This makes timely reading in Ireland given Minister for the Environment John Gormley's view that the eco village model (and, presumably, both eco town and eco city should the Irish economy ever have the need for growth on such a scale) represents his vision of how Ireland should develop.
Minister Gormley's plans to ban incandescent light bulbs by next year are on track, according to an article in Monday's Irish Times. To view the full article you'll need to subscribe to the Irish Times online service.
Although it may appear to regular Construct Ireland readers to be stating the obvious, computer modeling of climate change by Met Eireann is predicting hotter, drier summers and wetter winters for Ireland in the years ahead. Perhaps of most interest in the modeling is the predictions of how climate change will have varying impacts in different parts of the country.
The north and west of Ireland can brace themselves for wetter, stormier weather, while summer droughts will cause water shortages in particular in the east - no doubt exacerbated by over-development in the Greater Dublin area.
On the other hand, if Dublin City Council's planned piping of water from the Shannon to Dublin goes unchecked, perhaps water supply (along with biodiversity and water-based tourism) will become an issue affecting many other parts of the country.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008 14:08
Paper digest: Gormley's light bulb, eco cities and Irish climate change
Written by Jeff ColleyThe UK's Observer newspaper produced an in-depth climate change section in last Sunday's edition, including an excellent warts-and-all article on the proto-eco city of Freiburg, Germany.
Published in
Blogs
Jeff Colley
Jeff Colley is the editor of Passive House Plus. He won the Green Leader award at the 2010 Green Awards for his advocacy work on the inclusion of energy ratings in property advertising, and a proposal to finance energy upgrades via utility bills.
He established Construct Ireland (for a sustainable future), Ireland's pioneering sustainable building magazine, in 2003. The magazine evolved into Passive House Plus in late 2012, the world's first English language magazine focused on passive house, as well as other aspects of sustainable building.
He is also a founder of Éasca, (the Environmental and Sustainable Construction Association) , an organisation set up to develop and promote a membership of approved companies offering genuinely sustainable solutions.
He writes a regular column for the Sunday Times, and has authored, co-authored and contributed to articles on sustainable building for numerous newspapers including the Irish Times, The Sunday Business Post, the Irish Examiner & the Sunday Tribune.
passivehouseplus.ie