TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR MIDLANDS
SCENARIO 1: Fields of Gold (National scenario: THE SOW OF LIBERTY)
Article in the “Midlands Leader”, 15 th July 2030
During the past two decades, globalised industrialisation has spearheaded the drive towards a
new era of privatisation, deregulation and integrated market forces in Ireland. However, a
legacy of smoke-belching, sewage-spilling plants has been left behind. Looking over the sheer
size of the legacy, a realisation is materialising in which awareness and positive action becomes
paramount to divert this massive threat against humanity. Indeed, who becomes the forerunner
and innovative leader in environmental economics? Surprisingly, during the mid 2010s, the
Midlands gateway emerges as the founding region of the agri-industrial revolution, exploding
onto the commercial scene in Ireland. The region finds a completely different way of taking,
making, using and consuming in the world.
At the beginning of the 21 st Century, the Midlands are lagging behind the rest of the country in
terms of innovative, industrial and environmental development. Employment is at an all time
low as citizens of the Athlone-Tullamore-Mullingar (ATM) gateway flee to the East to benefit
from better job opportunities and higher salaries and a better quality of life. Clustering of
activities and businesses is seen as the right solution to create knowledge networks and attract
industries to this region. The Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) Regional Authority, later to
be replaced, begins to realise the value of truly embracing the sustainability concept as opposed
to continuing the ideal as political mantra and consequently, goes on to promote the creation of
a sustainable economic “cash cow” model which would ultimately give rise to improvements in
the area.
The neo agri-industrial era begins with the sharp decline of the areas’ natural resources, in
2012. A sobering reality at the time is that it is necessary to create an alternative solution to
what could possibly turn out to be a major catastrophe. By 2013, a farmer, Joe Brown, and a
chemist, Dr. Martin Smith with the financial support of Enterprise Ireland, join forces to design a
new and greener-economic agenda for the Midlands. What happen next is to change the face of
the Midlands forever. The development of their latest patented technology in bio-fuel
manufacturing with innovation and security of supply being their core guiding principles, leads
to the explosive economic development of the region. What cemented this expansion further
was the opening of four major ‘Biomill’ facilities in the region by 2015.
The company ‘Biomill’ becomes the global market leader in the bio-fuels sectors, producing
bioethanol and biogas while competing in an extremely globalised and charged marketplace.
The resultant global success of the company leads to a highly advanced logistical infrastructure
being developed by 2015, where industrial pipes are laid down in the region and extend straight
to the national ports of the East, West and South of the country in order to export their fuels
around the world. Subsequently, carbon credits are now being exported across Europe, and a
cluster of energy research and development agencies begin to appear throughout the Midlands.
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