Archive for category Environment

Is the sea effecting Irish weather

The Weather in Ireland over the last few years has changed immensely, we have had bad summers and worse winters year on year. This year, in particular, we have seen floods, freezing weather and snow on a scale that has not been seen for a very long time. It is a fact that Ireland’s weather is changing, but, it seems, not for the best.
The issue that comes to mind is the shutdown of the Thermohaline circulation. This current circulation is what gives Western Europe its very mild climate in winter, in comparison to the very cold winters experienced in Canada.

The Ocean currents play a major role in keeping Ireland relatively warm during the winter.

Recent studies have shown that the ocean current is slowing down.

National Oceanography Centre in the UK found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream from the last such measurement in 1992.”

It has become clear that global warming is having a major effect on Irish weather. If we don’t take action against this in the future, it could lead to Ireland and Europe having very different weather in years to come.

Local Elections

It’s great to see that Malcolm Noonan got back into office, keep up the good work Malcolm. It would have been a shame if the people of Kilkenny did not vote him back in. It’s good to see that he was the second highest in number of first preference votes. Malcolm as campaigned against the inner relief road that 25 of 26 County councillors voted in favour off, I think this take great courage to stand up for what he believes in.

Had the plan for this road gone through the city of Kilkenny would have being effectively cut in two. As Malcolm pointed out in his brief to An Bord Pleanala” there is more effective ways to reduce traffic.

  • Public transport.
  • Encouraging the use of bicycles and the provisioning of cycle lanes.
  • Park and ride facilities to reduce cars that come into the town.

Also with the down turn in the economy we should be trying to reduce the amount  project which consume money that could be better spend elsewhere. I think Investing in the future is what we need, and reducing our reliance cars, if only for town trips, would be a start.

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Home Energy Saving scheme!

While I think that the Home Energy Saving scheme, is a good idea I do think a better investment would be to update the building code and make it harder for builders to get away with not properly insulating the houses that they built in the first place. It seems that Eamon ryan in his wisdom, will be offloading the cost of re insulating and upgrading of houses to the taxpayer, is two fold,  The Grant money is taxpayers, which will probably only cover 1/3 or at best 1/2 the cost of the job, and then the rest of the money will have to be paid by the taxpayer(Home owner).

My experience with builders and contractors is that they will try and get as much money for themselves. Ripping off the taxpayer once again (The grant is almost free money to them).

Will this become another (smaller) building bubble, I’ve never seen so many builders advertising insulation contracting before. Having the tax and insurance clearings will not mean that the contractor is any good at his or her job, I suppose there will be cowboys in this business too.

While I support reducing heating bills and in turn reducing C02, I’m not 100% convinced that it will work, I hope I’m wrong!

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Future Proof Kilkenny

An organisation called Future Proof Kilkenny is holding a number of events from September to December.

It would be worth it for everyone of all ages to check out the events.There are kids and adult events,

from workshops to showing films on green and environmental issues.

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