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TO QUOTE MARK Twain: “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”
Well, when it comes to our climate, the unfortunate truth is that as a species, humans are very much changing what is normal in terms of weather patterns – but unfortunately, not in a planned or positive way.
We have to do something about it.
I was determined when I began to develop a new centre in Portarlington that it would be a model for absolute best practice for how to live a greener life. I am trying to make a difference and lead by example. I have invested €2 million into redeveloping what was an abandoned steel works in my home town into a beacon for a new greener age.
The four-acre outdoor plant and food zone is constructed entirely from end-of-life 40ft containers. From the kitchens, to the seated area, the toilets and the 13m high light tower, everything is built from recycled materials. I am so proud that just one solitary waste bin was needed for the entire build. Absolutely everything else was recycled.
Central to the green theme at SOLAS is the education and training programmes, especially those designed for children to show how to make everyday changes in their lives and gardens to allow them live a green life.
I am absolutely passionate about teaching children and empowering them to do their bit towards a greener life. Small, individual and consistent actions add up to real meaningful change.
Having ignored scientific warnings for decades of the danger of pumping unprecedented quantities of Carbon dioxide into the air, across the world, we are seeing the equally unprecedented consequences of our rash atmospheric experiment in terms of floods, fires and droughts.
I truly believe that this is only the trailer for what is to come, a bit like Scrooge having lived a selfish and irresponsible life getting a warning of what ‘Climate Future’ might bring.
My best hope is not so much that the penny has finally dropped that we need to change our ways, but that our willful blindness to the truth can simply no longer be ignored: climate change is here, it is manmade and only by changing our ways can we hope for mitigating the worst effects of what might be coming our way.
But where to start? ‘What can little old me do?’ The truth is probably not that much, but we do have a moral responsibility to at least ensure we are part of the solution rather than part of the problem – this is the least we owe future generations.
Here are five things you can teach your kids which will make a positive difference:
1. Compost your food waste and green garden waste
Food waste accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions, compared to only a little over 2% by the airline industry. So, reduce food waste by shopping regularly and buying only what you need.
Apart from minimising waste, ensure you divert food and garden waste from landfill to compost. Composting is easy, effective and turns a waste product into something useful which can be used to enrich soil or grow organic vegetables.
2. Chickens - convert food waste into eggs
This is most likely the most fun and rewarding thing you can do your back garden. Chickens are inexpensive to buy. Although the chicken you see in the supermarket is only from about seven weeks ago, hens have a life expectancy of 7-10 years and will happily give you an egg a day for the first 5-7 years.
3. Grow your own vegetables
Growing and eating seasonable herbs, salads and vegetables is a great way to pass a skill onto your kids, save money and learn to live in harmony with the natural cycle of nature.
There is no need to worry about air miles when you can dig spuds in your own back garden. By investing in glass houses you can extend the salad season to almost 12 months a year, and allows you serve up new potatoes for Christmas dinner
4. Grow Irish wildflower seeds
Encourage wildlife (especially bees) into your garden by dedicating a section of your garden or your locality to native Irish wildflowers. Not alone does this support bio-diversity, but it brings a wonderful splash of colour to your garden and saves on a huge amount of labour involved in needlessly cutting the lawn every week when a wildflower meadow will thrive and flower until well into the autumn.
5. Teach your children to choose the path less trodden
Actions speak louder than words, so reflect and make the green decision before mindlessly jumping on a zero-carbon tax flight to spend the weekend in Spain. Don’t default to opposing allocating road space to promote walking, cycling and public transport. Don’t allow yourself to believe global warming is not happening or demand that someone changes their ways so you can continue as before.
Actions have consequences, and people must at least try to lead by example and speak up, even when it is hard to do.
The SOLAS Eco Garden Shop opened in Portarlington, Co. Laois in May 2021 as an eco garden and food destination. SOLAS hosts a farmers’ market every Saturday from 10am-2pm. A full range of upcoming eco training courses can be found on https://www.ecogardenshop.ie/events.
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What is never mentioned in the media is that Michael Martin and his party bankrupted this country with no growth for 10 years. Had to beg for money from the IMF. All because of their housing policy, etc I haven’t forgotten has any one else ?
@Jimmy Donovan: FG would have done exactly the same if they had been in government.
Their 2007 election manifesto was similar to FF except they also promised to scrap the introduction of eircodes
@Thomas Sheridan: They also wanted to reduce stamp duty which would’ve put more money in developers pockets. Same party different name
@Eddie Garvey: The dogs in the streets know FFG are one party. By calling it two, they get twice the jollies!
@Jimmy Donovan: I haven’t forgotten about Sf screaming across the dail that every type of spending should be increased because ‘the country is awash with money’…..we would have been in a way worse situation if that lot have have been in…..I haven’t forgotten about that any one else?
@John Paul: SF hasn’t spent one cent of government money in this country. Each man, woman, and child currently ows 43k per person. Interest on this is 14 million euros per day.
@Jimmy Donovan: have a read of this article from 2001 by Greg Palast. The interview & verified documents are from Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank.
If people think FF or FG or any other political party, in Ireland, have been running Ireland for the last 67-70 years, they’re sadly mistaken.
@Mr Inbetween: maybe read the linked article before stating “facts”
Ireland has not been an independent country since joining the EEC
@Jimmy Donovan: Public Sector greed also had a lot to do with the Government going bust back in the day.
@John Paul: must look for your comment on the childrens hospital article.
What I would love to know is how such a huge gap between housing required and actual supply has been allowed to develop
We now have a census every 5 years & we have known since the 1990s that the population is going up.
Back in simpler times it would have somebody’s job to ensure enough housing was being built
Now we are tripping over ourselves with experts and reports, but nobody puts their hand up on such a fundamental issue.
And is if that’s not enough we learn that E 1 billion a year is now being spent on accommodation for asylum seekers
This is not a formula for a happy contented country
@Gerry Kelly: the gap is there because it is a controlled market, and those influencing control are interested in making the biggest profit possible from each unit (developers) aided by incompetent govt and govt who are completely competent but rigging the whole thing for their benefit (they or their close allies are in the property game)
@Eddie Garvey: 100% exactly what I’ve been saying for years. The public are being hoodwinked by a combination of the banks/government/media and developers for the last 10 years approx. The shortages of ‘to buy’ and more recently ‘to rent’ is by design and will end in disaster for Joe soaps nationwide
@Gerry Kelly: Building stopped completely in 2008 but the population kept growing.
@Mick Duvanny: and they conveniently forgot to do their job of constructing social housing since ?
Over 1 billion spent on asylum seekers last year.
More than half of new PPS numbers in Ireland were issued to people from outside the EU last year.
Non nationals account for 36% of those in long term Job Seekers Allowance. 90% rise from 2019.
Highest number of working visas for Australia issued to young Irish people in 2023 since the height of the crash in 2009. Never mind all the Irish going to work in Canada, UK, Dubai etc.
We are a small country on the western edge of Europe. We cannot take all these people whilst our own leave. This is population replacement before our very eyes.
6 murders in 6 weeks all involving foreign nationals.
Ireland doesn’t have a housing problem. Ireland has an immigration problem
@JagTune: Exactly right
@JagTune: very well said. Be ready to be called all sorts of names including racist just because you point the reality.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Do you really care if the race-baiters call you names?
@Housing Hunger Games: this is the same public that voted in Martin and Harris on a first count ,I wouldn’t put alot of stock in the brain power of the Irish voting public at the minute.
Fact is we have a massive problem,these people are not like the polish who all appeared at the start of the boom,they have no intention of working in factories or building sites,massive dole merchants and feck all else
Brown field sites could be brought into use overnight if the political will was there, we saw during covid how quickly things can be done with emergency legislation.
Didn’t they say that the last time and the time before that and the time before that.
all fine and well but will Lowry approve
@Gerry Ryan: depends on if he can sell a discounted property to his kids through a shelf company. Sorry, that was some Lowrey guy, I get confused sometimes
@Gerry Ryan: Depends if he has an interest in it, like the LIDL that was built during Covid when not one house was allowed to be built.
After engorging themselves with salary increases.
What about easing the co.councils ban on mobile a nd chalet type homes in large gardens in country? Remember the man Tipperary Council took to court for housing himself in one…on his own land He is not the only one. Recently the same to man who housed his relations in Limerick. Many could house a son or daughter in their instead of them paying huge rents,miles away from elderly parents
@Helena Camella Cummins: There is no land in this country that the state doesn’t own, read the constitution and he didn’t bother getting plannjng permission, the part that a lot like to forget. I mean that is the first thing to do before building anything.
Housing for all is nonsense. No country can house 8 billion people
So we’ll have a 5k fine with near zero enforcement. Given the money to be made in short term lets, this will just be seen as a cost/liability and ignored
This is just the same meaningless talking in circles around the issue of housing as always, while actually doing nothing to solve it.
The brass neck of these absolute muppets and the contempt that they show to the people of Ireland beggers belief. They now say that they need time to draft a plan to deal with the housing crisis and a response to it????
They are acting like they didn’t just spend 4 years in government supposedly addressing the exact same housing crisis????
But now they say that have to start from square one, and the people of Ireland are going to just swallow this rubbish all over again?
Nobody likes the idea of lazy people that don’t want to work ever, getting low cost social housing while milking the system, but we are beyond that as a nation.
Because families in which both people are working full-time cannot afford a place to live, those people need access to social housing now, but its not only them, young people are facing the prospect of being homeless or under threat of homelessness regardless of how hard they work to build a future for themselves, older people on pensions are also struggling to pay for accommodation, is this what we want our government to deliver to the people of the country, more excuses, grand plans that deliver nothing and meaningless soundbites?
There is only one answer to the housing crisis, building social housing now on a massive scale.
Same course of action that crashed the economy as that’s there only plan. Protect their business lobbyists friends that roll up every year that control the land banks
I would recommend more tax breaks for the buyers and keep tax breaks for the developers. What would I know, I’m not on a TDs salary and live in the real world.
“Housing for all plan”…heard that years ago…yaaaaaaaaawn.
Yet again our so called Government and opposition are so full of sh**.
Keep it simple – no short term letting without Planning Permission . Enforce it correctly with huge fines for owner and operators like Air B&B and Booking.com. – this means the sector will settle down and inflated prices all round will be more controlled!
FG is
FG
Stop talking and DO something radical, that does NOT mean cancel the RPZs, bring in much tighter controls so that our own citizens can afford to live properly.
have your say