depoliticised because it is not a political issue, it is a Human Rights Issue, that can only be solved by an Irish Language Act. We marched to express our support to the Irish Community and Irish Language and to express our belief that the racist trollings of certain Ministers in the Stormont Assembly should not be accepted in a just and forward society.

For the first time the QUB Greens have a full committee made up of two gender balanced Co-Chairs, Secretary, Treasurer and 5 non-portfolio officers. We have become a strong and dedicated team becoming one of the most active political and campaign based societies on campus.

Four QUB Greens were elected onto the Student Council and two of our members managed to get elected onto the Environmental Committee and also the Equality Committee.

We hosted a talk from the Sustainable Energy Association in which the SEA Project Manager gave us a presentation on the SEA's campaign for Green Energy in Ireland.

The QUB Greens have been actively involved in the newly formed Youth Mental Health Strategy which is campaigning to bring about a change of attitudes and opinions towards mental health in Northern Ireland.

Monday 1 December was World AIDS Day, part of the global campaign to tackle the epidemic that is HIV/AIDS and to raise awareness about it. The QUB Greens worked together with the Students Union, Rag, Oxfam and Amnesty International to raise awarness of the issue and also to provide sexual health information to the student body.

At our last meeting of the semester the QUB Greens looked over our successes to date and also we looked forward! Next semester we hope to continue our momentum and hope to organise a voter registration campaign on campus coming up to the European Election. We will also continue our Sexual Health campaign, Our mental health campaign and will be involved in many more campaigns throughout the campus!


The QUB Greens would like to send a very special and green farewell to Sarah Tansey! Sarah came to QUB for this semester as a politics student from the USA. Sarah gave a helping hand during our campaigns and we were all gutted to see her have to go back home after the first semester! Good Luck Sarah! We hope you enjoyed Greening up the campus with the QUB Greens!

We would like to wish everyone as happy and wonderful time of year! Good luck in your January exams!

Adam and Karly
QUB Greens
Co-Chairs

FIGHT BELFAST CITY AIRPORT'S RUNWAY EXTENSION

George Best Belfast City Airport have applied for planning permission to extend their runway by 590m.

The QUB GREENS, Green Party, including Green Party MLA Brian Wilson, along with a number of residents' groups are opposing this extension and are calling for a public enquiry because of these factors;

i. Noise Pollution - residents close to the airport and under the flight path have been experiencing annoyance from ever increasing noise levels.

ii. Poor Economics - the aviation industry is in decline, there is no increase in demand to necessitate this extension.

iii. Air Quality - the airport intends to expand it's operations to service more long distance flights, meaning bigger jets with more fuel and more pollution and a greater impact on health of those in the area.

iv. Wildlife - the airport is culling birds in Victoria Park and has requested that trees be cut down though so far this has been resisted.

v. Safety - the is an EU designated City airport and due to its proximity to residential housing should not be restricted to small planes for domestic flights.


The QUB Greens sent a delegation to the public meeting on 8th December to show their support to the community groups leading the campaign against the proposed runway extension. The QUB Greens delclared their full support to the Belfast City Airport Watch Campaigners and are planning to actively support the campaign on campus.


Photo on right shows Mark McCormick of the QUB Greens looking over the planning application for the proposed runway extension with Fiona McKinley of the Belfast City Airport Watch.


See http://www.belfastcityairportwatch.co.uk/ for more info.

GREEN ENERGY TALK

John Hardy of the SEA with members of the QUB Greens. From left to right - Lois, John, Karly, Adam and Mark.

The QUB Greens hosted a talk from the Sustainable Energy Association on Wednesday.

John Hardy, the SEA Project Manager, gave the talk and covered topics such as the establishment of the SEA, its Campaigns and its aims! John gave a very interesting presentation showing us the need for Green Energy in Ireland and the opportunity we could gain from it!

John Hardy said, "I would like to thank the Young Greens for giving me the opportunity to speak to them, and to show how a local campaign can grow into a national organisation. Renewable energy is the economic driver for the future, which the Greens have always promoted as a clean, cheap alternative!"

http://www.sustainable-nrg.org/

Take a look at the SEA website to see the work they do!

GREENS CAMPAIGN ON WORLD AIDS DAY

The Green Stall! From left to right - Roger, Lois, Adam, Mark, Jason, Karly and Sarah.

Monday 1 December was World AIDS Day, part of the global campaign to tackle the epidemic that is HIV/AIDS and to raise awareness about it.

The QUB GREENS along with Amnesty, Oxfam, Rag and the Students Union held an awareness day in the Union, distributing information on the situation here as well as around the world.

At the Green stall we handed out information on HIV/Aids and booklets on sexual health for students. We also handed out hundreds of condoms to the students population in an effort to encourage save and sensible sex!

For more information visit http://www.worldaidsday.org/

Sustainable Energy Association Talk

The QUB Greens will be hosting a talk by the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA). The Sustainable Energy Association was established to give a voice to the interests of the Renewable Energy Industry in Ireland.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ASSOCIATION TALK
QUB Students Union
Club Room 1, Third Floor
Wednesday 3rd December
2pm

John Hardy, the SEA Project Manager, will be giving the talk and will cover topics such as the establishment of the SEA, its Campaigns and its aims! You will then have the opportunity to put your questions to John!

John is a graduate of QUB and also an active member of the Green Party. It was a small local Green Party campaign in Johns local area that lead to the foundations of the SEA so his talk will not only be of interest to people wishing to learn about Green Energy, but it will also be of interest to those wanting to learn how acting local but thinking global really works!

http://www.sustainable-nrg.org/