In part One of Enviro the team discuss:

• Poolbeg incinerator was in breach of regulations on 14 occasions. A HSE report is due to issue shortly on a June incident.
• Chemical giants Monsanto and Bayer are planning to merge, giving a single mega-corporation unprecedented control of our food supply. This would be a catastrophe for pollinators. Bees are already being decimated by neonicotinoid pesticides produced by Bayer, and Monsanto’s Roundup. That’s bad news for pollinators and our food supply. The Dow and DuPont merger recently went through, further concentrating corporate power over how our food is grown. Monsanto is already the largest seed corporation in the world. And it’s the fifth largest pesticide company, manufacturing hazardous chemicals to accompany its genetically engineered seed lines. Bayer comes in as the second largest pesticide corporation, with widely used bee-harming neonics a key part of its portfolio, and the ranks seventh in the seed market. It is overdue to stop further corporate control of the food we grow and eat.
• The Keystone pipeline run by TransCanada had a MASSIVE oil spill. 210,000 gallons of oil spilled in northeast South Dakota, the latest in a series of leaks that has devastated local communities along the pipeline’s route
• Swedish car manufacturer Volvo has stated that from 2-19 its cars will be all-electric.
• The move to electric cars is creating an unprecedented demand for copper. Electric cars contain four times as much copper as traditional petrol and diesel cars. Renewable energy systems need between eight and twelve times as much copper as traditional power generation.
• CO2 levels are at highest since the dawn of mankind.
• Nitrous oxide gas is 300 times more potent than CO2. If you increase the pH of moderately acidic soils, you can reduce emissions. The Magge pH project led by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, which includes NUIG and Teagasc as partners, is examining this. Its work is funded under the EU ERA-GAS programme co-ordinated by Teagasc.
• Farmed Salmon are escaping from fish farms. It is not clear what the long term effects of this will be on wild where interbreeding will take place.
• Trinity College has about half a million Euros invested in the arms and aerospace industry.
• Exported Irish greyhounds suffer horrific abuse at the hands of new owners-Sunday Independent news feature 14 May 2017.Independent TD Tommy Broughan has produced a bill to control dog exports. Ireland is called the ‘puppy farm capital of Europe with up to 30,000 dogs bred in ‘back allies’
• Solar 21 CEO Michael Bradley has criticised the Government for the lack of progress in reducing CO2
• A recent study published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that microplastic emissions from car tyres and clothing accounted for up to 30% of the plastic particles in the ocean compared with 2% for microbeads.
• The Franco-German initiative PESCO an accelerated militarization of the EU will mean that Ireland will be drawn into a military alliance partnership which could jeopardise our neutrality although it is claimed that there are sufficient opt-out clauses to prevent this. In any case, Ireland will be required to invest in increased military spending to the detriment of essential services.

In part Two of Enviro the team discuss:

In this program, we celebrated the life and work of Jennifer Brady who sadly parted this life on Monday last, 20^th. November 2017. Jennifer was a poet a writer and artist and had a keen interest in the natural environment.

We read and talked about the significance and meaning of some of her poetry talked about her important contribution to the Enviro radio series and the publication of her recent autobiography ‘If Only I had left the Beach’.  As a panellist on the Enviro program and in her autobiography Jennifer spoke at length about her depression and how she had learned to manage it and was planning to write extensively on the subject. At her book launch, she wrote “I am currently working on a book called ‘The Depression Handbook’. It will be very helpful I feel for people out there who suffer as I do”. We played some music also in her memory.

Jennifer’s work included many exhibitions and poetry readings. Her poetry publications included ‘Paris to Mexico’, ‘Constant Reminders’, and ‘The River Cafe’. Her poetry is also included in the Bayside Writers five volumes of ‘Migrating Minds’ and Trinity Writers ‘Trinity College: A Collection of Poetry and Short Stories’

We played the following music/songs: Annie Lennox-‘Little Bird’, Syd Barrett- ‘Wouldn’t You Miss Me’; Lia Ices ‘Wish You Were Here’ from the CD ‘Return to the Dark Side of the Moon ‘and ‘Immortality’ composed by the Bee Gees and song by the London Festival Chorale

Producer Presenter John Haughton Panellists Joe Dunne and Robert Navan