Environment – Page 21 – Slugger O'Toole

“The bog was there when the book was deposited, the bog didn’t come after.

Pete Baker on June 2, 2008, 2:05 am

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It hardly seems like 18 months since I blogged the discovery of the 8/9th Century psalter in a peat bog.. ANYhoo.. The Irish Times reports that the the National Museum of Ireland plans to recreate “the Faddan More Psalter”, using digital technology, or re-write it “in Latin by a calligraphy expert following the monastic style of the eighth century.” The texts are written in Latin with many pages colourfully decorated with yellow, red, white and green however these have faded …

“If it’s not broke, why fix it..”

Pete Baker on May 30, 2008, 6:38 pm

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Part one of the Hearts and Minds interview with the Environment Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, is here, but the clip below begins with the key question of why we remain the only region of the archipelago not to have an independent Environmental Protection Agency despite the Review of Environmental Governance’s recommendation. The minister’s claim that she hasn’t rejected that report is based on her apparently cherry-picking some of its proposals. But when those proposals all followed on from the …

The problem with government conducting its own regulation…

Mick Fealty on May 28, 2008, 6:49 pm

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David Gordon has some interesting addendum notes for Arlene Fosters’s decision to re-badge what some regard as the toothless tiger formerly known as the Environment and Heritage Service. Most of his remarks simply echo those of his colleague Sharon Turner yesterday. It may be no surprise that Foster effectively decided on no action until her party has a chance to get to the next election (2011) and shuffle itself out of this particular hotseat. Not only is her Special Advisor …

“precisely missing the point..”

Pete Baker on May 28, 2008, 1:02 am

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There was an understandable focus in today’s StormontLive on the Environment Minister’s rejection of the Review of Environmental Governance’s recommendation for an Independent Environmental Protection Agency. One of the authors of that report, Environmental Law specialist, Sharon Turner of Queen’s University [pdf file], responds in this clip along with Aidan Lonergan of the RSPB – she accuses the Minister of “precisely missing the point about the recommendation to have an independent agency.” And there was an interesting point in the …

“Responsibility for environmental regulation..”

Pete Baker on May 27, 2008, 3:41 pm

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The NewsLetter reports that the Environment Minster, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, will today set out reasons to the Assembly as to why she believes it is not necessary to create an independent Environmental Protection Agency – as is already in place in England, Scotland, Wales and in the Republic of Ireland. The BBC reports that environmental lobby group, Friends of the Earth, are threatening to pursue their previously reported complaint to the European Commission – following a High Court ruling …

“new taoiseach’s in-tray is heavy with problems..”

Pete Baker on May 7, 2008, 4:45 pm

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Out-going Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s final public engagement wasn’t at the Boyne yesterday, it was at Arbour Hill today where, as RTÉ reports, “along with President Mary McAleese, he attended the national commemoration for the leaders of the 1916 Rising” – More here. The new leader of Fianna Fáil, Brian Cowen, is to be confirmed as the next Taoiseach later today and, while some focus may be on a limited reshuffle of the cabinet, the Irish Examiner’s Paul O’Brien sets out …

“It must be considered exceptional…”

Pete Baker on May 6, 2008, 12:20 am

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The Irish Times today predicts [subs req] that the Republic of Ireland’s Environment Minister, John Gormley, is expected to make an order putting the Woodstown archaeological site in Co Waterford, unearthed in 2003, on the Record of Monuments and Places under the National Monuments Acts as recommended by the Woodstown working group’s final report on “one of the most important early Viking Age trading centres yet discovered in Ireland.” It had been speculated that the site was a longphort, or …

“Ten thousand years of history crammed into 50 minutes..”

Pete Baker on April 15, 2008, 12:07 am

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If the first programme was likely to offend the young-Earthers, and the second the not necessarily mutually exclusive grouping of neo-creationists, the third might work for everyone else. The BBC NI natural history series Blueprint ends tonight by tackling People, BBC1 9pm. Those more easily digested clips will be online later. As presenter Will Crawley says it on his blog “The programme starts at Mountsandel, near Coleraine, the site of the earliest [known] human settlement in Ireland. We use computer …

Twittering at the Green Party Convention…

Mick Fealty on April 13, 2008, 12:23 am

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I’ve been invited to speak on blogging and new media at the Green Party Convention in Dundalk. I’ll be twittering some highlights of the leader’s speech shortly at www.twitter.com/MickFealty.. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

“the difference between reason and unreason..”

Pete Baker on April 12, 2008, 1:31 am

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I haven’t heard whether there has been any progress with the reported application to appeal the Environment minister’s eventual ‘notice of opinion to refuse’ Seymour Sweeney’s plans for a privately funded Visitors’ Centre at the Giants Causeway, but the pressure from young-Earth creationists, including the DUP MLAs noted here, hasn’t gone un-noticed among scientific circles. Nor, I’d suggest, has this ministerial answer. Andrew Kerr of Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, and a member of the Geological Society’s …

Belfast’s bus-based rapid transport scheme

Pete Baker on April 8, 2008, 2:54 pm

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The Belfast Telegraph picks up on the conclusions of the consultants engaged by the Department of Regional Development, KPMG and Atkins Limited, on the feasibility of a rapid transit network in the Greater Belfast area. As does this BBC report – more from the BBC here. The study had been extended by the Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, to include west Belfast in July 2007. The conclusions amount to a recommendation to introduce three pilot routes of bus-based …

Blueprint: Plants and Animals

Pete Baker on April 8, 2008, 12:25 am

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This harvestman trapped in tree resin approximately 40 million years ago probably doesn’t make an appearance but, having sketched out the history of the land last week, the second episode of the BBC NI natural history programme Blueprint moves on to Plants and Animals – evolutionary theory may, or may not, be mentioned. And the website now has segments from last week’s show – which might be more easily digested format than the full 55min programme. Next week, people. Adds …

“separate continents..”

Pete Baker on March 31, 2008, 10:47 pm

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A reminder that BBC NI’s natural history series Blueprint starts tonight, BBC 1 9pm, and it’ll be available on iPlayer too [Has anyone told Edwin? – Ed]. And, perhaps as a result of the pressure from the young-Earthers, TalkBack today discussed their opposition to a scientific approach to natural history [the audio file is available for now, RealPlayer file]. Blueprint presenter, Will Crawley, posts a reminder too, and on his Sunday Sequence programme this week held a round-table discussion of …

“We need to make an example of this particular incident..”

Pete Baker on March 29, 2008, 3:54 am

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Interesting interjection by DUP MLA Jim Wells, and one I entirely agree with, on the felling of a number of protected trees in a private estate on the outskirts of Newcastle, County Down. One for the Northern Ireland Minister for the Environment, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, to ponder.. As the Woodland Trust spokesman says, Patrick Craig from the Woodland Trust said: “We’re just absolutely appalled that yet again some more native trees have been destroyed. “The legislation is very, very …

“I think it literally desecrates an area..”

Pete Baker on March 2, 2008, 4:11 am

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It might not constitute the “change in material circumstances” that the Republic of Ireland’s Environment Minister, the Green Party’s John Gormley, eventually said he required, but the criticism of the road building through the Tara valley by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney will likely reverberate throughout government. He’s not the first poet to point out the implications of that development, but he is the most influential. The Irish Times front page highlighted his comments today, and the BBC report has more …

“somewhat distorted by political comment and controversy..”

Pete Baker on February 29, 2008, 5:08 pm

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Now that he’s just an ordinary MLA, Ian Paisley Jnr may have more latitude in expressing support for the planning application by Seymour Sweeney for a Causeway Centre.. but I’d suggest there will be some raised eyebrows in the Environment Minister’s office over his comments on the news that Mr Sweeney has requested a hearing at the independent Planning Appeals Commission on the Minister’s ‘notice of opinion to refuse’ that application. From the Belfast Telegraph report Mr Paisley Jnr today …

Housing Implementation Plan “will now be submitted for Executive Committee approval..”

Pete Baker on February 26, 2008, 5:12 pm

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The BBC reports the statement in the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Social Development minister, the SDLP’s Margaret Ritchie, outlining a new housing strategy. The bullet points. The Minister outlined plans to: Build more homes- at least 5,250 in the next 3 years; Make the existing co-ownership scheme more attractive for first time buyers including the immediate abolition of house value limits; Bring forward proposals to establish a not for profit Mortgage Rescue Scheme; Allow existing social housing tenants the …

“at which point there will be full public consultation for four months..”

Pete Baker on February 13, 2008, 4:28 pm

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It might not be as intensely emotive an issue as education but, given the DUP’s recent difficulties with perceived links to certain developers, producing outline replacement proposals for PPS14 – itself the subject of legal challenges – and the wider issue of rural planning could have been a potential political minefield. Interesting to compare and contrast the more relaxed and open performance by Northern Ireland Environment Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, in the studio on Stormont Live yesterday with that …

Wearing the ministerial hat.. and other assorted headgear..

Pete Baker on February 11, 2008, 10:57 pm

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It has the faint whiff of pork-barrel politics, and it looks like there’s some ministerial trespassing involved, but the BBC’s blogging Mark Devenport spotted some crossing Northern Ireland ministerial statements at the end of last week – on the apparent funding from the Republic of Ireland government for a study into a bridge at Narrow Water, County Down, following a North South Ministerial Council meeting. First with the news, on 7th Feb, was the NI Education minister – although the …

“Removal of the variation is essential to permit unrestricted use of the airport’s main runway..”

Pete Baker on February 7, 2008, 3:50 am

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Indicators of yet more potential problems ahead for City of Derry Airport are revealed in a Belfast Telegraph report today. Having been granted the power to vest land around the airport by the Regional Development minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, the Derry City Council’s Airport Committee met today in private to consider a report on the preparations for securing that land for the airport’s use.. and to clear the CAA’s current variation on the airport’s licence. From the Belfast Telegraph …