Galway Greens

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Last year a comprehensive report was produced by the UN Environment

Programme called GEO-4 -The fourth Global Environment Outlook: environment for development.

The report is the fourth installment in what was originally the Brundtland Commission Report over 20 years ago.

What the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change) is to the specific problem that is Climate Change, the Global Environment Outlook reports are to the OVERALL ENVIRONMENT - massively important, yet they are unheard of by most citizens and politicians including many greens.

While climate change is the topic gaining most concern in the media and with the public, there are others putting the squeeze on humanity which urgently need to be addressed including:

• Pollution of land, water and atmosphere
• Water depletion and mismanagement.
• Peak oil and gas
• Loss of biodiversity
• Food security
• Overpopulation
• Waste (mis)management
• Widespread destruction of rain forests and other habitats.

Trying to address the problems of global environmental, economic and social sustainability without awareness of the problems is akin to flying blind without instruments in poor visibility.

A further description of the GEO process described in this link. For more background, see also the press release on the release of the report.

Click here for sustainability videos posted earlier.

The Galway Greens have a long track record in promoting many of the ideas now being toted as new such as light rail for Galway and the Western Rail Corridor. It looks like after 10 or so years campaigning NGO’s (some with a long established hard working track record, others much more recent) are taking the baton and that political parties who initially had no interest are finally catching on that good public transport is a necessity.

However, we’re still a very long way short of where we need to be in providing mass transit for the public. Progress in more economically strained times now depends to a large degree on how willing Government partners FF are to understand and accept that the bang for your buck in public transport projects is far superior to that of road projects.

Here’s a link which highlights our historical stance in supporting public transport.

No one seems to have told John Gormley that the summer holidays are here as he is still working away in his Department. His latest announcement concerns what was the bane on my participation in last years General Election  - the much overused election poster!

 Minister Gormley is asking the public to send in their views on election posters (contact details below) with a view to restricting their proliferation during next year’s locals. It is understandable that such a development is coming from a Green Party Minister, as we have an ‘interesting’ history with election posters.

 We started by rejecting the use of election posters all together, which was something of a moot point considering we didn’t have two pennies to rub together, let alone have enough money to buy these pricey election tools! We slowly moved away from such a policy in the nineties when we discovered the voters who knew what a candidate looked like were more likely to vote for them. Academic research on election tools whole heartedly supports the notion that posters are crucial to electoral success, hence the explosion in the numbers used at election time.

 However, being the cash strapped party that we are, we still rely on ordinary members to put up these posters at election time. I remember at the last GE being on Salthill prom on a windy Sunday morning, climbing to the very top of the pole to get the posters of Niall in to the ideal position. It was my first brush with postering and I have no shame in saying that I clung to the pole with my dear life. What I would have given for a cherry picker, or even just a helmet! So being the only Party not contact out the putting up of posters, it is unsurprising that any attempt to restrict them is coming from a Green Party Minister.

 But what will any restrictions look like? A blanket ban would be nice, but perhaps we should lower expectations. Personally, I think Local Authorities should be obliged to set aside between 25 & 40% of each ward to be designated as a ‘poster free’ zone. Such a proposal would work well in urban areas, but less so in rural areas where the County Councils could choose the least populated areas to be designated as ‘poster free’ zones. Thus county towns would still be overrun during election time, and let’s not forget that in recent years elections have coincided somewhat with the peak tourist season (General Election 2007 in May, Local & European Election 2004 in June). What must all those American tourists think of Eamon O Cuiv’s smiling face greeting them as they disembark on the Aran Islands!

 Another proposal would be to link the number of poster to the size of the ward - 10 posters per 1 square kilometer? But for a variety of reasons, this would be impossible to police.

 The response from the opposition was it usual self - absurd. FG’s environment spokesman rejected any restrictions on posters, claiming that they added to the razzmatazz of election time. From a Party that has Enda Kenny as its leader, it is a little rich to lecture us on ‘razzmatazz’ at election time. When ever Inda himself popped up on the tellie I imagine the collective groan from the nation was enough to drown out whatever drivel he was spouting at the time. Then again, they did bring us the infamous ‘Twink Ard Fheis’, so perhaps they speak with some authority.

 I’ll finish this post with a final thought - if postering is restricted, what will candidates spend their money on? A Dáil candidate can spend anywhere between €10,000 & €15,000 on posters. Suggestions please on where you think that money will go!

 To make a public submission, e-mail electionposters@environ.ie by September 15th.

The IPCC is the foremost global organisation in relation to Climate Change. To find out more about them, visit the link http://www.ipcc.ch/about/index.htm. While man’s impact on climate change is likely to always be disputed, the IPCC fourth assessment synthesis report (in 2007) states that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (i.e. man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations.

Think of hydrocarbons as rays of ancient sunlight. The earth controlled previous periods of extreme global warming by burying carbon underground. We’ve now released about half the buried oil, almost half the gas and a significant amount of the coal in about 150 years.

The graph below from page 6 of http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf compares natural and man-made global warming.

Even for the climate-change skeptics out there, there is the sustainability picture to consider, where we are wasting many of our valuable resources.  High energy prices are attributed to among other things peak oil and gas which has now become of major economic concern.

This post is to help differentiate between natural and man-made climate. In modern day climate, the main factor is sunspot cycles. The more sunspots, the warmer the weather as cloud-forming cosmic rays are diverted away from earth during higher sunspot activity.

However, back through the medium term (last million years) cycles of ice ages and interglacials which are determined by three factors summed up under the term “milankovitch cycles“. Adding all these cycles together shows when we had ice ages and interglacials in the past (see bottom waveform in the graph below).

Prior to that we need to look at Paleoclimatology back to over 4 billion years ago when there was almost no life on earth to get the long term picture. A good guide is available from the IPPC web site.

Fuaireas taithí ar chruatan na canbhasála arís le déanaí: bhí bileoga le dáileadh ar thithe i gCnoc na Cathrach chun cuireadh a thabhairt don phobal dílis Glas thiar teacht chuig an gcruinniú poiblí le John Gormley a tionóladh in Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh, le déanaí. Tá go leor, leor tithe i gCnoc na Cathrach agus díle báistí le titim le mí anuas, ach fiú dá mbeadh spéirling ann, chaithfí an scéal a scaipeadh go raibh an tAire Comhshaoil ag teacht chun na Gaillimhe. Suas agus anuas linn chuig gach doras agus gach bosca litreach. Ar Bhóthar na Ceapaí, sheas madra mór dubh go bagarthach ag an ngeata. Theitheamar gan mórán machnaimh a dhéanamh. I Ros Ard, ba bheag ná baineadh an lámh díom agus an bhileog á sá síos sa bhosca litreach agam: madra mór dubh eile laistigh agus craos air, ba chosúil. Má bhí béile le caitheamh i dteannta John Gormley an deireadh seachtaine sin, d’alp an madra úd siar an tAire Comhshaoil i bhfaiteadh na súl - nó pictiúr de, ar a laghad.  In ainneoin na madraí agus na báistí, d’éirigh linn ualach bileog a scaipeadh an tráthnóna úd. Bhí sé crua ar na cosa, ach ba chleachtadh maith é don chanbhasáil a bheidh ar siúl againn an bhliain seo chugainn do na toghcháin áitiúla. Fonn ar aon duine eile dúshlán na madraí a thabhairt?

The Galway Greens would like to extend our sympathies to the family of Seamus Brennan TD, who passed away this morning.

Green politician and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt is finally free after 6 years in captivity. Her kidnapping in 2002 by FARC attracted worldwide attention and Greens all over the world have campaigned tirelessly for her release. Ingrid Betancourt was freed by the Colombian army on July 2nd 2008.

NRA archeologist Jo Ronayne has claimed that her data was altered and she was excluded from meetings to ease the way for the M3.
“Miss Ronayne, who was an excavation director at the Tara valley site in Co. Meath, claims she was told to ‘change interpretations’ so as to ‘lessen to potential of numbers of sites’. And she says she was excluded from NRA meetings in which her evidence was altered before reports were passed on to the Government.”
From the Tarawatch blog.