Costing The Earth

Annette & Simon 13DEC19

esides President Quimby and that mad fecker who lives up on Crowe Abbey, there aren’t that many people today who would dare deny that climate change is happening.

You only have to switch on the TV to witness the latest drought, hurricane, wildfire, storm or species extinction to know that the world is changing.

And it’s also hard to deny that it’s largely our fault.

Of course, denial is exactly what many of those in power – and even a few without – engage in regularly when it comes to addressing our collapsing eco system, preferring to take their cue on climate change from Donald Trump rather than David Attenborough.

And we’re all guilty of failing to walk the walk, from megastores creating mountains of waste to the average Joe Sixpack grabbing a small bottle of fizzy energy so they can make that 15-minute walk home to the fridge.

Again and again the argument against going green, against doing the right thing for our planet, is that the more environmentally-friendly option costs the earth. When, of course, going for that cheaper, nastier option does actually cost us the earth.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of people who are willing to stand up and fight this most crucial of battles, from a new, freshly-minted and highly-motivated, Greta Thurnberg-inspired youth movement to those baby boomers ready to deliver on the hippy generation’s faded battle-cries.

Which may all sound a little Lord Of The Rings, granted, but, let’s just be glad that there’s a will to save the planet out there. And the ways.

One such way is the newly-formed Greystones & Delgany Sustainable Energy Community. Officially launching in January, this four-years-in-the-planning eco body has, through Greystones Tidy Towns, been given a €20,000 budget for energy audits and research throughout our community. The goal being to identify the best opportunities for reducing our CO2 emissions.

And there’s work to be done, especially given that, when it comes to meeting greenhouse emission targets, Ireland has been dubbed a ‘climate laggard‘. Given that we’re pretty much Paddy Last on quite a few eco lists. Last year, household emissions here rose 7.9% and transport 1.7%, with petrol rising 9.2% and diesel 4.6%, whilst biofuels decreased by 4.0%.

And Wicklow County Council have clearly recognised that there are stormy waters ahead, with €6m spent here last year dealing with Storm Emma and that heavy March snowfall.

And then there’s the fires. And the droughts.

Such depressing figures only make Annette Kelly and Simon Whelan, two of the founders of the Greystones & Delgany Sustainable Energy Committee, all the more determined to fight the good fight.

What they hope to achieve, and how, and when, we decided to find out this afternoon, as we met up in the shadow of The Beach House’s sparking solar panels…

You can find out more about Greystones & Delgany Sustainable Energy Community on Facebook here, or you can email [email protected]. For further information on home energy upgrade grants, check here.