submit your views on sustainability to the government by november 9th.

(via Michele)

just in case you might have thought it would be helpful having the green party in coalition government in ireland…. the eu are taking the state to court over the planned route of the M3 motorway:

The Commission has begun legal action against the State over what they say is its failure to fully transpose Environmental Impact Assessment directive into Irish law. As an example they have cited the decision not to have a second EIA when the national monument at Lismullen was found on the route of the M3. The commission also say there is a weakness in Irish legislation because the decision making process is split between the planning authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley [green party], said the Irish view was supported by legal advice from the Attorney General as well as judgements from the High and Supreme courts.

no danger of being called tree huggers. those suits and ties are obviously causing a failure of much needed common sense in the face of peak oil.

the house building is going great - helped in no small part by the fantastic weather we’re having. we’ve just eaten lunch outside in the sun in t-shirts. i dropped some timber off at the site this morning and as i drove into ballydehob the sun was just coming over the hill to light up the village:

cork has a brand new airport building. one can’t help but wonder how long the cheap flights will keep going. but it looks like the building might not be a total white elephant - how wonderful it might be in 20 years time to go visit my parents in norfolk on an airship! surely less polluting than train and boat. and really rather wonderful by the sounds of it.

i like all sorts of music so it pains me a little to say that i have a favourite band. but i do and they’ve just released what i think is their best album. marvellous stuff.

whilst planting nut trees and and engaging the local community is all the rage over at transitionculture (which i fully support)… i wonder when we’ll see this headline:

£20 billion is going to be spent on transition initiatives before 2020!

meanwhile, Georgey M (thanks Simon) writes this:

According to one government document, there are “£20 billion [worth of] of new coal-fired power stations planned to be built in the UK before 2020″.

Arrrrgggh!

i’ve finally got round to putting up some photos of our house building. it’s going really well and is great fun. juggling it with college work is a bit too much though… but we’re surviving. the photos have captions which hopefully explain…