The solution isnāt supply itās demand. The herd thing is completely overplayed for me. Thereās easier wins that wonāt be half as destructive to the economy.
Greens promise to stop all raw sewage into the sea in 5 years. Process the sewage into fertiliser as is done already in places. No one could disagree with that and itās achievable and is a win all over for everyone.
Enforce stringent recycling regulations. No more single use plastics etc. Again I donāt think many could be against that. Make ireland a World leader in sustainable packing production. No more exporting of recycling either. Shipping our shit off to some poor third world country so they can dump it in landfill and we can pretend we are doing our part recycling.
Ramp up insulation grants for older houses, Subsidies for air to water heating systems Etc.
Gradually remove coal from the market as a fuel, encourage people to install wood pellet stoves etc.
Big program where all government buildings are to be retrofitted for energy efficiency, hospitals, schools etc etc again thereās a win all round. Some schools spend a small fortune on their heating bills that could instead be put to better uses.
All of these are achievable policies, which would make a real difference and would have basically no objectors.
I believe the bulk of Irish reared beef goes to the Fast-food & Catering industries. A large chunk is then exported thereafter.
Irelandās actual demand for beef is weak compared to some counties but then again weāre a relatively small nation.
The lockdown hurt beef finishers as McDonalds & the like were closed but on the flip side the local butcher was booming business wise as families were cooking cuts of meat as opposed to ready prepared processed meats.
Last Green Party in government saw a big uptake in wood burning pellet boilers but Iād guess everyone of them has since been fucked out instead of oil.
Pellets were atrociously expensive and impossible to keep moisture levels down in storage if buying in bulk etc.
Packaging is a scandal in this country. Millions of confectionary products ingested weekly ( disgrace in itself ) and a tiny fraction of it recyclable. Some of it fine for Terracycle? Wtf do you take a piece of packaging for Terracycle?
Lawns? Fucking LAWNS? Itās biodiversity we need. All lawns* under 2 hectares to be meadowfied immediately to cultivate wildlife. Anything over that gets a wolf.
Agriculture employs a lot more than rooral types. Thereād be a good many townies involved too by the time itās all done and dusted. Even a few accountants Iād say.
FFS - Townie cunts like @chocolatemice and @Mark_Renton have been shouting about seaweed for near on 10 years nowā¦ What the fuck are you stupid bogger cunts at ??
We need more forrest cover. Any wavering old farmer should be bought out. Land covered in indigenous trees. A couple of wolves and a bear lobbed in. A road through the middle for tourists. More wildlife and, importantly, more money.
The Greens agenda towards agriculture is all wrong. They need to work with it rather than against it. There is obvious mistrust in rural communities when all you hear from them is wolves being put back into nature, feeding the country from window boxes and culling the national herd. Farmers are one of the most flexible professions in the country and have proven that over the past 50 years going through many changes. I fully believe the Greens and farmers can work together for the betterment of the global environment but itās the Greens who really need to change their tack.
@Rocko could you do up the costings on a nuclear power plant please. A lad I know who was into climate change before anyone visited a nuclear plant in England in the mid 0ās. They reckoned then youd be looking at a couple of billion. Thatās before you start purchasing expensive plutonium to process. Sure that would barely get you a hospital these days.
I did a module in college a few years back on energy systems etc. In that we went through the costing of a nuclear plant. Largest cost is servicing the debt required to build it (50 year payback). The upfront cost then was 10-16 billion. Conclusion was private industry wouldnt build due to cost and payback period and governments will have to under right the cost of capital. I believe this is what happened with the new plant near Bristol. That was announced around that time
Donāt know why we donāt build 4 reactors and put them in arklow, athlone, charleville and new Ross. That way if they go Chernobyl then it might actually improve the places