Climate emergency - why is Dublin Airport expanding???

Expanding to make more money. These people couldn't give a fiddlers **** about the climate no matter how much they pretend.

There is a real climate crisis in hand, that can hardly be disputed. But we are an island and haven’t the option of building train lines to span the sea to continental Europe. We are also on the western periphery of Euro-Asia before the long hop across the pond. In past decade or so, there has only been one active runway at Dublin Airport with airplanes in wait for both landing and takeoff. A second runway doubles the potential operational capacity, but moreover provides an added safety factor without aircraft competing for a space in the case of emergency events.

We are an island nation..

It’s expanding because there is a demand for more flights..

the catalyst for this is the ever increasing population on the island..

the price of flying has decreased..

the demand for movement of people and express cargo is high...

We are shipping beef to China ffs, plenty more higher emitting industries need a swift kick up the hole to make them see sense in what they are doing before aviation.

We keep hearing about rising tides also, yet they are going to build thousands of homes on the old glass bottle site right beside the sea, are they going to build them on stilts, funny no mention of that anywhere, maybe that area won't be affected for some reason.

You have not been paying attention it's the Irish States and EUs policies that are harming us, not the weather. Power shortages are inevitable due to the pursuit of current policies.

1. In pursuit of this climate crusade we are phasing out reliable sources of electricity generation. The island (including NI) has 5510 MW nameplate win turbine capacity installed. If you have been watching throughout the Summer wind turbine output has been frequently below 100MW. The state policy is to have 70% random generated power by 2030.
2. Fields are beginning to be covered with Solar panels, 200MW scheme under construction in Meath. Solar can only work during the day and the output from the end of November to January is pathetic (see what happens to Solar in Germany during Winter)
3. Irelands peak demand for electricity was reached last December 2020.
4. In Germany when the subsidies end the wind turbine operators go broke.
5. EirGrid said it expects data centres to account for 15% of total energy demand by 2026. Data centers are buying up the capacity.
6. Our electricity prices are only going up and we are destabilising the grid as we load it with more random generated power.
7. A 700MW HVDC cable is being built to France to tap into reliable nuclear generated power. The cable will be ~500 KM long. The installation and maintenance cost for that will be paid by electricity consumers in Ireland.
8. The yes men for random energy schemes keep spinning the story that Ireland will be the Saudi Arabia or random generated power and that we will be able to offset the costs by exporting power to Europe. Power can only be sold when it is demanded and random generated energy cannot always be supplied which means that often it will be "given" away while Irish consumers underwrite the costs via subsidies. The experience of Germanys energy transition (energiewende) is instructive, random generated sources do not command a premium and are sold cheaply (even given away) while peak demand power from reliable sources (coal & gas commands a premium price).
9. The more random energy put on the grid the harder and more expensive it becomes to maintain stability leading to inevitable load shedding
10. Due to a recent surge in gas prices Eirgrid has stopped exports to the UK. Two gas plants are currently offline here in Ireland.
11. The climate action plan will see the cost of houses rise further due to specification inflation.
12. Oil fired boilers in new homes are banned from 2022 with gas fired boilers in new homes being banned from 2025. The alternative being pushed are heat pumps which are more expensive to operate. In the Britain the government has rolled back on this due to voter dissatisfaction.
13. Irish consumers are being forced off consuming primary sources of heat energy (coal, gas & oil) for a single secondary source (electricity). The average yearly temperature in this country is ~10C
14. Have you received your personalised carbon allowance yet? No you have not, it's being floated in the background. Obviously no government in their right mind is going to introduce that today, the technocrats will get there eventually.
15. What about financial shenanigans? Did you know the ECB bought 70% of Irish bond debt during the pandemic? Have you heard of Green bonds? The ECB holds about 20% of all green bonds and they want to exclude them from deficit and debt limit calculations.

What needs to happen to avoid future substantial economic disruption due to the lack of electricity.

• An immediate suspension by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) till further notice of Renewable Electricity Support System auction (RESS) auctions. If wind turbine or solar panel operators want to build new sites, let them do so without guaranteed subsidies
• An "intermittentcy surcharge" to be imposed on wind and solar power, so that they pay the cost of providing standby power.
• A rule insisting that all new wind and solar plants include sufficient storage to supply nameplate capacity for, say, one week.
• Abolition of carbon pricing, which has distorted market mechanisms, and is largely responsible across Europe for the massive rise in energy prices this year.
• Immediate suspension of moves to electric cars and heat pumps.
• Abandoning strategic plans which rely heavily on imported power, and replacement with plans which prioritise the provision of sufficient, reliable home grown power.

Why not have the same for trains and buses? It's not like trains don't have an environmental impact, especially if it's a high speed line.

you would, if it meant you couldnt live here

yup, the neoliberal/neoclassical approach of taxation most certainly wont work to solve this one, states are just gonna have to suck it up, and start running budget deficits from now on

oh and expanding the airport is good for the economy, hence good for the environment, or something something something......

For the last time I can find readily available data (2016) from the IATA, "System-wide, airlines carried 4.1 billion passengers on scheduled services, an increase of 7.3% over 2016, representing an additional 280 million trips by air." and by 2036 IATA projects 7.8 billion passengers, since the local population has crossed the 5 million mark for the first time since 1851, it's a fair assessment that another runway is needed unless in future you would prefer to land at Shannon and take the high speed rail back to Dublin.

The Greens are watermelons, green on the outside, red in the centre. They are NOT TO BE TRUSTED. All they want is your vote, only then will you find out how bad it can be under their rule. Their growth can be traced back to the collapse of the Soviet Union where a new vehicle was needed to replace communism, ecology was chosen. Ultimately, the Greens are just one specific form in which anti-capitalism today articulates itself. The panic-mongering about the imminent end of the world is simply a pretext for reorganizing the economy into a control and command system.

None of our politicians can tell you what the ideal temperature is for life on earth and quantify how the enforcement of their policies will achieve that. As an example it is clear to all who want to take the time to look that mandating an electrical grid to be powered by 70% random energy by 2030 will necessarily result in an unstable grid and Eirgrid has been warning about this. Yet many people are so far stuck up their asses that they have concocted a climate emergency in their heads that bears no relation to reality and are stuck in groupthink.

As an example of how out of touch with human welfare these people are see the UN Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: 2020 Report How many of the 5.2 million were caused by the "climate emergency"? Compared with the past with some exceptions mainly due to war all the human welfare metrics indicate improvement in the standard of living of humans. For context how many millions lose their lives every year due to adverse weather events?.

There are ~40 million abortions per annum this is not caused by the "climate emergency".

Over 4 million deaths have Corona virus attributed as a factor in their cause of death, that's not the "climate emergency".

It is estimated that 80% of the global population live on less than $10 per day. We currently have access to a stable electricity supply in this country, however across the globe 2.6 billion don't as yet.

beleive it or not, the ipcc isnt picking up on everything, its main economic contributors work, is currently being shredded to pieces, they dont understand how much trouble we re in, particularly in regards the impact of climate change, and our global economy. so, we really are in deep sh1t!

Anything to be said for a modern nuclear reactor or two? I couldn't imagine a better solution to reducing fossil fuel consumption and having predictable reliable power production.

It's going to be the only solution in the future.

Anyone with half a brain knows it.

Probably not our generation.

Shhh, don't try to ruin the fun of the "bash the Greens" brigade.

funny you mention tol's work, as its his work thats been shredded to pieces, along side his butty nordhaus, neither have a clue about their professional fields

the greens a bit lost in regards maintaining our economy, and protecting our environment, such is the extent of the problem

disagree strongly, our governments are virtually completely lost in regards how to maintain functioning economies, and tackling our environmental problems simultaneously, we need a new, and completely radical change in how we approach these problems, our governments arent ready for that yet, continually defaulting to what they know, it wont work. for example, continuing to move the bulk of taxation towards citizens wont work, governments, and ultimately state financial institutions, need to step up to the mark, we also need to create new, purpose orientated state institutions to do so, again, we re not ready for these moves yet