The Environment is the Economy

As an environmental scientist I am trained amongst other things to examine and make predictions of the potential impacts of proposed development on our environment including air quality, noise, water, waste management, economic, transport, cultural, landscape and heritage. In doing so I examine the ecological, physical and scientific aspects of a development. After almost twenty years as an environmental consultant working in diverse industries as well as research and development I believe that our political system or wider community has yet to realise what you may already know. That is that our entire economic well-being and future security is based on one simple entity, our environment.

We all in some way are aware of this, yet the manner of development which has occurred in this country and globally has failed to recognise the importance of our environment, the services it offers us and the economic benefit we derive from it. The environment provides critical ecological functions that enable society to function. According to Nature an international journal of science, the value of these services to society have been estimated to be worth on average €24 trillion per year, twice the global gross national product of the entire world. Apart from providing us with clean air, water and soil our environment provides us with opportunities to support our economy through the marketing of tourism and the potential to develop a green economy. The industrial revolution passed Ireland by due largely to our colonial past and direct rule from England where Ireland was largely seen as an agricultural producer. One of the positive impacts of this is that Ireland has the lowest percentage of contaminated land of any nation in Europe. In the UK alone there are an estimated 100,000 contaminated sites compared to a few hundred here in Ireland, in comparison according to the Worldwatch Institute over ten million hectares of agricultural land in China is contaminated from industrial and agricultural pollution.

One of the reasons we have a relatively clean environment is due to population density. In the week that commemorates the Great Famine in Ireland it is remarkable to note that in the nineteenth century pre-famine Ireland had a population similar to that of Spain; approaching 9 million people. Today the population of Spain is 47 million. As a consequence of the famine and mass emigration our population declined dramatically to less than 5million. During the famine years approximately 200,000 people left of shores each year seeking a new life in the USA, Canada and Australia. Remarkable almost every developed nation of the world shows that population size doubled generally every 200-300 yrs. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century this timescale reduced to 100yrs and today stands at less than 50yrs. While upwards of 70 million people around the world claim Irish decent, today Ireland still has a population less than that of 1830’s. Imagine if you can how Ireland would look today if we had 70 million people living on this island? How would we have managed the development, where would we as an island nation get the resources to feed, shelter and provide essential services for this enormous number of people. Fortunately however we have the least densely populated country in Europe and one of the cleanest most unspoilt and least polluted environments, but it came at a terrible cost, through famine and mass migration.

So what advantage does this give us compared to other countries? Low population growth means less impact on the environment through the provision of infrastructure and services. The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organisation have highlighted the enormous challenges that face people living in less fortunate countries. Today approximately 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, by 2025 it is predicted that this figure will rise to over 3 billion people. Food security is now a major national security treat to many countries.  As the world’s population continues to increase and natural resources continue to diminish feeding humanity and providing essential drinking water will prove an enormous challenge. More worryingly the impacts of climate change and global warming could result in an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe of unknown proportions that is unless we act now to change the way we live and protect the environment that we all live in.

When I examine the current economic crises this country faces I believe that it is very the quality of our environment that offers us the opportunities to live a more sustainable way of life while providing, energy, jobs and security for all our people. Our landscape heritage, coastline, rivers and lakes, mountains and land provide for us a unique opportunity to invest in our country and generate wealth and a sustainable economy beyond what most may dream of.

We must understand that our economy entirely depends on our environment, clean water for society, industry, fishing and tourism: our geographic location on the edge of Europe provides us with the greatest opportunity of all to invest in clean renewable energy, providing clean, cheap and renewable energy to drive our economy, operate our businesses and run our homes. Our largely unpolluted agricultural land proves us with a unique marketing opportunity to build an organic food and agricultural industry that offers enormous potential in addition to generating biomass from forestry and energy crops.

Our unspoilt landscapes provide areas for recreation and the development of sustainable tourism products that could help secure the future of rural Ireland providing much needed jobs and sustaining communities. From the Baltimore Fiddle Festival to the Rose of Tralee we offer people what is needed now more than ever, community spirit and a passion for life. Our generous spirit, character, love of music, festivals, folklore and people provide yet another unique opportunity to Ireland, only by supporting it correctly showing vision and innovation can we will continue to have a world class product.

Our future is in our own hands, we must believe in ourselves, show determination and intelligence for change and we will overcome the challenges we now face. But it requires new ideas and new vision, we must begin by re-examining how we plan for development and provide essential services, we must be ambitious and innovative. Above all else we must protect our environment and heritage for without these we have nothing to offer.