Sir, – Ireland has the capacity not only to produce sufficient wind energy to power our island, but we could also export clean electricity to others. To achieve this our Government must legislate to make it easier to erect wind generators, individually or in clusters.
Disturbance of marine or land-based habitats to facilitate wind farms will be nothing on the scale of the disturbance that is forecast with another significant rise in global temperature. Farmers want viable alternatives to livestock, let them produce energy.
Eighteenth-century paintings of the low countries and East Anglia show landscapes cluttered with windmills. When these were superseded by more productive technologies they were removed, and those that are left we think of as quaint and picturesque. Their 21st-century counterparts will prove to be equally reversible if we are still around in the future to come up with something better than wind power to replace them.
There may be objections from some east coast residents to off-shore wind farms, but most recognise that compromising a nice view is a much better alternative to their homes being flooded. Creating wind farms, quickly and efficiently should enjoy the unanimous support of every deputy in the Dáil, as should reducing speed limits on our roads by at least 20 per cent.
At the blink of an eye this simple act could reduce our carbon consumption and save many lives. If we have learned anything from the pandemic it is that we are in less of a hurry than we once thought we were.
Except for the one matter of the climate emergency which makes all others pale into insignificance. – Yours, etc,
JAMES HOWLEY,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
