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Green dream
It is time to get seriously green!
It is time to get seriously green. I mean that both environmentally and patriotically, shamrock and all. To be honest (and don’t hate me for saying this), but I am not much of an environmentalist, it just hasn’t really buzzed with me yet.
I am all in favour of working to better protect our world, but I am just not ready to wear hemp clothes and eat lentils all day long. This article however is going to be very ambitious for our environment, because I believe that we can kill two birds with one stone. That’s efficient use of energy for you!
I believe that Ireland must push very hard and very quickly to achieve energy independence. We can produce enough energy to power this island, here on this island. This may sound very simple, but the effects it would have on Ireland and her position in the world are hard to contemplate. We even had the Green party in power for nearly four years. I certainly don’t feel much greener as a result. I don’t think we have even turned a pale olive yet let alone the highlighter green we were promised. It is time to get back to the bog and start working hard for this nation.
I think that Ireland should aim to be energy independent, and that means not relying on other countries for fuel or power by 2030. That’s ridiculously ambitious, but as technology is advancing I believe it will become more and more achievable, but only if we act now and act boldly. I am no engineer or environmental expert so the ideas I put out are not planned to death. They are just rough goals or targets.
Firstly, Ireland needs to fully exploit our wind resources and build tens of thousands of wind farms, off the coast, on the hills, on top of tall buildings, on farms etc. We need to get experts from Canada to help us build a huge world class tidal energy system, as well as the geniuses from Iceland, where they generate an amazing 80% of their electricity from local renewable sources to help us develop our own techniques. We also need to tap every single river that we can with damns etc. in order to get them powering our lives. Planning regulations must be eased for companies to encourage them to develop renewable energy sources, as well as grants and tax breaks.
If we can drastically improve our energy efficiency, this will lead to a great reduction in demand and stop damaging waste. All buildings must be issued with an energy efficiency rating, like the ones you can find on electrical products nowadays. New buildings must only be permitted if they have an A+ rating and we must encourage business and individuals to bring their homes/premises up to scratch. We must also ban all new electrical products that do not have an A+ rating.
One-off housing in the countryside must only be permitted if the new homes will be energy independent themselves. The government must help those in existing houses both in the countryside and in urban areas to generate as much of their own power as they can.
The costs and logistics of this mass green mobilisation would be staggering and obviously we don't have the cash now. Maybe someday we can implement all these changes (or at least some of them) though, because the alternative is the long-term crippling of our nation.
By: John Dunphy
