Was 2006 the year where environmentalism reached its tipping point?

jetsonx

Did environmentalism reached its tipping point in Ireland in 2006?

Its no longer the concern for the wooly-hat brigade or the upper classes but
has now become the concern of middle ireland. I might be wrong here but the days of people saying they were "going to the dump" with their old microwave, fridge etc is over. I would even go as far as to say it has become socially unacceptable to say this in middle class Ireland now. This is just one example of many.


Views? Opinions ?

Capt'n Midnight

all that's happened is the clock has rolled back a bit in the attitude - but not in the volume of recycling

when I was young you used to get deposits back on glass bottles, the kids in the generation before could get pocket money by collecting jam jars.
in those days most things were recycled or made to last, very little disposable materials like plastic, a lot of the waste was biodegradable or inert
until WEE you had to pay to have stuff recycled, now you pay up front

today we have much higher churn from the consumer society, in the US they have energy saving PC's but drive around in SUV's , here the number of new SUV's is equilivant to a windfarm a month. for the middle class the green ness is just a salve to their conciense, they don't feel guilty driving to the bottle bank , electronic waste is shipped to the third world and beyond EU regulations and there isn't a public outcry.

we are the most car dependent country in EU

Ourselves, spain and portugal aren't on target to meet koyoto. From Jan 1st all homes in spain must have solar heating and all premises above 1,000m2 IIRC must have photovoltic too, can't remember the details but about 1/3 of energy for new homes will be green.
We are building roads, and increasing the pricing on public transport and providing the middle class with SSIA money, a lot of which will be spent on cars - probably enough that the Gov't will get back a lot of the cost of funding SSIA's from the VRT - people who don't invest their SSIA's will most likely just hand the Govt back VAT on non-sustainable consumer items.

breadmonkey

Nice post Mr. Midnight. Pretty depressing stuff really. The public transport issue is probably key and we are definitely very very fcuked on that one.

simu

I think people are slowly becoming more aware alright but talk of global warming etc is still seen as tin-foil hat stuff by many imho. Tom Matthews had a great cartoon in the Irish Times recently that summed it up for me - a picture of Mr and Mrs Celtic Tiger stuck in traffic driving in their SUV to the airport for a weekend away and discussing how they'd buy some of those energy-saving light bulbs in Ikea once it opens. Sad but true summation tbh.

prospect

I always laugh when people compare the American SUV (3 tonne, 4.5 Meter, 6 litre petrol SUV) with the Irish SUV (1.5 Tonne, 2.5 meter, 2 litre diesel).

Get off the bandwagon. Pick on Mr Hugely oversized, over weight, 5 litre Mercedes car instead.

* Note - I do not drive an SUV.

MontgomeryClift

Well yes, there's the cars, but there's also the way people build houses like remote prisons, so you have to use a car even to leave the house. Need a loaf of bread? Take the car. Going to the pub? Take the car. Taking children to games? Take the car. Going to mass? Take the car. Visiting relatives? Take the car etc. etc. etc.

It's fine people being conscious of the size of their car, but try telling them that their car-launch-pad of a house by the side of a road, within walking distance of nothing, is environmentelly and socially wrong, and they'll probably tell you where to go.

Your suggestion was that people who wouldn't normally change their habits for environmental reasons are now doing so, that they finally get it? I don't think so.

piraka

prospect wrote:

I always laugh when people compare the American SUV (3 tonne, 4.5 Meter, 6 litre petrol SUV) with the Irish SUV (1.5 Tonne, 2.5 meter, 2 litre diesel).

Get off the bandwagon. Pick on Mr Hugely oversized, over weight, 5 litre Mercedes car instead.

* Note - I do not drive an SUV.

Looks like Dublin City Council are picking on the little Irish SUV.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0122/1169247615958.html

prospect

piraka wrote:

Looks like Dublin City Council are picking on the little Irish SUV.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0122/1169247615958.html

I know, it is bloody stupid.
I am looking out the window of my office here at 3 massive petrol saloon cars, with huge engines, and the drivers are alone in them 95% of the time, because their wives have big petrol 7 seater MPV's to drive their 2 kids around in.
That to me is worse than the 'Irish SUV'. It seems to me that people here are too willing to jump on the anti'SUV movement, when what we have here are rather economical tall estate cars. Where as the real damage is the family of four with 2 larger cars, with a joint petrol engine size of about 8 litres, when two hatchbacks would easily suffice!

bk

prospect wrote:

I know, it is bloody stupid.
I am looking out the window of my office here at 3 massive petrol saloon cars, with huge engines, and the drivers are alone in them 95% of the time, because their wives have big petrol 7 seater MPV's to drive their 2 kids around in.
That to me is worse than the 'Irish SUV'. It seems to me that people here are too willing to jump on the anti'SUV movement, when what we have here are rather economical tall estate cars. Where as the real damage is the family of four with 2 larger cars, with a joint petrol engine size of about 8 litres, when two hatchbacks would easily suffice!

Actually I think the idea is that it will apply to all vehicles 2 litres or over. So not just SUV's it will also apply to the bloke in the Merc.

simu

prospect wrote:

I always laugh when people compare the American SUV (3 tonne, 4.5 Meter, 6 litre petrol SUV) with the Irish SUV (1.5 Tonne, 2.5 meter, 2 litre diesel).

Get off the bandwagon. Pick on Mr Hugely oversized, over weight, 5 litre Mercedes car instead.

* Note - I do not drive an SUV.

Don't have a car, don't know much about them but the point is not the type of car but our general over-dependence on them.

prospect

bk wrote:

Actually I think the idea is that it will apply to all vehicles 2 litres or over. So not just SUV's it will also apply to the bloke in the Merc.

Oh good. I am fed up with the worst offenders being overlooked.

simu wrote:

Don't have a car, don't know much about them but the point is not the type of car but our general over-dependence on them.

Yeah, thats true. I am in the exact position pointed out earlier. I live outside town, and am not served by public transport, so having a car is a must. However, I try to make intelligent green decisions in an attempt to counter-act the non-green actions I have to make, if that makes sense.