Nicola Peel – award winning environmentalist and filmmaker
in Conversation with author Mark Boyle
on tackling climate change, the protection of the natural world and preserving links to our ancient past
Venue: Secret Garden, William St West, Galway
Date: Wednesday August 15th at 7pm
Nicola is an award winning environmentalist, filmmaker, speaker and solutionist and she has been working on sustainability and humanitarian initiatives in the Ecuadorian Amazon for over 18 years on a number of environmental and social projects.
Nicola will be in conversation with Mark Boyle, a.k.a. The Moneyless Man – an Irish activist and writer best known for founding the online Freeconomy Community and for living without money for two years.
Nicolas focus has been to find practical solutions to respond to those in need who are suffering due to resource extraction, poverty and climate change. The Blood of the Amazon full length documentary covers Nicola’s story as she travelled down the Amazon researching the effects of the oil industry on the environment and indigenous people who live there.
Finding solutions to oils spills with mycroremedial fungi, building rainwater systems for indigenous people suffering from contamination due to the oil industry, cleaning the beaches of tons of plastic, turning rubbish into a resource, and training farmers in agroforestry to prevent the slash and burn of tropical rain forests. Working with www.rainforestsaver.org and Unidad Juan Jimenez ( an agricultural college in Ecuador) they have grown 4000 inga trees, trained 400 students and farmers and established the first 20 demonstration farms in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
As many people believe there is very little one person can do, Nicola speaks about the simple and easy everyday activities that we can all do to make the world a better place. She discusses ethical consumerism and the power of your purchase and how to look and see what is each person’s part of the jigsaw and bigger picture. Nicola’s focus is on solutions and what we can do to be a part of the change, exploring
“the concept of ‘radical self responsibility’ in an everyday context, challenging us and potential product designers to really think about the world we live in and design for”
Aside from Nicolas practical work on the ground she also inspires us to look for solutions in the intelligence of Nature, through the science of Biomimicry. Nature is our greatest teacher and during her presentation she will give examples on some of the solutions found in Nature.
For more information on Nicolas work visit – http://www.nicolapeel.com/ and http://www.eyesofgaia.com
Nicola will be in conversation with Mark Boyle, a.k.a. The Moneyless Man – an Irish activist and writer best known for founding the online Freeconomy Community, and for living without money for two years. Boyle writes regularly for the Freeconomy Blog and British newspaper The Guardian. His first book, The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living, was published in 2010, followed by Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi, in which he argues that the three r’s of the climate-catastrophe generation – reduce, reuse, recycle – need a serious upgrade and in their place he proposes “ resist, revolt, rewild.” He is currently working on his third book and lives near Loughrea, living and working on a smallholding without technology, electricity, fossil fuels or running water. From a recent article https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mark-boyle
For more information please contact: 0872201972
This event is made possible with the generous support of Afri – http://www.afri.ie/
Afri’s vision is of a more just, peaceful, equal and sustainable world. Afri seeks to inform debate and influence policy and practice in Ireland and internationally on human rights, peace, global justice, and sustainability issues. Afri particularly responds to injustice caused by militarisation, and by environmental destruction and resource depletion
This event is also kindly supported by the Galway One World Centre, Transition Galway and The Galway Feminist Collective
Admission is free but donations are welcome.. and there will be crafts from the Amazon for sale
https://theecologist.org/2011/oct/05/day-life-ofnicola-peel-amazon-activist-and-filmmaker