KARIN DUBSKY

Why did you become an environmentalist?

No single reason. There are usually a clutter of factors why you do something - your upbringing and experiences which trigger you to go one way or another. In my case my parents brought us out into nature to listen, watch, discuss and they stood up for what they believed was right. In secondary school i had some outstanding teachers who really cared and encouraged engagement outside the school and later the same in college. They taught us how to research, evaluate information critically and the many ways open to us to influence things. They also challenged us on the philosophical side: is it right to know and not to act

Did you have a goal when working as an environmentalist? If so, have you accomplished it?

At first i just had short term goals focussed on protecting one hedge, or halting pollution from one source. Later that widened into broader policy and how to improve law enforcement and seeking full informed public participation in environmental protection and management as the only way to make any real progress.

What made you start this project?

Realisation that people weren’t seeing the riches of our coast and so weren’t equipped to protect them, or manage usage. I will add the last trigger for the project - but don’t feel you need to translate or copy as it’s a bit longer coastwatch was started sitting on the steps of our house in south dublin with a very good friend frank mc donald – a journalist with the irish times. We lamented how the first ever european year of the environment was 3/4 gone and so little was achieved. oh dear, another cup of coffee .... then we looked at each other and clicked – sure we are part of the problem. So could we make a difference - even coax more people out of their own patch onto the great commons, our seashore? I designed the basic coastwatch audit of the shore as survey questions that night and frank put it to his editor, then wrote an article asking readers to get themselves onto a bit of coast, answer the questions printed in the newspaper while on the shore and post back the newspaper cutting with answers. to our surprise 100s of people responded. When we analysed the data and frank produced a super article on that – it so happened that irish staff in the european commission offices in brussels were reading the paper and told others. That led to small seed fund from the ec to develop our coastwatch survey and create our coastwatch europe network.

Since when do you care for the environment?

According to my older siblings - since i was tiny. however that did not prevent me from accidentally drowning my brother’s hamster in the toilet.

Do you think people nowadays are more worried about pollution, specially the pollution of the oceans?

That is a good question and would make a nice research project – hint hint ... i presume it depends on when and where you are comparing it with. If you were to compare with say 30 +- 10 years ago in europe then the extend of pollution worry could be similar but the focus different.

When i was in school people were very worried about three water pollution issues: oil, sewage and radioactivity as chernobyl had only recently happened. before you sat down on the shore you would carefully check the ground not to ruin your trousers. Sewage became very visible around towns as people were switching to sanitary material with plastics which could be seen as sewage indicators washed up on the shore. While no one is shouting about it we see far less oil, sewage and indeed nuclear pollution now. People are now most worried about plastic pollution of the oceans and rightly so as more and more is ending up there and we need to address it. Other key pollution issues are nutrients released from land, but that isnt catching as much media attention.

Are you happy with results?

I am very happy with loads of results, especially where they have led to people becoming active in protecting their coast and where our results have been used for a specific goal like: - introduction of the plastic bag tax – first in ireland and later across most of europe change the product design of hi cone beer can holders and packing straps to avoid wildlife entanglement official listing of special features like seagrass – zostera – beds which surveyors found, so helping increase scientific knowledge and inform protection of marine areas locating illegal dumps and buildings which were then removed in several countries including most dramatically in bulgaria there are over a dozen phds now which use coastwatch methods

An informal network of coastwatchers across europe and lately further afield

Will continue doing Coastwatch? why?

Yes always - but formally as head of the network no more than 2 years. Just long enough to make sure the new method has enough countries involved and hopefully to have proper network funding for paid staff. Then i would love to step back and see it flourish in the wave of new citizen science initiatives.

What was the most difficult court case?

Coastwatchers in different countries took court cases with some really outstanding ones. The most difficult one i myself was involved in was perhaps the first one as i had no idea how things work in the irish high court.

Have you ever been threatened by some entity due to the causes that you defended?

Yes a few times. there were the carefully worded threats and letters which were designed to get my university to drop me and the more physical threats by phone calls at night what they would do to me if. But most can be defused and dealt with. I only took one so serious that i sought protection.

How do you see the future?

I see major challenges with climate change and more people as the most worrying large scale issues and see that peppered with cumulative impacts of lots of tiny problems. We need to deal with causes and adapt very quickly and get enough people on board to stop greedy or short-sighted uses of marine resources which destroy and reduce the ocean ‘s resilience. I think its like trying to herd cats - not a chance?

Then again - I see good new policies being adopted and all those young people coming up with idealism and new social media tools and aarhus laws to guarantee public environmental information, participation and access to justice. So i suppose i sway between high concern and hope that we can step up to the mark as mankind to change the way we treat our planet before it’s too late.