Environment

A ONE-girl crusade to help save the planet is taking place in Clare with young Lani Meaney urging people to take action and do their bit to save the environment. 11-year-old Lani has become a regular sight where she lives in Darragh putting up posters in the locality calling on people to think green and clean up after themselves. Recently the Lissycasey national school student wanted to get her message across to a wider audience, so she wrote an article for the Clare Champion. In the article she asked the public to, “Stop Climate Change Before it’s too Late”. She wrote, “Climate Change is happening right now, this second. It’s already starting to get out of hand. Letting Climate Change get worse, would be like destroying someone’s home, and then destroy everyone else’s home in the world. “Earth is everyone’s home and we need to take care of her. When a home is messy we clean it right? Well Earth …

MANY hands make light work was the theme of the day as fourth class students from Ennis National School gave Irish Water a dig out with planting native trees at Drumcliffe Water Treatment Plant. Members of Irish Water’s South West Region Biodiversity Forum, staff from Green Belt Forestry, EPS, and Clare County Council, greeted the students on a bright and breezy morning at the treatment plant last week to plant 50 trees in time for Christmas.  The pupils arrived on site ready to learn more about how the River Fergus provides Ennis town with all of its drinking water, and about the Alder, Oak, Birch and Hazel trees that would soon be thriving in the area.  The Drumcliffe Water Treatment Plant is soon to have some 5,520 trees planted over the coming weeks where it will eventually become a wild and wonderful habitat for Jay Birds and Red Squirrels.    Speaking at the event, Chair of Irish Water’s South West Region …

PLANS for a €450 million data centre in Ennis have been described as “ill timed and ill placed” by Clare’s Green Party senator. The observation by Senator Roisin Garvey came as the developers submitted a response to appeals against the proposal submitted to An Bord Pleanala. A decision on the controversial plans for the Art Data Centre Campus near the Tulla Road is set to be made by An Bord Pleanala in the new year. Appeals against the development have been submitted to An Bord Pleanala by Clare Green Party, Futureproof Clare, Friends of the Irish Environment and An Taisce as well as three individuals. Senator Garvey commented this week, “At a time of huge energy security concerns this is ill timed and ill placed. “There is a moratorium by Government on Data centres and if any more go ahead in the future they will have to have access to renewable energy. “I think West Clare with its offshore wind …

Solar power generation tends to invite jokes about the Irish weather but, says Bridget Ginnity, it can make a significant contribution domestically and industrially to Ireland’s renewable energy goals ONE of the incredible success stories in renewable energy is how the price of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels has plummeted. Solar power generation is now cheaper than fossil fuel generation, with India and China leading the way. In Clare, we have more wind than sun, and the energy generated by a wind farm is about ten times that of a solar PV farm over the same area. Ireland has among the lowest solar generation capacity in Europe, with at present less than 0.4% of electricity generated by solar. However, solar energy generation is an important balance to wind for those calm, sunny periods. Also, it’s much more feasible to generate energy from solar panels on a small scale and at the domestic level. Shouting from the rooftops Looking around the rooftops …

RESEARCH carried out on behalf of Coillte shows that there is an almost universal view among the public that forests are important in helping to address the climate crisis. In April this year, Coillte, the semi-state forestry company, announced a new forestry strategic vision which aims to deliver multiple benefits from its forests and bring more focus to climate action, setting ambitious new targets on biodiversity and recreation, while continuing to deliver for the forest and wood products industry. The new approach aims to sustainably balance and deliver the multiple benefits from Ireland’s state forests across four strategic pillars: climate, wood, nature, and people. RED C independently analysed feedback from both Coillte’s public attitude survey and Coillte’s public consultation process, completed during summer 2022, which was part of Coillte’s commitment to consult widely with key stakeholders on its new strategic vision. The survey, conducted among a nationally representative sample of adults in June 2022, was combined with the response to Coillte’s public consultation process, and shows there is an almost universal view that …

FOUR leading Clare GAA stars took off for Africa this week to take part in a project to plant a million trees and raise awareness of the impact that climate change is having on some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Clare GAA stars Podge Collins, Dean Ryan, Ellen Roche and Eimear Kelly have joined 50 sportsmen and women from across the country on a week-long trip to Kenya, which included playing a series of GAA matches billed as the ‘Plant the Planet Games’, which took place in Nairobi at the weekend. Participants aren’t just raising awareness about climate change either, as they are collectively aiming to raise more than €350,000 in sponsorship support, to plant a million trees in Africa and support the efforts of Irish development charity Self Help Africa to combat the effects of climate change amongst small-scale farming communities. The event is being organised by former Galway dual-player Alan Kerins ‘Warriors for Humanity,’ the Gaelic Players …

A GROUP of volunteers from Clare were among the winners at the Clean Coasts Ocean Hero awards ceremony this week. West Coast Surf Club was one of the recipients of the Ocean Hero Youth of the Year Title. The West Coast Surf Club is a surf non-profit club based out of Lahinch with 270 members, who work regularly with Clean Coasts group Keep Lahinch Clean, and host beach cleans in the area. In particular, the junior board riders in the club are very active participants in these beach cleaning events and take great pride in participating. The work of Spanish Point Community group was also showcased during the ceremony, being one of the nominees in the group of the year category. This year, the group got involved in a lot of activities, including the Big Beach Clean, Clean Coasts Rocky Shore Safari with David Wall of National Biodiversity Data Centre, #2minutebeachclean and Think Before You Flush, and many other sustainable …

SHANNON Airport was the ninth biggest emitter of CO2 in the Republic of Ireland last year, according to data provided by the Climate TRACE organisation. In Ireland, Dublin Airport was the single biggest emitter, with Drogheda and Ballyconnell Cement plants second and third. Dublin City roads were fourth , while number five was the Limerick cement plant in Mungret. Along with Shannon in ninth, Cork and Knock Airports were at ten and 11 on the list respectively. Last week at COP27 Climate TRACE released what it describes as “the most detailed facility-level global inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to date, including emissions data for 72,612 individual sources worldwide”. “The 70,000+ individual sites — including specific power plants, steel mills, urban road networks, and oil and gas fields — represent the top known sources of emissions in the power sector, oil and gas production and refining, shipping, aviation, mining, waste, agriculture, road transportation, and the production of steel, cement, and …