Are you concerned about the destruction of the natural world and climate change?

SlowBlowin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117740036#Comment_117740036

No - because if you look hard enough you find out the facts.

Too many companies/people miss use "green", "environmental", "local" or "100%", it makes it very difficult.

@[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] Well said. I have a similar outlook to you. Do you do any deer stalking? It’s a great way to get wild meat in the freezer. My OH goes fishing and hunting (for deer, not many rabbits where we are). I do most of the gardening. We keep hens as well and put a few in the freezer this year which was great. We have an orchard planted and two small native woodlands. We bought an old house on a few acres so we have the space. Lots more plans for stuff to do in the future. Producing most veg for the summer but more to do. So I need to work on preservation and organisation really. Lockdown helped for focus I have to say. Less distractions apart from work obviously.

It’s definatly not easy but I’m at the stage now that I’ll read articles and books but I don’t watch doom senario documentaries. Personally I need to not get sucked into the misery but instead have something I feel like I can do. Also a lot of documentaries are often too simplistic and I get just end up getting frustrated.

Maybe it’s finding the balance of what you can do and being aware without being sucked into total disengagement or denial or extreme anxiety.

Richie_Rich89

I'm concerned about the destruction of the natural world, but not about climate change.

@gleanntrasna

@gleanntrasna "Do you do any deer stalking?"

No. I am not even sure what the legality of it is. Or how you would do it legally? What do you know about it if you already do it?

I recently got quite a serious bow gifted to me. I have loved using it and am getting seriously good at it if I do say so myself. So I am looking forward to going to the US and doing actual bow hunting.

I think if I started hunting here in Ireland I would get seriously addicted to it. And I am already addicted to quite a few pursuits in my life. I even had quite a spectacular breakdown from simply enjoying life too much and too intensely awhile back.

I must say I am not a 100% follower of all laws. I imported and keep an animal that is highly illegal in this country for example. And I am not even sure my catching Rabbit for food is legal either. I never checked as I would rather not know. But when I break the law I tend to break laws I can not get addicted to - or be tempted to keep breaking and escalating. I imported one animal I do not want to import more for example. I own one bow which is probably not entirely legal either - but I am not about to start collecting bows and guns. Me and my 10 year old daughter have been learning to shoot and care for rifles through a friend - but I do not want to start owning guns.

But if going out shooting deer for food with my bow is illegal and I started getting into it - I think that one would escalate quite profoundly. So I am keeping myself in check :) Prevention is better than cure and all that. What do you actually do? And what aspects of it are legal and not legal? Or what's your knowledge there?

Thelonious Monk

Yes Greenwashing has really been used in some sickening ways lately, and people fall for it.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741505#Comment_117741505

"I know which vegetables I can piss on and which ones need me to instead buy something mass produced for a shop. "

Typo or interesting new fertilisation technique?

namloc1980

Piece in the Times about the Climate Action Plan due to be published later in the year. Seems the focus will be on getting huge numbers of EVs on the road (not good for the environment) and pushing retrofitting on people (no doubt that will cost a pretty penny to the average householder with miniscule grants and supports being provided).

In news that will surprise nobody the argi and food production sector (main contributors to emissions) won't be asked to make drastic changes.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/more-frequent-public-transport-to-be-part-of-plan-to-tackle-climate-change-1.4644977

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741830#Comment_117741830

We are led by spineless donkeys, we need less cars and less car journeys regardless of the energy source it uses.

I like the idea of this though, sign me up

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/12/california-human-composting-death-pollution

Mike Murdock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741759#Comment_117741759

UBI is absolutely the worst thing that could happen. There is this romantic notion that, freed up, most people would devote themselves entirely to creative hobbies and artistic endeavours instead.

That would not happen. A large proportion of people on UBI would descend into aimless lives based around alcohol, drugs and other destructive habits.

@[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] It’s legal but with a gun licence and permissions for land on which to hunt. There are training courses that you have to do. Shooting is very regulated in Ireland. If you have a gun you need a gun safe and your local guard will generally call around once a year to check that they’re under lock and key. Part of the licence requirement is a sign off from your doctor. You need to reapply every 3/4 for renewal. The attitude in Ireland to gun ownership is quite regulated and people are careful. There is a hunting forum on here. That would be the right place to ask. Deer stalking takes patience and the OH most often comes back with nothing but really enjoys being out in nature at early on a winter morning (dawn and dusk) for hours.

As far as I know bow hunting is illegal as is spear fishing. People do spearfish though, I assume it’s the same with bow hunting. The guards regard them as unregulated weapons due to the force with which they can be fired and they have no licensing set up for them. Grey area territory.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741867#Comment_117741867

I don't agree but I'd rather have some bored people drinking too much than people working for the sake of consumption and capitalism. UBI could enable a slower society that isn't all about making money. We have to try something different.

NIMAN

The problem I see with all this doomsday news in the last week about climate change etc, is that the actions needed to fix it aren't compatible with the modern way of living.

Every news item following the one about the earth struggling is about our annual growth and the economy. And its hailed as great news when we are expending by 9% this year etc. But for us to fight climate change, we can't be cheering such figures, as it essentially means we are making things worse.

Western economies would need to be shrinking to fight climate change, not expanding. Well, thats IMHO, as a non-expert.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741896#Comment_117741896

yeah or they start banging on about how they're going to fix the problem with driving forward with the green economy and creating jobs. No, a whole new system is required, not more Teslas.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741919#Comment_117741919

As they build more data centres that are guzzling up enormous amounts of power, just so people can store more silly TikTok and You Tube videos.

Maybe its time all those people had to contribute to put things online, that would cut out all the wasteful data needing to be stored. 50c every time you want to upload a video!!

Mike Murdock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741890#Comment_117741890

There is nothing stopping individual people unplugging and living like the Amish do. You won't ever get the vast majority of society to do so. There is little to no chance of that happening in one country, never mind globally. You sound like you are calling for some sort of pseudo-communist, authoritarian regime to be implemented similar to what Extinction Rebellion have suggested - "Destroy the village, to save it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQA8XIF1Apg&ab_channel=GBNews

SlowBlowin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741896#Comment_117741896

Totally agree 100%.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741813#Comment_117741813

Hah nothing new about it. There are some vegetables which seem to simply fair better when you P on them :)

@NIMAN

@NIMAN Exponential economic growth cannot be sustainable surely but I’m no economist.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741889#Comment_117741889

Yeah I have no interest in owning a gun myself. But I am not "anti gun" like many people are. When I got the chance to take my daughter to learn how to care for rifles and hold them and fire them and so on - take them apart and clean them - I jumped at it. Been doing it awhile now and she is nearly 11 now. Though a few of the more unhappy anti gun types on Boards freaked out at me when I first mentioned it :-) but they were unable to give any actual reasons for their reaction so they moved on it seems.

hough a few others freaked out that my kids got to meet the rabbit I caught - feed the rabbit for days - and then know they were killed for meat. Thankfully kids are not the cotton wool sugar dolls some people seem to think :-) I find once the kids don't go naming the animal - they do not get too emotional or attached about the whole process.

In theory I would love to hunt for deer therefore but if it involves gun ownership and the amount of hoops to jump through you describe above then I think it is too much to add to my life right now. I fill my life with so much already - adding anything too significant might break me. And while I have nothing against guns - I feel I never want to actually own one. No interest.

But in terms of the subject of this thread - the more meat I could get myself wild the better in my mind. But I know there are lines I would cross too readily and too passionately if I started. And going out with my Oneida Kestral Bow and stalking deer for hours and bringing home the meat - that is something I would get very mad into and it would certainly make me feel like I was being environmental.

Hyperbollix

Very concerned but there's really no getting off this runaway train now. Even if we lived in some kind of utopian Star Trek type world where a global government was tasked with the job of getting a grip on this problem, humanity would have a severe test to solve it.

As it stands, with democracy teetering in America and the very real possibility of Trump or a Trump clone getting back in power shortly, with the Chinese burning coal like their lives depended on it, with the Amazon getting flattened by a populist leader, with vested interests holding all the keys to making progress.................no I think it's safe to say we are screwed. Oh, I'm quite sure in 20/30 years when the noticeable and undeniable affects of climate change and habitat destruction is in our face on a daily basis, THEN we will get serious and elect people who are serious, but by then it will be all far far too late.

We are heading back to the Middle ages over the course of the next century, whether we like it or not.

@[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] Fair enough, you can only do so much. I think if you eat meat you should defiantly know where it comes from and respect that. I don’t have any kids but growing we did have our own meat. I wasn’t shielded from reality when a pig killed at home. If you eat meat it’s a reality of life. Providing your own meat by hunting or farming is a big responsibility and it’s good to be aware of that. For me anyway it made me more aware of the life the animal lived and of the quality of what I consume.

I now buy organic meat now. Not a lot as it’s expensive enough and we have venison in the freezer.

@[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] The advantage of the bow is the silence. It must be quite nice to be out and about listening with focus and never to have to break the silence. Good for the mind.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741933#Comment_117741933

It's a great point. Gerry McGovern, one of the earliest Irish internet leaders, has been banging that drum for some time;

https://twitter.com/gerrymcgovern/status/1425770978760699906

How much should we pay per Boards post?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117741836#Comment_117741836

Brilliant idea - what would we have to do to make that composting option available here?

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117742222#Comment_117742222

Dig a hole, throw me in when I die

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117742222#Comment_117742222

Dig a hole, throw me in when I die, actually I'm not sure. There are mushroom suits you can get too to be buried in, that compost your body into the soil and enrich the earth.

Dyr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117742200#Comment_117742200

.

"Internet leader" lol

steddyeddy

I am definitely concerned. I'm a scientist working on the conversion of materials such as plastics and marine algae (the algal bloom forming variety) to fuels. The global solution to cutting down carbon emissions is a combination of progression in science and implementing known solutions to cutting down CO2 such as planting more trees. Deforestation should not continue in a situation like this. The financial gain is completely eradicated by the financial loss that will be incurred by human accelerated climate change.

I am also concerned about the attitude in Ireland to environment destruction. We tend to point the finger at developing countries in terms of climate destruction but let's not forget the damage the farming community likely did in one of our national parks this year.

Authorities in the Republic of Ireland have expressed hope that a major fire in Killarney National Park will soon be brought under control.

The blaze, which began on Friday, has already damaged significant parts of the County Kerry beauty spot.

Kerry Fire Service is "working to control the blaze at a number of locations," according to an update from Kerry County Council on Sunday.

"The hope is that they will be out by later today," the council added.

Fire crews who have been tackling the blaze all weekend have been helped by Gardaí (Irish police), the National Park and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and other agencies.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the fire had affected "thousands of acres" of land in the park.

Killarney National Park extends to 26,000 acres and features native red deer and native oakwoods.

The park was designated as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 1981.

In a tweet, Irish conservation organisation Hen Harrier Project said an active hen harrier nest had been destroyed in the fire.

Spudmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117742484#Comment_117742484

Ireland has been described as an ecological wasteland. I like Padraic Fogerty's quote on it.

"Perhaps we could invite African ecological missionaries to come to Ireland to spread their gospel? I can envisage schoolchildren in Nairobi or Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon being sent home with money boxes adorned with pictures of our impoverished landscapes."

markw7

Worried, used to be but what's the point anymore in all honesty. Humans are a plague on this planet, self serving pricks the lot of us who can't stop buying shite we don't truly need for a little instant gratification.