Sir, - Last Monday, representatives of leading Irish environmentalist non-governmental organisations called a press conference to highlight the effect of the proposed peat-powered plants on Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions. Peat is the most polluting fuel in climate terms. In addition, the intact peatlands are an important carbon sink.
The press conference set out to explore the gap between the Government's rhetoric of reducing emissions and the actual policy of surcharging consumer's electricity bills to subsidise the incineration of our peatlands.
One might have thought that this was worthy of media interest. We sent out 560 press releases. Not one media representative attended. Is climate change not an issue in the eyes of the Irish media? - Yours, etc.
Michael Smith, An Taisce,
David Healy, Friends of the Irish Environment,
Patrick Finnegan, GRIAN (Greenhouse Ireland Action Network),
Ruth McGrath, Irish Peatland Conservation Council,
Liam Burke, Tipperary Naturalist Group,
Peter Sweetman, Campaign for Sensible Transport Verification.