How do we get the fat rich Irish public out of their comfort zone and into energy awareness?
Irish dependence on oil and other energy imports should not be considered just simply as economic issues; rather they should be looked on as matters of national security.
Ireland could be completely controlled by foriegn interests through our almost 100% dependence on imported fuels. If the fuel was cut off everything would stop working. Everything would stop. We would have no electricity except for a miserable 15% of our needs. We would have no cars, no trains, no working factories, no working farmers, no working, no wages, no money!!!
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My fat rich Irish wirelass broadband keeps cutting out and I lost my attempt to reply again! So I'll try again but with a much shortened version. The public always acts pretty rationally in a short term context, because they intuitively work to the the old J M Keynes maxim 'In the Long Term, We are All Dead'.
So if you want the public to change short term behaviour to safeguard the long term, the only way to do it is to make that the rational thing for them to do in the short term. In other words, policies are the answer, not exhortations.
For policies we have to look to our political leaders...those who simultaneuosly give grants for and impose VAT on solar panels and wood pellet burners!!!
The challenge is to shake them out of their complacency. The problem is that although this issue has made it on to their list, there are also a lot of other things on that list...and the public want to know what they're going to do about them all. So the politicians rank these issues according to where the votes are...and longer term issues are low in the queue!
Even the Green Party found that they had to become an all purpose multi-issue party to make any headway.
What to do? Seems to me that an ongoing campaign of education is the only way. Al Gore's new film, when it's finished doing its money making thing at the box office and is out on DVD - should be sent to every school principal in the land for showing to the kids. And that's just an idea for starters...
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