A studio based themed night of interviews and features designed to create debate and inform the public on the future of energy policy in Ireland, and the world
It is surprising how little Irish people really know about one of the most pressing issues facing every individual on the planet. This show is designed to show Irish people the role they play in what is evolving into a global catastrophe. The features and debates will be designed to localise and dramatise all contemporary statistics and buzzwords.
The participation of the audience at home and the live studio audience is an essential part of the night’s events. As such, there will be a massive build-up in all areas of the media with a view to creating content and talking points for the show.
Classrooms, work places and homes will be invited to campaign for why their particular place is relevant enough to be featured on the show. There will also be a competition for the best one-minute short feature sent in by the public that highlights the problems at hand.
Comments from the audience at home will be played out on screen. The audience will also be allowed to vote on various issues and be involved in an online quiz to see how much they actually know about the issues at hand.
The show will open with an introduction by the three main presenters, laying out the nights schedule and the shocking facts that make this such a central issue. The show will be hooked up to the national grid, and the home audience will be asked to turn off all non-essential appliances and at the end of the night the amount of energy saved will be worked out.
The night will be laced with a ‘Painful Facts’ feature, highlighting simple facts and statistics, as well as addressing the small things the average person could do to make a difference, such as driving under 80 k/p/h, something which could save us billions. There will be a Top Ten energy tips and products. All of these are designed to create an event, to sensationalise the issues and to bring the topics homes to the audience.
The big issues of the night will be dealt with through informative and emotive features, and each will be followed by powerful studio debate between all the main players, the individual presenters and the audience. Firstly, David McWilliams presents ‘The Energy Story’ - a history of how the global energy industry evolved into its current shape.
Next, Eddie Hobbs takes a look at the massive increase in production and consumption in Ireland in ‘The Celtic Consumer’, followed by Ray D’Arcy’s ‘The Energy Guzzlers’, a report on the how much the average Irish person, household, classroom and workplace consumes.
Following the break for the news, all of the guests will form a panel to answer the questions posed by the home audience online and over the phone. Diarmuid Garvin then road tests all viable alternative energy sources in ‘Far Away Hills’ and Duncan presents ‘Polluter Extraordinaire’, highlighting the environmental impact of energy policy on a national and global scale.
Mark Little investigates the link between energy needs, global conflict and corruption in ‘The Energy Wars’ and Miriam O’Callaghan’s ‘Peakoil’ looks at the importance of the oil industry, and the future problems and advantages of its inevitable decline
Guests will include Minister Noel Dempsey, Andris Piebalgs (EU Energy Commissioner), Professor John Fitzgerald (Research Professor, Energy Policy Research Centre), Walt Patterson (Senior Research Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs), David Taylor (Chief Executive, Sustainable Energy Ireland) and Aubrey Meyer (Director, Global Commons Institute (climate change)).
The night will be rounded up with the results of various polls and the winners of the Top Ten energy saving products from the online quiz. The most important feature of the night will be the last - ‘You Control Climate Change’.
Most of the information dispensed during the night is freely available to the public, yet it remains misunderstood and passed over. The public need to know the facts because they are the marketplace and as such, they do indeed control climate change. This will be central message and purpose of the night.
[...] The Big Energy Question 1 [...]