Economy and environment
Posted: Wednesday, 19 March 2008 |
Comments
AL, your efforts to promote your views on sustainable resource use and generation are grand, even though I don't always agree with you. This was a very interesting blog, although of course the local details are not fully understandable to one so far away. You write that economic development and care for the environment are not mutually exclusive. That means, surely, that the Arnish Fabrication Yard needs orders..... filled order books for months and years to come is the best insurance for local employment. We had a big shipyard closure in Malm枚 about 20 years ago, now a reasonable proportion (can't give you a figure) of the then younger workers are building wind turbines and reparing and building roling stock. Change brings threats but also opportunities, and the community that does not change - dies.
Barney from Swithiod got to give it to you
Barney, Grateful for your feedback, and I agree with your standpoint that of course the Yard needs orders. The problem is that Arnish has a less than reliable track record for sustained employment (two shutdowns in the past 3 years), and even if there is a windfarm in Lewis, resulting employment at Arnish will only be there for a limited period of time. Yes, change is needed. Hence my call for a diversified approach.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
You might agree with me, Barney, that the older we get, the more we realise just how little we know about life. You might think that crofting is a dying, if not dead, way of life. Yet there is a man at Tolsta Chaolais who uses traditional crofting methods to produce the most delicious meat, and uses modern methods (eg the internet) to market it all over Britain to people who are discerning enough to want something better than the mass produced garbage churned out by the supermarkets from animals fed on by-products from the petrochemical industry. I understand that he is making a good income for himself and the other crofters. Its not true that "the community that does not change dies". The internet has created massive opportunities for remote areas to advertise their goods, and the traditional ways of life can prosper in the modern world if modern methods are used to market their products. Using Harris Tweed for Nike trainers for example.
malkie from Glasgow
Arnish may well need orders, Barney ... But orders for windmills is not the answer ... because windmills would be destructive to so many other sectors, not least the environment and possibly the tourism industry ... which like it or lump it is the industry which supports most of the new business on the island today ...? (shoot me down if you wish people, but its at least a large portion) ... Let it build wave generators - oops, no that wouldn't work because nobody owns the sea-bed do they, so nobody could profit from it ... Alternatively, let's look at the reasons that young people leave the island shall we ...? My own experience has shown that its not a lot to do with a lack of employment here ...! Other than throwing into the pot 'a desire to explore outwith the islands', I'm not prepared to put these into black and white here ... :-) a womans got to know her limitations ... :-)
soaplady from right back atcha Barney ... :-)
Hi all, thanks for your comments on my comments. AL, Ok the arnish yard has had shut-downs and that is very disruptive for the local work force but as I understand it they are again in operation ... keeping going somehow and who knows when/if they will turn a corner? Malkie, very happy indeed to learn that traditional ways of living can still make a living, maybe a bettter one than previously .. but your pal is changing with the times by using modern tools to market his products adn thereby accessing a far larger market than the island itself ccan provide. Bigger market, bigger opportunities. SL, I also think hydropower, especially tidal generators, should be much more developed. Surely the sea bed ownership has nothing to do with it, it's a question of putting in the euros in R&D. Also however impressed on emay be by the tidal streams around the W. coast of Scotland, I understand that a lot of the British coast is less than impressive on that score. What is needed is the right mix - wind and water must be a great combination (see Eigg example) but it costs! What we in Sweden have found is that looking after the environment and generating new technologies pays off, but there is a big lag period beween investment in R&D and profitability. And current environmental laws are very limiting to efficient development. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You'd anwer GOOD (I think), I answer BAD becasue I happen to believe that the best information we have indicates we are terrifyingly near to going into a positive feedback mechanism where natual greenhouse gas sinnks will start to pour out emissions at a rate that will completely swamp anyreductions that we may be able to make. I am a climate pessimist who believes we have to behave as if our measures have an effect simply because the alternative means just giving up. And for my grandchildren, and everyone elses grandchcildren, that just isn't an option I will accept. Oh, sorry, this was a long one! You may be relieved to read that I won't be commenting over Easter. A great weekend, everybody on IB!
Barney from Swithiod Easter break ahead
You can't comment over the weekend, everyone goes home: no shifts on iB!
Flying Cat from anticipating Tuesday
I have been in Lewis since late 2004 and am observing life on this fascinating island from an outsider's perspective. I look out at the lighthouse every day - as it looks out over the island and the sea. 
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