News & Events
Updated 13th January 2010
1 Sustainability Journal #4
2 Website
3 Ireland Energy Audit
4 Mayo Energy Audit
5 Food Security
6 Fruit and Nut
7 Economic Issues/Surviving and Thriving in a Recession
8 Work and Land Opportunities
9 Goods for Sale
10 Survival Gardening Diary
Sustainability Journal Issue 4
Owing to the difficulty in covering printing costs, publication of Sustainabilityjournal #4 has been postponed. Unfortunately, Sustainability #3 incurred a significant financial loss. Effectively, this means the journal has had to be rescued using income from other work carried out by the Institute. Hopefully all remaining debts incurred by the Journal will be cleared by May 2010. We are still chasing money owned to us by retail outlets since June 2008.
Subsidising the journal is this manner is not sustainable as the resources of the Institute are very modest. In order to continue, it is necessary for the journal to at least break even. We hope this situation will be resolved in the next few months.
In the interim, we can of course refund subscribers, for outstanding issues. We are also offering copies of the Mayo Audit in lieu of 2 copies of the journal.
A number of articles on food and energy security have already been written for Sustainability #4. These articles may be published on the website in the near future.
In the meantime, a number of articles from Sustainability #3 are now available in digital format:
Website
The sustainability.ie website is a work in progress. Please note all the website work is done on a voluntary basis and our resources are very limited. Some of the pages are now quite out of date but are being gradually replaced or updated.
Suggestions and comments welcome. We would be grateful if mistakes and errors are brought to our attention.
The number of visitors to the site has now passed 150,000.
Wanted
We are urgently in need of some additional pieces of office and field equipment. In particular, we are looking for a rugged laptop suitable for use in the field, and portable power supplies suitable for camcorder work. We are happy to take donations but are prepared to pay a modest sum for equipment purchased.
Please note that generally speaking we are only interested in equipment in full working order.
We are also looking for office furniture - especially desks and chairs.
Anyone with anything to offer can contact us by phone at 087 6714075 or click on the link below:
Ireland Energy Audit 2010-2030
Paul Lynch and Andy Wilson, authors of the recently published Mayo Energy Audit (see below), are hoping to embark on a far more ambitious project - an energy audit of the Republic of Ireland. The project will examine possible trends in energy demand during the period 2010-2030, and assess the likely energy resources available. The project will also assess the land resource in detail, and examine the competing demands for land posed by livestock, food crops, biomass from sustainable forestry, other energy crops, and non-agricultural land uses.
Although this new study will draw upon work carried out during the Mayo Audit, national and global economic and energy-use trends appear to be taking a more steeply downward curve than forecast in the Mayo study. Accelerating energy demand destruction may have serious implications for the development of renewable energy technologies, in particular emerging technologies such as ocean energy.
The study is expected to take about 18 months to complete, and will cost in the region of €50,000. Sponsorship is currently being sought.
Mayo Energy Audit - a preliminary investigation into how a rural county can survive peak oil
The long awaited Mayo Energy Audit was finally published in December 2008. Although ostensibly an assessment of Mayo's renewable energy resources, the publication is in many ways an assesment of the sustainability of modern day Ireland. The findings are dramatic. As a consequence of fossil fuel depletion, Ireland is likely to have 30-40 percent less energy available in 2020, and this may be overly optimsitic.
Even with a massive mobilisation of indigenous renewable energy resources, the overall contribution from renewables will probably be only a small percent total primary energy requirements. For Mayo, with its low population density and good - though under developed - renewable resources, the news is a little better but even so dependency on fossil fuel imports will remain high.
This publication - the culmination of about 6 months full time research - is the first 'post peak oil' energy study carried out in Ireland. It is aimed at schools, universities, planners, students of sustainability and ordinary folk who want hard information about Ireland's energy prospects for 2020 and beyond. Above all, it is a wake up call.
Ignore the platitudes of government: apparently elected representatives are unable to distinguish between what they would like to happen - were this the age of miracles - and what will actually happen in the real world. The level of denial in relation to Ireland's future energy security is quite astounding. Government projections of the expansion and future utilisation of the wind energy sector, and envisaged development of ocean energy technologies, are firmly in the realm of science fiction.
Copies of the Audit can now be ordered directly from the Sustainability Institute. Click below for further details.
Food Security
Food security will be everything in the post peak oil world and yet this issue is not even on the radar of most governments.
Recent research undertaken by the Sustainability Institute suggests that Ireland imports 62-68 percent of all food eaten in the country.
The balance is produced by domestic agriculture using intensive methods that are critically dependent on continued supplies of fossil fuels being available. The Institute estimates it would take up to 12 years to make the full transition to a sustainable system of agriculture capable of meeting Ireland's food needs.
More on this will be posted in the near future.
Fruit and Nut
The Institute has now established a small nursery operation on site, dedicated to raising varieties of fruits and nuts suitable for the Irish climate. The work is concentrating on damsons, plums, blueberries, Siberian kiwis, apples, cobnuts, Spanish chestnuts and walnuts. Trees are planted out on site where space permits, and are also offered for sale. Some cultivars are also bought in from specialist nurseries in the UK, the Netherlands and France.
The Institute also offers support for landowners wishing to participate in nut tree trials in other parts of Ireland. Trees are available at discounted prices and a free site assessment is provided.
Further details can be found on our sister website: fruitandnut.ie
National Nut Tree Audit
During the early 1880s , Robert Hutchison carried out a series of tree audits on behalf of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. One of these was on walnut trees. Robert catalogued the largest walnut trees growing in Scotland at that time, some of which were hundreds of years old and had girths of in excess of 6 meters (20 feet). He also noted that some of the trees produced occasional crops of ripe nuts, including one remarkable tree on the Altyre estate east of Inverness, some 250km north of Edinburgh. This location is at 57.5º N and far, far further north than it is generally assumed walnuts can bear viable nuts. The occasional success of walnuts in Scotland certainly illustrates the potential for Ireland. The surveys carried out by Robert Hutchison also demonstrate the importance of cataloguing information.
The Sustainability Instutute has begun work an audit of nut-bearing walnut and Spanish chestnut trees growing in Ireland. The study has recently been publicised in local media and it is hoped there will be more press coverage during the spring and summer. People with konwledge of nut bearing trees in their locality are requested to pass on details to us. The information will eventually be compiled into one reference document. It is hoped this information will help determine climatic and topographical limitations for both species of tree, and provide a focus for the trialling of new nut trees in Ireland. For further information, phone 087 6714075.
Walnuts in Scotland (Robert Hutchison's survey)
Surviving and Thriving in a Recession
Surviving and Thriving in a Recession
"Our civilisation will crash"
A report commissioned by the Green party (published 9th December 2008), but never made publicly available warned "our civilisation will crash...even the best preparation now will not mean we avoid the coming crisis, at best it will limit the most severe risks".
Follow the links below:
Nama
Is NAMA a con job designed to cover up a mind boggling level of incompetence - not to mention corruption - in the Irish Government, as well as a bail out of the golden circle of developers, bankers and speculators, or could it really achieve its stated purpose of reflating the collapsed Celtic bubble? The Sustainability Institute offers its own perspective:
Work Experience Opportunities and Courses
Admin, Fund-Raising, Research and Hand-On Work
The Institute is urgently looking for persons to help with administration work, fund-raising, on-going research, web-site updates, and various small food-growing and construction projects based in the West of Ireland. We are especially looking for ideologically motivated people who have the ability to take the initiative, learn on the job and work on their own.
The Institute is also in the process of producing a food security map of Ireland and is looking for people with graphic design and map software skills to help with this project. It is intended the map will incorporate climatic data such as annual precipitation, solar radiation and average temperature (modifed to take into consideration global warming projects), and include additional information such as soil types/grades and suitability for tillage livestock or forestry. This project will be a critical compotent of food security strategy in Ireland.
Unfortunately, financial resources at the Institute are extremely limited and at best only a very basic wage can be offered. However, all posts offer considerable training opportunities and the hours are very flexible. Applicants should live within easy access to Westport, Co. Mayo, or be prepared to stay in the area on a part time basis.
For further information email us and send a CV and short description of the kind of work sought.
Other Work Opportunities
The North West Group is developing a research and educational centre at Arigna (North Roscommon). The project will include residential facilities. Currently, up to four live-in trainees are being sought. This is a very exciting project, mirroring the Sustainability Institute in some respects but being set up on cooperative lines. Would-be applicants should be highly motivateed individuals who are prepared to invest time into helping develop a pioneering model of sustainability in action. A basic wage is offered.
Working Weekends at Arigna
Every second weekend, on sundays, a work party is assembling at Arigna in order to carry out restoration work on the walled garden there. The work includes pruning of fruit trees, coppicing of trees for firewood, repair of greenhouses and preparation of new beds for vegetables and soft fruit. This is really interesting work, especially for novice food growers wishing to gain practical experience.
Arigna Biochar Project
Work is shortly to begin on a biochar research project at Arigna. The biochar will be made from orchard prunings using a specially fabricated charcoal boiler fired from more prunings. As combustion temperatures will be very high, emissions will be very clean - mainly water vapour and carbon dioxide. The resulting charcoal will be primed with rain water and compost before being mixed into soil in various concentrations in trial plots at Arigna and at the Sustainability Institute premises in Westport. The objective is to ascertain benefits to soil in terms of increased yield and reduced incidence of pathogens. An additional expected benefit with implications for global warming mitigation is the long term locking-up of carbon in the soil. Charcoal breaks down very slowly and will persist in soil for thousands of years.
For further details of work at Arigna contact the Sustainability Institute.
Work Opportunity in Midlands
WANTED: Person with stonebuilding and/or other skills to work on restoring wall/other projects, in your own time. In return, rent free 3 bedroom bungalow, on own grounds. Also possibility of large workshop space. Midlands,10 minutes Dublin/Galway road. For details, email aibrean2002@yahoo.com.
Land Opportunity (Mayo)
Smallholding to let. Newly renovated 2 bedroom cottage together with 4 acres[more available] of good land and a nice set of stables. Located in a remote area in Mayo. Very scenic and peacefull. This roomy cottage has all new double glazed windows and doors, is highly insulated and has solid fuel central heating.This setup is very suitable for growing various crops and veg, keeping animals, arts and crafts, etc... tel Richard: 0863899563
Goods for Sale
We have a brand new Victron Pheonix inverter for sale. First good offer secures.
Survival Gardening Diary
The survival gardening diary has been temporarily suspended but will return shortly.
