Eco Notes

Sustainability

Regarding efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, one oft cited comment is that it doesn’t matter what we do in Ireland, unless the rest of the world takes action. Not entirely true. Look at your lifestyle and see what changes you can make; EVERY little effort helps. Certainly, government actions are necessary (bear this in mind when canvassers call at your door; press your local politicians to do more to combat climate change), but don’t let political inaction prevent you from changing your own lifestyle. Home upgrades – increasing. Public transport – locally, bus frequency is increasing, albeit at a slow rate, but use it where feasible. Food waste from shops is hopefully decreasing – we too can all reduce food waste. And so on. One area Ireland does fall down on is air travel. Being an island, people like to fly to foreign climes on holiday. In the second half of the last century, the typical two week holiday in Ireland was, for many, replaced by two weeks abroad. Then, low airfares arrived and now short stays abroad are commonplace, with many people flying oversees for multiple, short-stay breaks, precisely because airfares are so cheap. When planning next year’s holiday, you could perhaps think of flying abroad just once, maybe for a longer time. If all frequent fliers reduced their air miles, demand would reduce and our skies would be purer. Not an easy ask for some, but really worthwhile and will become inevitable at some stage in the future.