Horizons

Friends of the Earth and the Green Party are currently rousing people to urge President Bush not to betray the Kyoto Protocol. The organisation has drafted a letter which it would like all those with a campaigning spirit to send to the White House in protest. The letter states: "The United States must live up to its commitment to the UN negotiations to prevent global warming. Sabotaging the Kyoto Protocol puts the USA into a position of environmental isolationism and makes it responsible for climate catastrophe." Read the letter in full at www.foeeurope.org/ climate.

Meanwhile, the Green Party is calling on the Irish public to boycott petrol and oil from US companies operating in Ireland. "We must stand up to the oil companies because they are behind George Bush's refusal to take action on climate change," says Nuala Ahern, Green Party MEP. "US oil companies have been pushing hard for a U-turn in environmental policies by opposing any reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions. It is no coincidence that they are presently pushing for new drilling licences in the Alaskan wilderness," says Ahern. The US has the highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the world. The US oil companies operating in the Republic are Esso, Texaco and Chevron.

Tidy Towns committees all over Ireland (except in the Co Louth exclusion zone due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak there) have one week left to put the final touches to their applications for Tidy Towns 2001. In its information to applicants, the Department of the Environment has issued special precautionary advice against the spread of foot-and-mouth. For example, neither local farmyard by-products nor farm machinery should be used on flowerbeds and green areas, and disinfectant facilities should be provided for all such activities. The Tidy Towns competition, which has been running for almost 50 years, depends on volunteers and local sponsorship. It is an important initiative which gives people a chance to get involved in maintaining their local heritage and keeping their streets clean. More details on tel: 01-8882300.

Meanwhile, the entrants for the Ireland's Best Kept Towns competition have been announced. They are: Ballycastle, Co Antrim; Castletown, Co Laois; Clonakilty, Co Cork; Cookstown, Co Tyrone; Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh; Hillsborough, Co Down; Keadue, Co Roscommon; Kenmare, Co Kerry; Kilkenny city, Killarney, Co Kerry; Malahide, Co Dublin; Malin, Co Donegal; Newtowncashel, Co Longford; Scarva, Co Armagh; and Terryglass, Co Tipperary. The overall winner in this competition (which is open to those towns eligible for the Northern Ireland Amenity Council Best Kept Awards and the Department of the Environment's Tidy Towns Awards) will be decided in June.

The Convergence Festival, in Dublin city centre, begins today and has an excellent programme of events to celebrate Earth Week. Here are a few suggestions of exhibitions and fairs you can drop into without pre-booking.

The International Design Resource Awards at ENFO, Andrew's Street, Dublin 2, features examples of products from around the world that have been manufactured with recycled and sustainably sourced materials. At the fair trade exhibit, organic shop and information centre at The Better World Centre, Unit 5, Cows Lane, Temple Bar, you can find out what difference fair trade makes to producers in the developing world and get up to speed on sustainability in general. Two events worth visiting at Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, are an organic fair (on Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and an Earth Fair with stalls, speakers and street entertainment (on Sunday, April 29th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.). You can also join green-map walking tours of the city centre tomorrow and the following Sunday at 12 noon, leaving from Meeting House Square. City heritage walking tours go ahead tomorrow and Sunday next at 4 p.m. For further information, tel: 014912773, call by at the Better World Centre or check www.convergence01.org The festival continues until April 29th.

The Irish Georgian Society is taking issue with developers who are buying up "relatively modest sound Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses" with the intention of demolishing them and building "as many apartments as the site can hold". In its current newsletter, the IGS states that, since many of these houses are not (yet) listed as protected structures, fighting to save them is much more difficult.

Another escalating problem, according to the IGS, is the threat to the built heritage, the archaeological heritage and the natural environment posed by new roads. In particular, the 18th-century houses of Ardbraccan, Co Meath, and Kilshannig, Co Cork, are threatened by "inappropriate sitings of roads". The historic Deele Valley in Co Donegal and the Tulira Castle demesne in Co Galway are also at risk from road developments. If you are keen to get involved in opposing such developments, contact Mary Bryan, the IGS conservation officer, on tel: 01-6767053 or igs@iol.ie

Webworld

www.environ.ie

This website of the Department of the Environment offers the general public access to an abundance of policy documents and government acts. A very heavy text-based site, it is none the less essential reading for anyone interested in tapping into environmental legislation and grant schemes currently operating in Ireland. It also offers access to press releases issued regularly by the department. For instance, one of the latest is the announcement of the Living Over The Shop scheme designations for Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway.

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