A ONE-girl crusade to help save the planet is taking place in Clare with young Lani Meaney urging people to take action and do their bit to save the environment.
11-year-old Lani has become a regular sight where she lives in Darragh putting up posters in the locality calling on people to think green and clean up after themselves.
Recently the Lissycasey national school student wanted to get her message across to a wider audience, so she wrote an article for the Clare Champion.
In the article she asked the public to, “Stop Climate Change Before it’s too Late”.
She wrote, “Climate Change is happening right now, this second. It’s already starting to get out of hand. Letting Climate Change get worse, would be like destroying someone’s home, and then destroy everyone else’s home in the world.
“Earth is everyone’s home and we need to take care of her. When a home is messy we clean it right? Well Earth is starting to become messy with all the litter people leave. We need to pick up this litter to protect the Earth and the animals on her.
“‘What can we do to save Earth?’ you may ask. Well you can: Pick up litter, recycle, limit the amount of fires you light, don’t leave the tap on when you are brushing your teeth, don’t burn plastic and rubbish or smoke and don’t litter
“Please, please, please help save our Earth before it becomes too late. Earth will become angry and storms will get worse and the temperatures will rise! Try your best! Make signs! Chalk words on the side of the road about saving the world! Do what you can to save our home!”
After receiving the article, we contacted Lani and her mother to find out more about what inspired this dedication to the environment.
Lani told us, “I have always loved nature, and when I found out that wild creatures homes are being destroyed and how climate change is affecting the earth, I knew I wanted to do something about it.
“I put up signs and posters, but I thought the message wasn’t getting read so I tried to contact the newspaper so more people could see what they are doing to the earth and to open their eyes up a bit more. In my opinion it’s unfair that the earth has to suffer because of humans.”
As well as trying to raise awareness, Lani has been gathering donations from relatives for environmental charity Sea Shepherd. She is “very excited” to appear in the Clare Champion and she hopes others will take heed of her message and “If someone says they are going to help the earth that they actually will do it and not just say they will.”
Lani’s mum Emily told us she is “super proud” of her daughter and the actions she has taken to encourage people to think about the world around them.
“For as long as I can remember she has been saying ‘save the planet’, she walks around the garden with her home made posters and chanting.
“One memory I have is, we sponsor an orangutan and we heard about how the rainforests are being destroyed for the making of palm oil. We were in the supermarket one day and I looked around and she had a poster asking people not to eat palm oil and to save the orangutan.
“She’s very proactive, putting up posters in the local shop asking people to help clean up the roads. She wants to be a writer when she grows up so having her featured in The Clare Champion is huge for her. I’m just super proud, I’ve always said she is going to help save the planet in some way.”