Environmental Activism and Lough Neagh

Environmental Activism and Lough Neagh

Hi everyone!

So I have ended up weaving some things that I've read over the past few months along with some feelings and reflections towards the current situation with our waters here in the north of Ireland (and the world). At the bottom of the article there's the poem "Bottomless Grief", which I wrote at the end of September while in a bit of a spiral about the Feirste river buried under Belfast and the poisoned Lough Neagh. Poems always help me process my feelings.

It's all a wee bit heavy but I hope it's of service.

I'm doing it for the lough. I feel she wants us to talk about her and love her.

Human and nature: pathological relationship

The relationship that humans have with our environment is described as pathological - ie., malfunctioning and diseased. We are the only species on the planet that does the exact opposite to what we need for our own survival - constantly going contra instinct and long-term solutions; instead choosing short-term satisfaction, greed and laziness.

As we reject and disregard nature, we reject and disregard our own inner natures - it is a mirror for our fear of our own inner wildness.

In the myriad of jobs that I have worked during my adult life I have been depressed to witness the cultures that exist in so many working environments in which responsibility or even awareness towards consumption, waste and waste disposal do not seem to exist at all. It often seems as though nothing really means anything - there can be a sense of frivolousness, and almost bravado, around the excessiveness of it all. At best, I have seen quiet embarrassment over solutions that are not yet thought of or implemented. I have been disappointed and disgusted from witnessing the actions of singular restaurants, schools and yoga studios. When I allow myself to then think about the waste created by every single business in every town, in every city, in every country… of the whole world… I begin to realise how massive this issue is.

Industry and slavery

When you consider the fact that Shell is currently suing Greenpeace for $1m, you start to realise how mental it really all is. The human world is run on money and the rich becoming richer, industry giants can buy their way out of anything; the men running them only want to die with more money in their name than the average person can even imagine owning a fraction of. We know that slavery was the norm in the past while the select few fiercely guarded their power, but are we not still slaves now, just in far more insidious and covert ways?

Green-washing is one of the low-level, sneaky ploys of large corporations who claim products and processes to be “eco” or “environmentally friendly”, simply as a way of making people buy them (and to sell things for more money). The finger is firmly pointed at big business, giant corporations and governments to make changes - shifts need to happen on a larger scale for there to be any real impact.

Personal response-ability

However, we have personal responsibility too. We make choices on a daily basis, we have small spheres of influence - if it is our families, social circles or workplaces.

But, we’re too busy, we’re too tired, we’re too broke, we’re too hungover, we’re working through too many other things… we have so many personal excuses for why we deem it acceptable every day to contribute towards the devastation of the planet. We are happy to have more babies and buy more and more things based on whims and trends and “needs” - but we tend to avoid thinking about the wider impact those things will have on the future planet that our children will live on without us, and the production and journey that each product went on before it landed in our hands and homes.

Even just talking about the reality that we are driving ourselves into is something that we could be doing more of, so that via creativity and human connection we can support one another to make better choices for the planet. There is no hierarchy here, we are all picking our way through the minefield of supermarkets and airlines and Amazon orders.

Species superiority

Species superiority is the idea that humans are the superior species on the planet. Texts of the Abrahamic religions claim human “dominance” over animals and the land, and have helped to spread this sense of human superiority through the collective psyche over thousands of years. I believe however that the idea of “dominance” could instead be translated as having more responsibility; we are not here to rape the planet’s resources, but to be responsible for them.

Our human intelligence should make us guardians and stewards of the beautiful earth we live upon, and all the creatures we share it with.

We now live in a geological epoch known as “Anthropocene” - meaning that human activity is the dominant influence on the climate and the environment. This age is defined by decline in and extinction of species, mass-production and over-consumption, destruction of natural habitats, plastic pollution… sound familiar?

Lough Neagh

And here in the north of Ireland, we have Lough Neagh. In my opinion, the lough has become a symbol for the backwards behaviour of humans towards our environment. Her destruction is here to wake us up to the reality of what we are doing to the planet, and force us to make real changes, on personal and collective levels.

The lough’s history and mythology

Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in Ireland and the UK, and supplies 40% of the tap water in Northern Ireland. Lough Neagh features in Irish mythology and folklore; the origins of its name come from one of the other names of the Dagda “ Eachaidh”, and it means “the Dagda’s lake” - the Dagda being the chief God of the Tuatha De’ Danann (the ancient inhabitants of Ireland, who are now to be found in Tir na nOg). :)

Thousands of wild eel travel from the Sargasso Sea (near the Caribbean) to Lough Neagh via the Atlantic and the river Bann, where they live for 15 years before returning to the Sargasso to breed. I love that they choose this beautiful lough to come and live, and their presence has created work for local fishermen here since the Bronze Age(!). Lough Neagh wild eel is renowned as being some of the best in the world. We are now looking at a major decline in eel numbers, as well as in bird and insect numbers around the lough (did anyone else notice the lack of insects this summer?).

Lough Neagh is owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury; it was taken in the early 17th century by English aristocracy during the Stuart conquest of Ulster. The man who first took firstly laid claim to the lough's infrastructure, then to its boats, then the shores and finally the lough in its entirety, including all fishing rights. It has since been passed down through generations of English aristocrats, the current one being Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, who owns the bed and soil of the lough. (So random, what a thing to own in a country that you don't even live in.)

Wtf is going on with the lough?

The lough is contaminated with blue-green algae, a poisonous algae that is harmful to humans, animals and fish. Exposure to high levels of it can cause diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, breathing difficulties and skin, eye and throat irritation. It can kill pets and livestock, but there are still holes in research and there isn’t 100% certainty of the impact it has on wild animals. It also makes water smelly and slows plant growth.

This has happened due to serious mismanagement of a natural resource by everyone involved; the blue-green algae is caused by nutrient pollution. Raw sewage has been pumped in the lough by NI Water, and they have not ever monitored or recorded any figures on the amount of sewage that has been pumped in. They blame the government for underfunding. Chemicals used by NI Water to clean the water to make it “drinkable” for our taps are also contributing factors to the pollution, as well as chemical runoff from agriculture in the surrounding hills and valleys. Invasive species of zebra mussels may be contributing factors, as well as climate change and rising temperatures.

Updates and invitations

The Earl of Shaftesbury recently said he would like to transfer his estate's ownership of Lough Neagh "into a charity or community trust model, with rights of nature included”, but that it may “take time”. Rights of Nature is a legal theory that seeks to grant rights to elements of nature to protect them from harm and allow them to flourish. Apparently 24 countries in the world have applied this model and given full rights to aspects of nature equal to that of a person. Which I really love the idea of! If it happens here with Lough Neagh, it seems to me to be a step in the right direction. Imagining a community-led restoration of the lough is an exciting prospect, but it also means that there needs to be a full understanding of what has happened, and how best to proceed on collective and individual levels. The tragedy of Lough Neagh will hopefully wake people up to the poisoned water that is in their taps - these kinds of environmental disasters are often associated with higher levels of disease and cancer - but hopefully not result in the over-buying of plastic water bottles in response to it. Our physical health as well as our environment's health are just as important; this is an opportunity for the communities in the north to become guardians and stewards of their beautiful landscape. I feel it as an invitation to step up into a more mature and responsible lifestyle regarding our environmental impact. Rights being granted to the lough water and its life systems is a great way to awaken people to the network that we live within; our other-than-human kin and to use our creative capacity to look after them well.

And here's a poem I wrote about it all (lol).

Bottomless Grief

There is some bottomless grief

that lurks, waiting to be felt

in the depths of a poisoned lough.

The waterways are blocked.

Colonial capitalism and the people in deadlock.

Concrete tunnels run underground; even our once-flowing rivers were drowned.

Can you taste it?

The bitter pill of unfelt remorse,

and the chemicals in the water that drain our life force.

The pathological human disregard for nature,

it burns my tongue and

singes my throat.

Don’t.

Defend the voracious appetite, that will

never be satiated:

more only results in the desire for more

as dead animals wash up on a poisoned lough shore.

The curse of the unconscious human

spreading its plague upon the land.

(There are those who don’t think further

than what they have in their hand.)

The Feirste is buried underground

and the eels and birds may soon be no longer around.

Only human poison to be found;

species-superiority tearing the planet down.

Just as it arrived with its ships and crowns

and burnt ancient wisdom to the ground.

Just as it cut out native tongues;

bloody knife slicing through native sound.

There is some bottomless grief

that lurks, waiting to be felt

in the depths of a poisoned lough.

She weeps, poisoned tears

treated with chemicals by the insincere,

to be ingested into the bodies

of the naive.

Still she withstands, since Fionn Mac Cumhail

and his giant hand

carved a great chasm into the land

and threw it across the sea to make the Isle of Mann.

Still she stands.

She’s been here since the days of myth,

woven in Eire’s tapestry with every stitch,

our dreamtime lough that has outlived

so many of our ancient megaliths.

And without whose waters we could not live.

Still she stands,

and yet we treat her as a wasteland

this ancient lough, who waters our heartland,

and who cries to those who listen.