Question: what do Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, ‘eco-nomics’ pundit David McWilliams, and the Nobel Prize committee have in common?
Answer: a growing realisation of the need to factor the environment into the economy.
Lenihan’s budget today will at last introduce a carbon tax and, with it, the principle of ‘the polluter pays’.
US economist Elinor Ostrom shared this [...]
Archive for the ‘Sustainable living’ Category
Carbon taxes, cash for clunkers, and the tragedy of the commons
Posted in Carbon, Policy, Science and society, Sustainable living, tagged Science and society, Sustainable living on December 9, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Dublin bikes & those e-voting machines
Posted in Policy, Sustainable living, Transport on September 15, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Can you suggest any uses for an e-voting machine?
I’m thinking we could rent them out for Lisbon Treaty referenda — free for the first 30 minutes — and hope that users wouldn’t return them!
An idea prompted by the fact that Dublin’s new bicycles have hit the streets at last : 450 bright and robust machines [...]
The future of motors in general?
Posted in Carbon, Policy, Sustainable living, Transport on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve been watching a car crash unfold here over the last few days, as the future of General Motors was decided. Or at least, the short-term future.
I’m posting this from southern Ontario, where in fairness thousands of jobs currently depend on the American auto industry.
As it happens, this is also the homeland of the [...]
Earth hour 2009, the LHC and greening your electricity
Posted in Carbon, Sustainable living, electricity on March 10, 2009 | 1 Comment »
We can’t all install a wind turbine at the bottom of the garden, yet simply changing when we use electricity can make our power consumption greener.
Some years ago, making a science programme for RTE radio, I was let into the inner sanctum where skilled engineers control the Ireland’s electrcity supply to meet the constant rise [...]
How do you cook porridge?
Posted in Food, Shopping, Sustainable living, tagged Food, Sustainable living on February 1, 2009 | 2 Comments »
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who love porridge, and those who have yet to discover the tastiest, healthiest, greenest and cheapest way to start the day.
For the latter, all I can say is, don’t just take my word for it — food alchemist Heston Blumenthal’s favourite is porridge with blueberries.
And [...]
What to do with recycled materials?
Posted in Sustainable living, Waste on November 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
There must be something we can do with all the recycled materials now piling up in the country?
A dramatic drop in the prices paid on international markets means that Irish waste companies have rather a lot of material which they are currently storing, presumably with more arriving every day.
(Image: enviro-solutions.com)
The cost of storing all [...]
What’s green, and earning money?
Posted in Carbon, Sustainable living, Tourism, electricity on September 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Expect to hear more about the Danish island of Samsø which, thanks to a massive community effort over the past decade, is now self-sufficient in renewable energy.
The 4,000 inhabitants spent €54 million (raised in local taxes and investment), to install nearly a dozen wind turbines on land, and the same again offshore, plus banks of [...]
Do you count your carbon?
Posted in Carbon, Food, Sustainable living on September 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If you knew a product’s carbon footprint, would it influence what you buy? Could carbon-labelling help reduce a country’s greenhouse gas emissions?
Tesco and other British high street multiples are introducing carbon labelling on selected products, and the Japanese government recently announced something similar.
But, I’m not convinced that this carbon labelling will work.
First, counting carbon [...]
Hotel towels and ‘green wash’
Posted in Sustainable living, Tourism on September 2, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Hotels worldwide have cottoned onto the benefits of not changing guest towels every day. Usually, there is a sign inviting us to join them in doing our bit to help the environment.
But are they really helping the environment? Or hoping to save money on their laundry bills?
I’ve been pondering this since reading about [...]
How many people are there in the world?
Posted in Sustainable living on July 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
6,681,394,380 . . . and counting . . . rather fast.
Today, July 11, is World Population Day, inaugurated in 1988 by the United Nations to mark the day when the world’s population hit five billion, July 11, 1987.
The counter is at www.worldometers.info, where we learn that the absolute growth in population today (at the [...]
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