Episode 05

(Eco Eye s3/e1)

Item 1
Community & Lifestyle
Conservation Volunteers Ireland
All over the country, great work is being done for the environment by thousands of dedicated volunteers. There are around three hundred Non Governmental Organisations operating in Ireland today. The work they do is largely unpaid, and it doesn’t just benefit the environment, but local communities and society in general. From large national groups to small local projects, NGO volunteers do everything from beach cleanups to forestry groundwork, wildlife habitat and heritage conservation, and lobbying for better environmental laws.
One NGO that continues to have great success with projects all over the country is Conservation Volunteers Ireland.
We visit two such projects supported by the Conservation Volunteers and Vodafone Nature Fund – an initiative which provides funding for environmental projects in communities throughout Ireland. One is the Ballyogen Environmental Club – an eco-project in county Dublin for local kids aged between 6 and 12. The other is the Greening An Oige – which was set up to encourage the organisation’s hostel users to become more environmentally aware.

Item 2
Environment & Health
Smoking
Even with the ban in full effect, passive smoking is still rife in Ireland. The segment focuses on the surprising effects of smoking at home and how secondary smoke can permeate the house, even affecting children while they sleep.

Item 3
Heritage
Farming
Farming is a huge part of our heritage but, in recent decades, it’s had an equally huge impact on the landscape. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Irish farming – especially in the poorer areas of the country – was a bleak affair. By the 70s, all this had changed as funds from Europe altered farming practice in ways that still affect the environment today. The prosperity brought by EU quotas and subsidies led many farmers to treat the land – not as a resource but a raw material to be consumed.
One initiative shows that it’s possible to farm in harmony with the environment is the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) which aims to reduce environmental impact on the land by using sustainable farming methods.
We visit two REPS demonstration farms, which the Heritage Council and Teagasc used in order to collaborate on a new project called the Farmland Wildlife Survey.

Item 4
The Big Picture
Emissions Trading
Global warming and climate change – arguably the most serious environmental problems facing the world today – are caused by greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxide, which is generated by burning fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil.
Though Ireland’s CO2 emissions have dropped slightly this year, we’re nowhere near compliant with our target under the Kyoto Protocol.
We take a look at a new EU directive which begun this January, that regulates Europe’s largest CO2 producing sites and facilities. It’s called Emissions Trading. Its aim is to help Ireland meet its Kyoto target by cutting emissions directly and by encouraging energy efficiency.