Time is running out to care for our precious resources

This week’s INM/Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

There’s a lot of gloom and doom out there.

The war in Ukraine trundles on, where every day people are being killed and maimed while all the time there is the potential possibility of a catastrophe occurring at a Ukrainian nuclear power station.

Across the world the China Taiwan issue is becoming an evermore worrying concern. And then lurking not completely in the background is Covid, which we are told, come winter, could strike again.

The Ukraine war is the main cause for the quadrupling of our energy costs and if China decides to invade or close off  Taiwan, over 90 per cent of the world’s chips are no longer available.

And on top of all the above there is our ever-growing profligacy.

The world’s resources are finite. This year’s Water Week, which took place in Sweden from August 23 to September 1, made it clear that the world must take great care of its water resources.  Right now China is experiencing one of its worst ever droughts and is on the brink of a water catastrophe. The Rhine is at an all time low and Italy’s River Po is in a perilous state.

Every time I go out my hall door I walk over my relatively new water meter. Of course I’m reminded of the furore and hullabaloo there was when Government tried in a ham-fisted way to introduce water charges. I was baffled then and am still baffled why I should pay the same price for water as my neighbour irrespective of how much I or they use. Just like electricity or gas, treated water is a limited resource and it costs money to get it to our homes.

Thousands of kilometres of those pipes are well beyond their sell-by-date and need urgent repairs

I bring all my recyclables to a nearby bring bank every week. I am astounded with the amount of plastic I use. Cheese, fruit, meat, fish, milk, almost everything seems to be wrapped up in some form or other of plastic. Everything about it is toxic.

I’m old enough to remember my mother going to the local shop and buying cheese, which the shop assistant wrapped up in greaseproof paper. The milk was delivered in reusable bottles to our hall door.

Wars are usually fought over wealth, power and resources. Isn’t it interesting that right now Russia is pounding away at the Donbass. Guess what, that’s where Ukraine’s lithium is concentrated. It is also a most industrialised part of the country.

And China might well have its eye on those valuable chips made in Taiwan that keep our fridges, cars and computers ticking over.

With electricity, gas and oil prices soaring, we have no choice but to cut back on our usage. I often think we have lost the run of ourselves. I was in a building in early September, the heating was on and the windows open. That sounds profligate and so it is. In Ireland we waste one million tonnes of food every year in a world where one billion people have not enough to eat.

Yes, the news is grim right now but it is also a clarion wake up call for all of us. Let’s all stop the culture of waste and profligacy. And tell Putin we can use less of his coal, oil and gas.