Horizons

Get on your bike – or take Shanks’s pony

Half of car owners in the Greater Dublin Area drive for trips of less than a mile, according to the Institute of Public Health in Ireland. Its new report, Active Travel – Healthy Lives, highlights the need to strengthen policies that promote walking or cycling. Teresa Lavin of the institute says that placing greater emphasis on walking or cycling in urban planning and policies would improve health and well-being. "In countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, where there are high rates of active travel, pedestrian fatalities are 10 times lower than in the United States, which has high car usage." See publichealth.ie.

Vision for an Irish version of the Eden project

The Green Life Project is an attempt to create a site-specific centre for ecology and horticulture using natural resources. Originated by Kevin Downey, a master’s student in overseas development at Dublin City University, it is modelled on projects such as the Eden Project in England (see Ecoweb, bottom); Downey is seeking a suitable site for the centre, which would also host ecological exhibitions and training. “It’s a capital project, which is difficult in these times, but people are enthusiastic about it,” he says. See dcu.ie/ alumni/alumni_news, or e-mail downeykevin@eircom.net.

How transport can help fight climate change

The challenge for transport in fighting climate change is the theme of Prof Julia King’s public lecture on February 1st, at 6.30pm, in the Round Room of Mansion House in Dublin. Prof King, who is vice-chancellor of Aston University, in England, will explain how technology could reduce carbon emissions from road transport. Climate Change and agriculture is the theme of the next talk, on March 15th, by Wendy Mann of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The series is run by the Environmental Protection Agency. Book on 01-2898533.

Ecoweb

edenproject.com

Explore this global garden, in a disused clay mine in Cornwall, and perhaps be inspired by its new youth arts projects.