For almost a week now the media has been full of stories about toxic waste found at the former Irish Steel (aka Irish Ispat) site on Haulbowline, including the statistical evidence that Cobh town, a few hundred metres away, has a cancer incidence rate which is 44% above the national average.

These photos were taken at 8.45am Thursday morning, 3rd July - there appeared to be one person on site at the time (see photo below). However life and work continued as usual at the naval base next door, in Cobh town and Ringaskiddy. Photo 5 shows the now levelled site of the old furnace hall which is the large building shown on some television reports - also the proximity of this to the main Naval Mess Hall and playing pitches on Haulbowline - and the National Maritime College at Ringaskiddy (photo background).

Local opposition

The Combined Residents Against the Incinerator (CRAI) which is made up of residents from Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount and other parts of Dublin is currently making presentations to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Oral Hearing on the proposed mass-burn incinerator, planned to be built by Dublin City Council on the Poolbeg Peninsula in Dublin City.

CRAI submitted 3000 letters of objection to the An Bord Pleanala Hearing in October 2006 but despite this An Bord Pleanala granted planning permission to Dublin City Council (DCC) to build the 600,000 tonne mass-burn incinerator. The next stage in this process is the EPA is deciding what sort of waste pollution licence it will grant to DCC for the incinerator. CRAI is calling on the public to attend the hearing and make their voice of opposition heard.

Related Links: EPA Proposed licence decision DublinWaste.ie debate
Coverage on JohnGormley.com

Shell recently announced the names of local groups in Erris who they are going to fund, as part of the deal they arrived with government appointed mediator Peter Cassels in 2006.

Cassells, who admitted that there was no basis for mediation while Shell insisted on an onshore production pipeline and refinery, recommended that the company should pay money into the local community in an effort to turn public opinion in favour of the scheme.

Related Links: More on Corrib gas project

A small group of Shell to Sea activists scaled the heights of the Department of Natural Resources today, to place a banner reading PROTECT IRISH NATURAL RESOURCES on the balcony outside Eamon Ryan's office.

Splitting into two small teams, the protesters used advice from GreenPeace to distract the security and gain access to the Minister's top floor office and leave a message for him.

Related Link: Prominent Shell to Sea activist to oversee Corrib project

John Gormley and Trevor Sargent posing with Al Gore

Energy & Environment Conference, Dublin 1st December. Senator Al Gore & Bono save the world (again).

A well written and entertaining report of a conference on Energy and the Environment organised by Merrion Capital at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin on the 1st December. The reporter describes the speeches on the environment from luminaries such as David Begg of ICTU talking about the consequences of using land for bio-fuel, Tadhg O'Donoghue of the ESB focusing on nuclear power, and Willie Walsh of Aer Lingus fame speaking about the effects of low-cost aviation before the key-note speech from Al Gore, producer of the popular presentation "An Inconvenient Truth".