whats wrong with using less power for a start?
then, have a diversified energy policy, a bit of this, a bit of that .
WRT nuclear, its silly to think Ireland should develop its own. far to expensive, best import it from france or uk.

eventually we shall be powering down, its only a matter of time.

Exactly!

Seconded!

Great.

So the next question is,

How Do we use Less power?
(while still enjoying a healthy and prosperous standard of living)

We enjoy because we use less power, not despite we use less power.

i mean, take a long hard look at a typical day in your life.
its too intense, to fast, to much to take in one day, we live life to fast.
whats wrong with using less power,? maybe:

Buy less usless shite and gadgets. they only break anyway (think one clockwork alarm clock instead of one electronic alarm clock ever 3 years when they break being the cheap piece of chinese junk they are)

have energy saving lights, and switch them on less (remember yer dad )

Build a society in which one can WALK or CYCLE to the majority of amenieties/shops etc without the use of cars

when its a bit chilly, put a jumper on, when it hot, take it off

But STOP buying shite which you have to plug in. its not required.

Draw down on the relentless rampant consumerism which is part of todays lifestyle

Throw less away, instead fix if it is broken the amount of perfectly good stuff dumped because it has dint or whatever is criminal.

Energy abuse is rife, we do not need to use so much and using less will free us from the physicological handcuffs of consumerism, we are brainwashed to believe to need.

my car is 12 years old SO WHAT! it works, and works well, why buy a new one? new ones (and this pisses me right off) are stuffed full of microchips so that DIY repair is impossible, WTF!!!!!!

Im looking forward to it TBF, less junk, less garbage, less hastle, more time enjoying life rather than pursuing the ownership of useless shite.

A good examle of this is the growing trade of self storage. not only do we buy enough junk to fill the house, we have to rent storage space to store it. I mean, what is the fucking point of that? jeysus,

I have a friend, and he went to tiawan after a long and painfull divorce.
eventually, he had only a pair of shorts, a tee shirt, 2 shoes and $10 left to his name. he gave the $10 dollars to a beggar.
15 years on and he still looks back with a smile at the time he had absolulty nothing, he said it was a liberating experience, and i can well believe him.

No, powering down will be mans greatest achievement, where we discover life and forget consumerism.

There is also a bag load of cash to be made by 'Powering Down' as you call it.
We will all be trading our own carbon credits in few yrs time.

BTW its great to read an informed debate that doenst involve people moaning and bitching about property developers.

Here here

I know very little about this subject but unless Gormley is cultivating money trees in his back garden I can't see this happening. Is it possible or yet another one of the Green's fantasies. I used to have some respect for them until they got into power. Mindless lap dogs!

The Green party have a tsunami coming their way.

I am predicting black-outs and/or energy rationing in this country within 12-24 months.

Thank God the ESB are relatively successful and solvent, that's all I can say. They could have easily been another Telecom Eireann, Bord na Mona or an Aer Lingus.

Container ships cannot and will not leave port unless there's an escrow transfer from an AAA bank or a government guarantee. The banking system the way it is at present is jeopordasing the smooth transfer of good and materials necessary for economies to function.

If we can't raise money on the bond markets to pay for the civil servants' pensions, what hope do we have of raising money to buy oil and gas?

All it will take is for a war to kick off or the Russians to play hard ball and it's energy rationing time.

This is a great video on the whole topic, made by a friend of a friend a couple of years ago.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9548020370

Perhaps, but how much of the price of carbon credits will have to be spent on the U.N. climate gestappo with black helicopters and infra red satelite technology to apprehend every back garden burner and every citizen who uses more than their ration of combustable material....

I don't think carbon credits will ever work, we need to use treaties and taxes to reduce demand for wasteful products and put those funds towards direct subsidies for the implementation of green technology.

Excellent idea number one, 30% (arbitrary amount) tax on the most energy inefficient products in each category of consumer item (eg all plasma tvs with ridiculously awkward to reach off switches that means they'll spend most of their (short) lifespans left on stand by) Ring fence those taxes to be used to directly subsidise the most energy efficient (and easiest to recycle) products in each kind of technology. This could be awarded as a kind of competition each year to encourage companies to compete with each other for the most efficient technologies and to bring such energy efficient goods down into the price range of the average consumer.

This kind of competition would be a fantastic spur for the rapid development of next generation green efficient technologies in a similar way to how the EURO NCAP safety ratings have dramatically improved the safety of modern car designes in a very short space of time.

Riverdance will save us all:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/12/11/tok ... ic-floors/

Think of it, cailins all over the land powering the country by the bounce of their ringlets...

I'm thinking of Golf as a natural resource here...

Martin Cullen has obviously come up with a way of generating green energy by harnessing up all the golfers in the country to some kind of generation apparatus and wirelessly transmitting the electricity straight to the grid.

This will solve all our electrical needs

The EU will within 18 months ban incandescent lighbulbs

What happens to those people who react badly to UV light? like those with Lupus. I believe the energy efficient bulbs can cause them to be ill.