I glanced over several other people’s blogs this week and found that some people were choosing a specific country and analyzing its ecological footprint – the causes, explanations, etc.  I thought that it would be a disservice to motherland if I didn’t at least look at the data regarding Ireland’s ecological footprint.  Upon reading more about the data, I couldn’t help but write about it for my blog post.

Before reading about Ireland’s ecological footprint, I had some preconceived notions: The Irish are a relatively environmentally friendly people.  The grass is green, the people are understanding, and nation is overall pretty healthy in comparison to the rest of our planet.

I was wrong.  Ireland’s in trouble.  We’re all in trouble.

.(Global Footprint Network)

Ireland’s ecological footprint per person is 5.0 gha.  For comparison, the global average is 2.8 gha – and even the global average requires almost 4 earths to be a sustainable number (Global Footprint Network, 2021).  Ireland’s expected overshoot day for this year is April 27th, which ranks well into the top half of earliest overshoot days for any nation (Earth Overshoot Day, 2021). I was shocked and confused when I first read that the old sod, the land in which I consider if nothing else to be in tune with nature and not overcome by technological advances and the evolving world, this same place is nearly twice the global average in terms of sustainability.

But why?

I dug a little deeper into why Ireland is ranked poorly in terms of ecological footprint.  The National Trust of Ireland, An Taisce, claims that Ireland’s mass importation of goods takes a significant toll on the environment.  Specifically, the mass importation of steel and fossil fuels drastically effect and degrade the environment.  Ireland’s an island nation, and naturally many goods must be shipped to the country that cannot be produced there.  Feed for animals and caged fish, plastics, and home goods such as clothes also play a significant factor in the footprint (Cliodhna, 2014).

Overall, Ireland is one of the world’s biggest players in terms of damaging the Earth and consuming its resources.  Despite recent increased attention drawn to problems such as the mounting ecological footprint of Ireland and the world, we as humans continue to consume an unsustainable amount of resources.

Bibliography:

Donnelly, Margaret. “Ireland Has One of the Largest Ecological Footprints.” Agriland.ie, 30 Sept. 2014, www.agriland.ie/farming-news/ireland-one-worst-ecological-offenders/.

Global Footprint Network. Open Data Platform, 2021, data.footprintnetwork.org/#/?

Earth Overshoot Day. “Country Overshoot Days 2020.” Earth Overshoot Day, 25 Jan. 2021, www.overshootday.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/.

Russell, Cliodhna. “International Report Puts Ireland as Bottom of the Class in Global Environmental Ratings.” TheJournal.ie, www.thejournal.ie/global-report-environment-1701766-Oct2014/.