HORIZONS

Tackling the dragonWhat About China? (Alastair Sawday's Fragile Earth £6.99) is an excellent new book that tackles many of the environmental questions you were afraid to ask, writes Sylvia Thompson.

In it, a panel of experts from the Soil Association, Waste Watch, Ecover, Tridos Bank, Alastair Sawday's Special Places to Stay travel guides and the Centre for Alternative Energy in Wales give precise and entertaining answers to a series of tricky questions on climate, travel, recycling, food, energy, waste and finance. So, what about China? Well, at 4.2 tonnes of carbon emissions per person (compared to 16 tonnes per person in Ireland and 20 tonnes per person in the US), China is below the world average of 4.6 tonnes per person. While a new power plant might be built each week, there is also immense research into renewable technologies. Read more to find out about flying, food miles and fair-trade products.

Lunchtime lectures

A Coillte exhibition on healthy habitats in woods and forests continues at Enfo,

St Andrew Street, Dublin until August 23rd. The exhibition looks at woodland recreation, habitat restoration and biodiversity on Coillte sites. A series of lunchtime lectures on topics including woodland restoration, raised-bog restoration and blanket-bog restoration are held on Wednesdays at 1.15pm. Tel: 01-8882001 for details. Meanwhile, visitors to the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin can view Mark Edwards' striking photographs in the outdoor exhibition Hard Rain (until August 31st) and the more unusual 3D Force of Nature "Portals into Nature", created by holographic artist and sculptor Jon Mitton (until August 4th).

Picture perfect

The Human Impact on Nature in Ireland is the theme of a photographic competition, run by the Environmental Science Association of Ireland. Now in its third year, the competition is open to amateur photographers. Pictures will be assessed on quality, composition and captions. For details, see www.esaiweb.org. The best three images will be published in Local Planet magazine ( www.localplanet.ie). The closing date for entries is September 26th.

Allotment open day

The South Dublin Allotments Association is holding an open day today from 11am-3pm at the visitor centre and allotments site in Tymon Park, Tallaght, Dublin. Visitors can tour the allotments and find out more about organic gardening. E-mail sdaa@eircom.netfor more details.

Constructive criticism

Significant upskilling in the building industry is required if Ireland is to meet its targets for the energy performance of buildings. This was the message from Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan to architects, builders and engineers at the Sustainable Architecture Now conference in Dublin Castle earlier this week. Ryan also announced a support scheme for housing projects with low-energy and low-carbon strategies and a new competition for architects to design buildings with superior energy performance standards. See www.constructireland.ie