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Mobilizing Action on Climate Change and Water Quality
Micheal C. Kennedy (MBA 1985) is director of Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency. In this video, he talks about the need for public education and cooperation in areas of water quality and how to combat climate change.
“When I was here, I wrote a business plan here in Baker for a project to restore the Blasket Islands in West Kerry, and that project has been going for 25 years. It’s a nonprofit conservation project; we’ve done great work on that and I think the confidence to do that came from here.
“And then in my work, in my day job, I worked in marine and environment in Ireland. I think what Harvard gave me was a sense of perspective—what was possible working with America, working with New Zealand, bringing people together, building networks; so it was the attitude, the approach, the ‘can-do,’ that’s what I got from Harvard.
“Knowing the threats that are facing us in the environment, in Ireland and in Europe, and in the world, I wanted to work with the Irish EPA. The main things we’re working on is water quality and climate change, trying to get people in Ireland mobilized and active, and changing behaviors and improving water.
“We can’t keep using resources the way we are, and so I suppose that’s part of my job, working with groups in Ireland, communities, and with the nonprofit sector, and we are trying to get people to learn. A lot of it is about learning—learning through discussion, changing behaviors.
“In a funny way the cases that I read, as such, the boxes have stayed undisturbed for 30 years, but it’s the ideas and, I suppose, the approach, the perspective of what is possible, the confidence to go and work with people, the networks that I built while I was here. That’s the difference I think that Harvard made.”
(Published December 2015)
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