IT is argued that Ireland would have few laws to protect our environment and wildlife if the EU had not imposed legislation on us.

Protection of dolphins and other wildlife was among the key conditions under which planning permission was recently granted for a combined heat and power plant on the Shannon Estuary.

MANY people will be taking to the outdoors over the next seven days during National Heritage Week for which no less than 1,700 events have been organised.

THE vast majority of children view wildlife on television, before they see it in reality. But there’s still something magical about the moment a child sees for the first time an animal up close and which they also love to touch, if possible.

SOME independent weather forecasters who depend on observations of wildlife, nature and even the moon — including New Zealander Ken Ring — have again come to prominence and been credited with predicting the recent fine spell.

MANY people have been to their favourite beach at least once this summer. And, no matter how old they might be, they probably saw little or no change from the time they first went there as children.

WE did not have more fine summers long ago.

EACH person in Ireland uses an average of 200 litres, or almost two full baths of water, per day for drinking, washing clothes and dishes, taking showers, flushing toilets and other purposes.

WILDLIFE tourism is a term we will be hearing more often in the not too distant future, now that eagles have started to breed here again as part of what looks like being a successful reintroduction programme.

IT’S not that long ago since the rare passive house _ a “green’’ building making maximum use of energy efficiencies _ would grab headlines in Ireland and be highlighted in a freaky kind of style as the way of the future.