Sir, – In "Pandemic has made people reassess the importance of environment, says Eamon Ryan" (News, December 19th), Harry McGee writes: "Meanwhile, another big change in the landscape in 2030 will be the number of off-shore wind farms. In a decade, and certainly within 20 years, there will be few places in Ireland where people will look out to sea and see no turbines."
How sad. At the moment it is possible to enjoy some of the finest seaviews in Europe for the price of a short Dart ride from Dublin city centre. I’ve been to most European capitals, and I don’t know of any that offers, in its immediate vicinity, such visual splendour of unspoiled nature as may be enjoyed from Howth, Killiney or Bray.
To think that such experiences may no longer be available to the city dweller is dismaying. People have spiritual and aesthetic needs as well as material ones. One of them is the need for the sight of pristine nature, and the mental relief from our busy lives that this may afford.
Urban and even industrial architecture has its place and its own aesthetic, but not at the expense of the opportunity to enjoy nature, an opportunity which is diminishing when, with the growth of ecological consciousness, it should be increasing.
The natural environment has its own justification, entirely apart from its utilitarian status as an energy-reserve.
We won’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’BRIEN,
Dublin 8.