Peak oil: we must act now to avoid disaster

THE contrast between George Lee’s ‘Future Shock: End of Oil’ and the following programme, Questions and Answers (RTÉ 1, June 18), was both pronounced and scary.

George Lee was adamant that we are rapidly approaching the end of the oil era and that Ireland was one of the countries least prepared for this enormous shock.

If we wish to avoid enormous hardship, every decision in politics, economics, education, and even religion, must be viewed through the prism of peak oil and climate change. We need the focus of something like a wartime crisis to galvanise our efforts to avoid a disaster.

Contrast this with the discussion on Questions and Answers as to whether Dick Roche did John Gormley a favour by signing the order to tarmac over the Lismullen henge? The chairman and all the participants assumed that oil will be available and relatively cheap into the indefinite future.

I found Noel Dempsey’s repetition of the mantra that Bord Pleanála’s oral hearing was thorough particularly galling. At the 2003 oral hearing I queried whether, in the light of peak oil, building three motorways in close proximity to each other was the best way to address transport problems in a post-peak oil world?

I also asked whether the planners had taken Ireland’s obligations under the Kyoto protocol into account before opting for motorways rather than public transport. On both counts the chairperson told me I was wasting his time since neither issue was covered by the terms of reference of the inquiry.

Imagine, the most important considerations in terms of transport policy in the 21st century were not relevant at an oral hearing on building an expensive motorway.

In fact, the oral hearing was charade designed to rubber-stamp a decision already taken by the NRA to facilitate its public/private partnership ideology.

Fr Seán McDonagh

St Columban’s

Dalgan Park

Navan

Co Meath