jump to navigation

Film Review- What a Way to Go November 4, 2007

Posted by Graham in : Environment, General, Geo-politics, Peak Oil , 4comments

Film Review: What a Way to Go- Life at the End of Empire

“If we knew all the facts, we’d have discarded the myth of the techno fix a long time ago. To my eye, our crisis, at its deepest levels, is a crisis not of technology, but of meaning and purpose… “Talking about this is the first step. Without this catastrophe is inevitable.”- Tim Bennett

What a Way to Go is a groundbreaking movie.

I watched this week for the first time with a few friends, most of whom have been watching Peak Oil films and discussing the issues around them for much of the past three years. (more…)

Surfing the Collapse October 26, 2007

Posted by Graham in : Environment, Food, Peak Oil , 2comments

Three important reports out in the last week highlight how utterly unsustainable the current human system is, locked in as it is to a process seeking the impossible, the unnatural and the undesirable: unending growth. (more…)

Cool Earth August 28, 2007

Posted by Graham in : Environment, Food, Permaculture , add a comment

At the weekend I attended the Cool Earth Fair in Dun Laoghaire, part of the Festival Of World Cultures, organised by Cultivate and the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Environment Department, giving a couple of short talks on Peak Oil, and then Permaculture Gardening,

Left to Right: Gavin Hart (seated) Trevor Sargent, Graham Strouts, David Strahan

and participated on a panel discussion on Reducing Food Miles and Carbon Footprints, with David Strahan, journalist and author of The last oil Shock, and the Green Party’s Trevor Sargent, Minister for Food and Horticulture.

(more…)

Draining the Shannon July 19, 2007

Posted by Graham in : Environment, water , 2comments

Last week RTE played a radio debate between PJ Walsh, a locally based campaigner and PRO of the recently formed Shannon Environmental Protection Alliance (SPA), and Tom Leahy, an engineer with Dublin City Council.

They discussed a proposal to extract water from the river Shannon at Loch Ree to quench the growing water demand from the greater Dublin area. I had been following this story for a while and Jack O’Sullivan, and environmental consultant who produced an Environmental Impact Study for the SPA, has been kindly keeping me informed of developments. (more…)

When the Rivers Run Dry July 3, 2007

Posted by Graham in : Environment, General, water , add a comment

With changing weather patterns leading to extreme weather reports hitting the headlines with ever greater frequency, it seems there is either too much water, as in the destructive floods across the midlands of England and the North of Ireland earlier this month, or not enough, as in the catastrophic impact of the Australian drought. Water management will be increasingly important, especially for the water demanding cities, and Dublin is no exception- I will shortly post a story on proposals to divert the Shannon to supply the growing capital. As the following book review shows, similar schemes have already had devastating consequences for river systems all over the world. (more…)