The document discusses sustainability in Ireland, covering its societal, governmental, cultural, and individual aspects. It includes statistics on the economy, population, health, and energy resources, as well as references to historical context and religious affiliations. The text emphasizes the need for sustainable practices across various sectors in order to maintain viability and support environmental and social goals.

1. Irish Eorts at Sustainability: A Green Island?
3D Journeys
Jon M. Ernstberger
LaGrange College
March 26, 2012

2. Quiz
Jon Ernstberger holds a Ph.D in which of the following

3. elds?
(a) Irish History
(b) Economics
(c) Computational Mathematics
(d) Sustainability Sciences

4. Quiz-Answer
Jon Ernstberger holds a Ph.D in which of the following

5. elds?
(a) Irish History
(b) Economics
(c) Computational Mathematics
(d) Sustainability Sciences

6. Implications
I There are no insights into the Irish that you cannot

7. nd
elsewhere.
I As a scientist, the content will be factual and
well-summarized.
I Organization will be transparent.

8. What Does it Mean?
Sustainable
...pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using
techniques that allow for continual reuse...
Synonyms
endurable, supportable
Pertains to
Environmental, social, economical, etc. aairs

9. Day 6
(Genesis 1:28-30, ESV[8])
And God blessed them. And God said to them, `Be
fruitful and multiply and

10. ll the earth and subdue it, and
have dominion over the

11. sh of the sea and over the birds
of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on
the earth.' And God said, `Behold, I have given you every
plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth,
and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them
for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every
bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the
earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given
every green plant for food.' And it was so.

12. A Green Bible
...but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow,
that the poor of your people may eat; and what they
leave the beasts of the

13. eld may eat. You shall do
likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
(Exodus 23:11, ESV[8])
...Then you ought to have invested my money with the
bankers, and at my coming I should have received what
was my own with interest. (Matthew 25:27, ESV[8])
...Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut
down and thrown into the

14. re. (Luke 3:9, ESV[8])
So, why Ireland?

15. Summary
I Societal Sustainability
I Macro - Government
I Meso - Cultures
I Micro - Individual
I Focus Energy Sources and Future Plans
I Current Energy Requirements and Infrastructure
I Resource Usage
I Future Plans (Immediate and Long-Term)

16. Society

17. Geopolitics of Ireland
I Republic of Ireland (Dark
Green)
I Ocially Ireland
I Formed (ocially) on
December 6th, 1922.
I Covers approximately
83% of the landmass.
I Northern Ireland (Light
Green)
I Established on May 3rd,
1921.
I Part of the United
Kingdom.
I Remaining 17% of land.
I Although governmentally
separate, the island remains
connected in many senses.

18. Comparison
Ireland US GA
Pop. (millions) 6.2 (2008) 312.2 (2011) 9.7 (2010)
Area (sq. mi.) 32,595.1 3,794,101 59,425
Pop. Dens. (sq. mi) 190.1 87.4 141.4
Height, Male (in.) 70 (21-25 yrs.) 70 (20-29 yrs.)
Lifespan (M/F) (77/82) (76/81)
Obesity (%, M/F) (25.7/23.3) (30.2/33.2)
Adult Mortality Rate 77 106
per 1000 (15-59)
Table: The Republic of Ireland has about 4.53M residents and covers
approximately 27k sq. mi. of the island.
Data provided by Wikipedia[26], World Health Organization, and others.

19. Society: Sustainability of the Government of the Republic
of Ireland[18]
I Parliamentary republic
I President (head of state), Taoiseach (prime minister,head of
govt.)
I Has senatorial, representative, and judicial branches.
I Multiple political parties:
I Fianna Fail (republicans), (right of Labor, left of Fine Gael)
I Fine Gael (centrists),
I Labor (social democrats),
I Green,
I Sinn Fein (left-wing republican group

20. Society: Sustainability of the Government of the Republic
of Ireland,2
I GNI $184B (2011)
I Max $221B (2008)
I Industry:
I food and bev.
processing,
I textiles,
I pharmaceuticals
and chemicals,
I engineering
I Relatively low natural
resources
I Exports:

21. nished
products
I Imports: resources
and things they
can't build
,
Figure: National Income and
Expenditure 2010 Annual Results[5]

22. Society: Sustainability of the Government of the Republic
of Ireland, Debt
Country/Org. Debt Owed Debt Held
Germany $184
Britain $188
France $60
Spain1 $16 $30
Italy2 $18 $46
Portugal $22 $5.4
Greece $0.8 $8.5
Other $378.2 N/A
Table: Irish debt in terms of countries from whom funds are borrowed
and countries who owe Ireland[21]. Ireland and the other four countries
(in red) considered economically weaker (PIIGS) after the

23. nancial crisis.
All numbers in USD, billions.
122.85% unemployment rate as of Jan, 2012
2$1.4T in debt[23]

24. Society: Sustainability of the Government of the Republic
of Ireland, Debt, cont.3
3[4]

25. Society: Republic of Ireland, Public Health-care
I Gross expenditure
e14.4B (approx.
$19B USD)
I 78% from taxes
I 25.3% of all govt.
spending
I 8% of the GNI
I 30% of population
granted free access,
I Rest receive subsidies
I 51.2% (2007) still
purchase private
health insurance.

26. Society: Sustainability of the Culture, Jews and WWII
In the period following Hitler coming to power and
preceding the Second World War, the doors of this state
were kept

27. rmly closed to German Jewish families trying
to escape from persecution and death... (Justice Miller,
[13]).
I Constitutionally, Ireland gave protection to the Jews (1937).
Clergy gave protection to Jews.
I Anti-semitic sentiment from the parliament structure where
some wanted to route the Jews out of the country.
I Post-war could not get refugee status easily while other
groups could.

28. Society: Sustainability of the Culture, Faith
Faith Aliation Patrons % of Pop
Roman Catholic 3,681,446 86.83%
Protestant 219,777 5.18%
Orthodox 20,798 0.49%
Islam 32,539 0.77%
Judaism 1,930 0.04%
Table: Faith breakdown of Ireland by group with number and percentage
of population.
I Is faith a sustainable practice?
I Do faith-based groups engage in sustainable action?

29. Society: Sustainability of the Individual
I Employment
I Unemployment fell from 16% in 1985 to 4.3% in
2005...currently around 14.6%.
I Average Salary about $44,772 (USD) annually4.
I Tax rate (avg. person) about 26.7%
I Health
I Average life expectancy: 77 years (men), 82 years (women)
I About 6500 persons/year die from tobacco usage [3].
I About 25,000 new cases of invasive cancer per year (6-7%
increase in new cases annually) [17].
4[26]

30. Energy

31. Climate of Ireland
Images borrowed from http://www.met.ie.

32. Climate of Ireland, cont.
Ireland LaGrange
Rainfall (in.) 31-80 58
Temp (F) 43-51 49-73
Sun (hrs) 3-4.25 10-15
I Note: These are gathered
using an average of
averages.
I Not indicative of extreme
conditions.
I Serves for comparative
purposes.

33. Energy Supplies5
5[22]

34. Energy Supplies, cont.
Figure: The wind blew less in 2010.

35. Requirements and Infrastructure
I Infrastructure of
about 4.7 GW
I Peak Demand of
approx. 27,206 GWh
I Nuclear Power?
I Is solar energy
feasible?

36. Eciency of Energy Suppliers
Figure: SEAI.org

37. Sustainable Energy - Wind Energy[1]
I 146 wind farms in Ireland
I 1746.7 Megawatts (MW)
I Oshore Energy (25MW)
I Much higher wind speeds
I Much larger than on-shore windmills
I Need about 3,400 wind turbines (3MW Turbines) for the
entire Irish energy requirement

38. Sustainable Energy - Wave/Tidal Energy[6]
I Uses the kinetic
energy in the waves
to generate
electricity!
I Est. 59 TWh for Irish
peoples.
I Several designs

39. Questions?