Just back from Dundalk. That's Minister Trevor Sargent, Cllr. Ciaran O'Brian who replaced Deirdre de Burca on Wicklow County Council,Kealin Ireland, myself, Martin Hogan, Claire McKeever, and Cllr. Shane Fitzgerald from Leixlip Town Council. We're sitting just outside the Convention Hall this morning. I've never been able to catch the sunshine, and listen to Convention speeches before. Cheating slightly, a bit like listening to Mass outside the church.
I was pleased with my 'Twelve Steps to reduce your carbon footprint' workshop yesterday, and I've put up a new blog with the twelve steps and some embedded video here. It still has teething problems with uploads that I'll tidy up over the next few days, but I'd welcome your comments and suggestions on it.
Had a good chat with Mick Fealty this morning about the theory and the reality of an all-Ireland Green Party. It's clear that we need to become clearer about what we can learn from, and give to each other on both sides of the border.
Last night was fascinating. I've never seen Political Correspondents hightail it out of the Conference hall during a leader's speech before, but obviously once the Chinese delegation upped and left halfway through John Gormley's speech, they knew there was a story. Hopefully that won't distract from the rest of what we were saying over the last few days.
4 comments:
Wasn't "Tibet" a Red Herring to deflect the dogs in the street from the EPA hearing on the DUBLIN BAY INCINERATOR ?
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www.incinerator6.tk
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/
I fully agree with what John said regarding Tibet.
But on a separate note as a green voter and someone thats glad their in government even if it is with FF, whats are the chances that now you've been in power a while and made it through your first convention since getting elected that you can start playing a little more hardball.
I know there's a huge difference in being in government and opposition but it would be nice to see a little more bite like ye had in opposition.
Also you need to do something about Ryan not being mean but he's really letting down the side on broadband not only is he not going to gain green voters he's gonna turn a huge amount of people against you, just take a look at boards.ie in broadband and Irelandoffline.
Other then that keep up the good work and congrats on the great blog.
I'd like to comment about the 12 green steps you mention
I went and read through them
Point 4 - replacing light bulbs
(I had to break up the links here-in 'preview' they seem to disappear from the blog- but they can be cut and pasted together again )
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Perhaps you'd like to consider Canadian scientists opinions about replacing
light bulbs in a cold climate ?
Green party representatives keep saying that light is "wasted" as heat....
The heat is not wasted, on the contrary in Ireland.
In Ireland darkness is coldness, so the heat is actually a benefit.
The idea that the heat is wasted anyway if and when bulbs are near the ceiling doesn't hold, because convection means hot air rising and you need to generate more heat below if the ceiling area is cooler.
But see for yourself what scientists say about replacing bulbs in cold climates:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/
article/346692
Of course from a carbon conservation point of view it may be the case that electricity source is more or less renewable than the home heating source, but that's nothing to do with the bulbs themselves!
This quite apart from other factors,
such as many people (including myself) having a preference of the warm pleasant glow from light bulbs compared to cold sterile fluorescence,
also the mercury content of new bulbs, the problems using dimmer switches, timers and photocells, and the problems where frequent on off switching is required.
But don't take my word for it:
Why not look at GE website where they admit to all these problems, if you read carefully
-- and they are trying to SELL the things !!! ---
http://www.gelighting.com/na/
home_lighting/ask_us/faq_compact.htm
also a dramatic tale of a bulb that broke...
http://www.acttup.com/Environment/Fluorescent-Light-Bulbs-Can-Be-Costly--Over-2000-if-You-Break-One-1/
CFLs produce five times the light compared to tungsten bulbs. Sure they produce heat, but I find that our electricity bill went down when we switched to CFLs, and I didn't notice any big rise in the gas bill.
If you can tap into renewable electricty, and only have fossil fuels for space heating, you may be better off not changing to CFLs, but not too many Irish households have that option, and besides, I'd say the costs of replacing bulbs more often may outweigh the benefits.
CFLs aren't dramatically different from fluorescent bulbs. As you probably know they are Compact Fluorescent Lamps. Sure they have to be disposed of carefully, that's why we have the WEEE directive, and that's why many recycling centres accept CFLs. They also last ten time longer, and in the last five years, I think I've only had to dispose of one of them.
The older CFLs had poor colour temperatures and warm-up times in a cold room, but the temperatures are much warmer now, and I think they have the warm-up period problem licked as well.
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