Heart Beat:In my bones I feel a CO2 Emissions Authority coming on. More permanent pensionable State employees measuring the emissions of turkeys, reindeer, politicians and anything that breathes, writes Maurice Neligan
I'm having a nightmare about a Green Christmas; not like the ones I used to know. I've got a bad feeling about all of this, but with any luck we'll be spared the full five years.
In a very short space of time we appear to have moved from eco disaster mediated by the depletion of the ozone layer, dodged our way around death by dioxin poisoning, avoided the bird 'flu or whatever other pandemic you care to name, and now are tottering once more on the brink of extinction mediated by rising CO2 levels and consequent global warming.
The prophets of doom are having a field day. I, like most people, wouldn't recognise a CO2 emission if it bit me so we're meant to put all our trust in these clever folk. Frankly that goes against the grain personally. "Verily I say unto you. Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew; 18:3).
Maybe that's just the devil quoting Scripture for his own ends.
Floods of converts to the latest cause are everywhere, intruding into our lives and making us feel guilty. Converts are often far more zeal- ous than the original proponents of a doctrine.
Rather than let those being proselytised reach the truth (whatever it might be) unaided; the zealots are inclined to push the message down everybody's throats. Only today I read in a major newspaper, a fanciful account, as to how we could, by the use of wind power, wave power, biofuels, etc become a net exporter of electricity.
This kind of hyperbole if swallowed may lull people into a dangerous complacency regarding the safeguarding of this essential supply. Most folk don't want to sit in the dark, freezing. Tree hugging would, I feel, be inadequate solace.
Good people wandering around, blowing whistles and banging drums in this festive season will, I am afraid, generate more heat than light, quite apart from earning the undying enmity of those suffering from over-indulgence at the start of the festive season.
I had the good fortune recently to listen to Nobel Prize winner and past US vice-president Al Gore on his most recent visit to Dublin. It was a forceful exposition of his considered opinion, delivered with fluency and style. It was aimed at investors, encouraging them to invest in the various forms of renewable energy. This is indeed a worthy cause and a good investment.
Don't bet the farm on that as my track record in such matters is very poor. Al Gore was particularly impressive in focusing on the need to change all the bad elements in our current strategies that were most harmful, for example, coal-burning power stations. How we would manage into the future was less clear cut.
The supporting speakers were worthy of attention. One passionate speaker decried even the remotest possibility of nuclear power and was chagrined that so much research money headed in that direction, particularly in France and the US. From my limited knowledge I would have thought that that was in search of the Philosophers Stone of modern physics, the goal of nuclear fusion rather than fission.
The attainment of this goal should solve all our problems. David Begg as president of Congress asks us to face up to the issue of nuclear power, to engage in rational debate and to leave our prejudices behind.
The ESB's Tadhg O'Donoghue says electricity from nuclear sources already flows in our grid through the interconnector between Scotland and Northern Ireland and that further inter- connection with Wales will increase this source.
Peak oil, declining reserves of other fossil fuels, global warming all point to coming problems and, as yet, renewable sources have only limited answers.
Incidentally, across the water a vast storage facility for liquefied natural gas is under construction on the Welsh Coast, as is a 300-mile pipeline to link with the national grid near Gloucester. Simultaneously, Britain is announcing new generation nuclear power stations and also vastly increased offshore wind- generation facilities.
Contrast that attitude with our prevailing inertia over such a vital interest here. Minister Eamon Ryan states that he is open to such debate. His actions in refusing licences for uranium prospecting in the country would appear to belie his words.
In some obscure fashion, we are confusing Scrooge with Santa Claus, and it's not much of an exchange. Let's not lead the world this time. Let's just sit back and wait and see what the big boys do before we put our .001 per cent of the solution on the line. Let's not turn out the lights just yet.
I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a perpetuation if not an enhancement of your sense of humour. Guess you're going to need it.
For our family, what we wish for most, we can never have. It will be the first time that our Sara will not have been in our circle at Christmas.
"There is no flock, however watched and tended
But one dead lamb is there!
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended
But has one vacant chair
Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken
The bond which nature gives
Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken
May reach her where she lives."
- Longfellow-Resignation