Tag Archives: environment

A ONE-girl crusade to help save the planet is taking place in Clare with young Lani Meaney urging people to take action and do their bit to save the environment. 11-year-old Lani has become a regular sight where she lives in Darragh putting up posters in the locality calling on people to think green and clean up after themselves. Recently the Lissycasey national school student wanted to get her message across to a wider audience, so she wrote an article for the Clare Champion. In the article she asked the public to, “Stop Climate Change Before it’s too Late”. She wrote, “Climate Change is happening right now, this second. It’s already starting to get out of hand. Letting Climate Change get worse, would be like destroying someone’s home, and then destroy everyone else’s home in the world. “Earth is everyone’s home and we need to take care of her. When a home is messy we clean it right? Well Earth …

SHANNON Airport was the ninth biggest emitter of CO2 in the Republic of Ireland last year, according to data provided by the Climate TRACE organisation. In Ireland, Dublin Airport was the single biggest emitter, with Drogheda and Ballyconnell Cement plants second and third. Dublin City roads were fourth , while number five was the Limerick cement plant in Mungret. Along with Shannon in ninth, Cork and Knock Airports were at ten and 11 on the list respectively. Last week at COP27 Climate TRACE released what it describes as “the most detailed facility-level global inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to date, including emissions data for 72,612 individual sources worldwide”. “The 70,000+ individual sites — including specific power plants, steel mills, urban road networks, and oil and gas fields — represent the top known sources of emissions in the power sector, oil and gas production and refining, shipping, aviation, mining, waste, agriculture, road transportation, and the production of steel, cement, and …

People in Clare are being urged to play their part in preventing the amount of waste generated leading up to and during the Christmas period. Christmas time is a time of year that generates a lot of waste. By managing our waste responsibly and taking steps to prevent, reduce and reuse this Christmas, we can reduce our carbon footprint and help preserve our earth’s limited natural resources, according to Karen Foley, Environmental Awareness Officer, Clare County Council. Ms Foley explains, “Where packaging cannot be reused or upcycled much of this packaging can be recycled. When uncertain what can or cannot be recycled, make sure to visit www.mywaste.ie. “Recyclables can also be brought to one of County Clare’s five recycling centres and transfer stations. A carload of recyclable waste brought to Ballyduffbeg, Lisdeen, Shannon, Scariff and Ennis costs as little as €5. Our recycling centre locations, opening times and recycling costs are available at www.clarecoco.ie “Householders can also bring bottles and …

AT the June meeting of Clare County Council a motion was passed, asking the Government to seek a global ban on fracking at the United Nation’s General Assembly. The motion was put forward by Fianna Fáil’s Pat Hayes, Cillian Murphy and Tony O’Brien, and passed unanimously. Introducing the motion, Councillor Hayes said that Clare County Council has taken a strong stand against fracking in the past. “This motion is something that we’ve continuously talked about at Clare County Council over the years. We were the first Council in the country to propose a ban on fracturing gas and that led to a full national ban. “Here we’re looking to go further, looking for the Government to put a proposal in front of the UN to ban the fracturing of gas all over the world.” He said a number of Clare organisations are in favour of the motion and added, “I hope that this Council can be to the fore again …

ENNIS has been crowned Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre at this year’s national Tidy Towns competition. The county capital scored an impressive 345 points in the competition, just one point behind the overall winners of Ireland’s Tidiest Town, Glaslough in County Monaghan. Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre is just one of a number of awards that have been scooped by the Ennis entry. Among the prestigious awards won by the local committee of volunteers were a gold medal, regional award and the county award. While the Supervalu Schools Award was presented to entries from Ennis National School and Ennis Scouts.

IF Leo Varadkar had been hoping for a mild, diplomatic press conference with Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon, he would have been disappointed. While Brexit is almost universally seen as a historic and catastrophic mistake in Ireland, one which Mr Varadkar and his Government are vehemently opposed to, Mr Trump wasted almost no time before talking it up, as the two spoke to the press in the Shannon Airport terminal. “It’s an honour to be here, we’ll discuss various things, probably you’ll (Varadkar) ask me about Brexit, because I just left some very good people who are very much involved with Brexit as you know. I think it’ll all work out, all work out very well and also for you, with your wall, your border. We have a border situation in the United States and you have one over here. I think they’re both going to work out well. “Both the military and trade are a very big factor and …

CLARE County Council’s refusal to grant The Clare Champion access to three incident reports about the “toxic release” of chlorine dioxide gas at Chemifloc Limited in 2012 was “not justified”, according to a ruling by the Commissioner for Environmental Information, Peter Tyndall. Mr Tyndall found a request by the newspaper under the Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) should have been granted in full. He ruled that grounds for refusal did not apply to information contained in the incident reports concerning the time, location and composition of chemicals emitted from the Smithstown facility. On August 6, 2015, The Clare Champion made a request to the council under AIE regulations for access to “all correspondence and documents relating to Clare County Council’s response to the chemical incident at the Chemifloc Plant on December 20, 2012”. It requested access to correspondence between the council and Chemifloc concerning the incident, as well as documents relating to the cost incurred by Clare Fire …

€100 million for energy efficiency projects, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment Denis Naughten said today (Wednesday) as he announced his endorsement of the Energy Action Conference, to be held in Croke Park on March 6. Minister Naughten said he is “determined to implement policies that can help people in fuel poverty make their homes more energy efficient and switch to cleaner fuels and noted that the additional funding will support critical fuel poverty programmes like the Warmer Homes scheme and the new Warmth and Wellbeing pilot which will demonstrate that improving energy efficiency can lead to wider benefits including less reliance on medication and health services”. “Fuel poverty, energy efficiency and the air we breathe are closely related issues”, he added. This made the theme of the conference in Croke Park ‘Fuel Poverty and Climate Change’, all the more timely. “Empowering people means giving them the means to reduce their bills, to cut the fuel they consume, …