Contested bogs in Ireland: a viewpoint on climate change responsiveness in local culture

in: Grit Martinez, Culture and climate resilience, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 69-95

ISBN: 978-3-030-58402-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58403-0_5
Information

This case deals with the intertwined societal questions of the bogs in the Irish Midlands. The case is a version of a world-wide tension between existing industrial structures and contemporary requirements for greening the economy, and especially of the inequal spatial division of its impact. Could culture and cultural activities help us to find alternative community-based solutions to cope with the impacts of climate-change mitigation? The article illustrates a two-phase adaptation to changing environmental conditions and expectations. The first phase is the state-level response of the Irish government to climate-change and the requirements of the EU-directives partially at the expense of the local communities depending on the bogs economically (peat-industry, turf-users). The second phase is the local response to the state-level actions and what have local cultures to do with it.