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We can learn a few things from the Irish. No, I’m not talking about the laudable contributions of Irish literature, music, peace in Northern Ireland, their economic miracle or even all the fuss about saving civilization. We can learn from practical and successful Irish approaches to greening the Emerald Isle.

Twenty years ago the principal Irish export was its people. A whopping 20 percent unemployment rate forced the Irish to leave in search of opportunity. Today, while many of its neighbors restrict immigration, Ireland has opened its labor markets; and English, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Chinese and Nigerian workers are helping power the Irish economic boom. The Celtic Tiger has been the envy of Europe. A fine educational system and high productivity rates attract substantial foreign direct investment.

But as economic growth rates, employment and prosperity have soared in Ireland, so have consumption, construction and environmental degradation. Municipal waste increased 65 percent since 1995. Urban development grew 31 percent between 1990 and 2000. Water quality in coastal areas suffered. Suddenly the Emerald Isle was not so green.

In a country with a vibrant tourism sector, environmental downturns have economic as well as health and ascetic consequences. So the Irish got busy not only managing the mountains of waste but trying to prevent them. In the United States we focus on recycling, while the Irish focus on reduction. The This article appears in March 3 2008.

Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Politics Department of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is also a Fellow at the Commission on International Religious Freedom. She teaches graduate and undergraduate International Relations courses at Catholic University and the Pentagon, such as Security, Just Peace, Terrorism, Globalization, and The Problem of Sovereignty. Her recent books include Beyond Sovereignty: Issues for a Global Agenda (4th Edition, 2010), Morality Matters: Ethics and the War on Terrorism (forthcoming at Cornell University Press), and "What Kind of Peace Do We Seek?" a chapter on peacebuilding to appear in Notre Dame University's volume on The Ethics and Theology of Peacebuilding. She serves on the U.S. Catholic Bishops' International Justice and Peace Committee, the Advisory Board of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, and the board of Jesuit Refugee Services.

Dr. Love lives on the Chesapeake Bay outside of Washington, DC, with her husband Richard and three young children, Maria, Ricky and Ava, who inspired her New York Times best-selling children's books, You Are My I Love You, You Are My Miracle, You Are My Wish, and Sleep, Baby, Sleep.