UCD student will 'fast until death if necessary' over climate inaction 

UCD student Ronan Browne. Photograph Moya Nolan

A student at University College Dublin (UCD) has been on hunger strike for eight days over what he sees as failings of the university and its students to enact effective climate action.

Ronan Browne has said he will “fast until death if necessary” to bring attention to his demands for holding a university assembly on climate action and a campus-wide referendum on enacting “peaceful civil disobedience” to “bring the economy to a halt” and tackle climate change more effectively.

“I have super low energy,” he said, sounding frail. “I’m heartbroken for my dad, doing this, as it’s breaking his heart. He’s the light of my life and I know what this is doing to him. But I also know what’s going to happen to him and my sisters and everyone else [if nothing is done].” 

The postgraduate student studying Design Thinking for Sustainability began the hunger strike last Wednesday at the science building of the university.

He said the university is “heavily complicit” in the climate emergency through its support of a “fundamentally degenerative” economic system. Mr Browne wants the establishment of a university assembly, modelled on the national citizens assembly, on the role of the university in the climate emergency, followed by a referendum on mobilizing staff and students towards “peaceful disobedience”.

“It’s not going to happen when 300 students march to the Dáil every couple of months. It won’t work. We need to bring the economy to a halt. We need the entire 32,000-odd student population to do it. 

“We know what caused this [climate emergency]: It’s the devouring of the natural world by fossil fuels and an economic system that necessitates increasing amounts each year.” 

Drinking water

Mr Browne escalated his protest to include a water strike on Tuesday. After “amicable and reasonable progressions” were made in his discussions with the students’ union, and ambulance staff assured him he would die within three days, he returned to drinking water on Wednesday.

Fellow climate activist Sinead Jackson said she is “really concerned” about Mr Browne’s health which has deteriorated.

“He was barely able to walk out of the building yesterday,” she said. “He cares more about everybody else on the planet than he does about himself… [He] is risking his life to ask students and staff across Ireland to take nonviolent civil disobedience in the name of common sense and common courtesy.” 

In an online video message, UCD student counsellor Caroline Ward said she was “very moved” upon meeting Ronan.

“I was also concerned for his health, but I was moved by what he was trying to achieve and his courage as he sat alone in this effort to institute some kind of change,” she said. “I just wanted to add a word of support. It behoves us to listen to him, to at least give him our attention and hear what he has to say.” 

The university and UCD Students’ Union did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publishing.

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