Cooley and The Kyoto Protocol

louth | environment | opinion/analysis

Tuesday July 29, 2003 23:12

by Sean Crudden - Cooley Environmental and Health Group

sean.crudden at iol dot ie

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth

042 9371310

Energy - competition or co-operation

An essay on the concerns of Cooley Environmental and Health Group about future supply of energy.

"What fates decree that man must needs abide
It boots not to resist both wind and tide."
Shakespeare.

It is clear that, long before Newton formulated his laws of motion, Shakespeare had more than a primitive understanding of action and reaction,
force and energy in nature. Living, as I do, in the Cooley peninsula one is very conscious of all the unharnessed energy in both wind and tide going
abegging in this locality. However if it is left to private enterprise and competition to harness this energy I fear it will never happen. "The energy is there," as Ray Stone once said to me on LMFM radio, "It's just a question of how to get at it." I think that the whole question of energy supply will have to be approached rather, in a systematic way, on the basis of "public
enterprise" and co-operation and things should be beginning to happen around here sooner rather than later.

We are hearing now about the emission of greenhouse gasses and the Kyoto protocol and even about a "carbon tax." I believe that it is futile to expect the demand for energy to contract as a result of the introduction of carbon tax. The public will grin and bear it and pay up for the kind of conventional energy we now use. The only genuine answer to the environmental dangers from the burning of fossil fuels is the substitution of present energy supply sources by "green" or renewable sources for the supply of energy. The only genuine rationale for a carbon tax is to ringfence the tax and use the money to develop renewable energy production in Cooley and similarly in other parts of Ireland. I have heard it said that it is necessary now to build the machines for harnessing green energy while we have still enough energy left from conventional sources to do the job.

The Irish Times this morning (26 July 2003) gave the following report from Reuters:-

"Oil prices slipped to end the week down nearly six per cent on signals that post-war Iraqui exports could finally start to pick up.

An early move below the $30 a barrel mark did not last long as tight U.S.fuel stocks leaves little cushion against disruptions during the summer when
demand peaks."

Needless to say even a short report like that underlines concerns about scarcity of fuel and the security and blatantly military dimensions of
energy supply and the energy market.

Clearly there is no panacea beyond the creation of new, large-scale and lasting resources of renewable energy.

Sean
TREASURER
Cooley Environmental and Health Group

Sean Crudden
Jenkinstown
Dundalk
Co Louth
Ireland

Phone 042 93 71310

http://www.iol.ie/~impero/