This has to be a good thing. We talk enough about litter and filth in our environment, about how things could be improved, about why we are not making inroads.
What should we blame - the national psyche, an inherent disregard for our fields and rivers, or the education system? For too long we ignored the environment in this State.
That neglect has cost us dearly already but people such as the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, worked hard behind the scenes - sometimes against considerable political odds - to bring some semblance of order to what had been a state of disorder.
Her efforts, even as a junior minister, led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. It brought companies into line - some of them believed, and with good reason, before the EPA was formed, that there would never be an accountability or a day of reckoning.
But there is now, and written into all the corporate accounts is a budget for the protection of the environment. There have been major clean-ups, especially in Cork Harbour, where once the problem was especially bad. Profits were being exported, often to the US, while treatment procedures were, to put it mildly, less than adequate at home.
So when the EPA enlists schoolchildren in its efforts to make a difference, you have to think that better days lie ahead. The message is that we can all make a difference and that if it starts with young people, we are going forward.
The EPA has taken a commendable initiative and it deserves support. As part of its Schools Environmental Research Project, the EPA has identified three primary objectives - to develop an awareness of the environment and the EPA's role in protecting it among school-goers and the general public in a city or town; to identify public perceptions of the EPA within the particular area and to provide participants in the project with a basic training in research.
The project has now moved to Cork, where students in six schools are preparing various environmental research plans. Each school will identify a local environmental problem or opportunity. Typically, the research involves the development of a suitable questionnaire to be used in interviews. The questions set by the students are aimed at establishing how people interact with the environment and what their attitude to it is.
Approximately one-third of the research format asks people about their attitude to and knowledge of the EPA. The consultants, Market Intelligence Services (MIS), visit each school to provide the project participants with research expertise and after that they are on the own.
Projects may include air and water pollution problems or problems with landfill.
But there is one side to this initiative that may have a lasting effect. The organisers have asked local authorities to recognise what the young people are doing and to listen to them. If the projects are worthwhile - if the students have identified areas missed by the corporations and councils - let them act on the recommendations.
As part of the project they will have to make presentations in front of their peers, local politicians and authorities, their parents and teachers.
Dean Michael Jackson, of St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, has asked for a mention of a major symposium which will take place at UCC on Friday and Saturday.
Its theme is science and religion and it will be the first of its kind in Ireland, seeking to explore the relationship between science, research and technology. Eminent speakers from Europe and the US will attend.
Admission is free and while everyone is welcome, Dean Jackson would like to know how many people intend to come. The UCC office dealing with the symposium may be contacted at 021-902465. Ms Claire Butler will handle queries.