HEART BEAT:Doubts over global warming remain, even if they get readers all hot and bothered, writes Maurice Neligan.
THE BAROMETER has resumed its downward march and the rain and wind are unremitting. I have an uneasy feeling that this summer may be a carbon copy of last year. I feel sympathy with those folk being transmitted around the Ring of Kerry on coach tours; as of today they could see little of the spectacular scenery. I can scarcely see across the estuary back towards the Ring. It is definitely a day when one has a licence to be lazy.
It has been an interesting week. I have a clear conscience on Lisbon. I voted yes, but I can readily understand why many folk did not. I don't know what happens next. Would a referendum across all 27 states be possible? This would refute or confirm that resistance to the treaty is widespread and not just confined to the perverse Paddies. Then we would all know and subsequent action would be based on an unequivocal democratic mandate.
The debate, however, has been sidelined by more pressing domestic issues. We seem to be now officially in recession. I heard somebody recently allude to the Celtic Lemmings who followed the good times without ever pausing to wonder if the cliff edge was near. They would be akin to the Celtic Ostrich who pretended it wasn't happening.
Smugly, I claim a clear conscience here also. I have been writing about this probability for over five years. It gives me no pleasure to see this unpleasant situation come to pass. I would much rather have been wrong. This is the more galling in that the fruits of our undoubtedly good times, however germinated, have been squandered, leaving disastrous legacies in health, education and basic infrastructure.
Now, seemingly, we are being asked to believe that those whose lack of foresight, or even indifference to the clearly discernible consequences of their actions, are the very people best qualified to lead us back to firmer ground. I have some difficulty with this proposition.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye
Now wherefore stoppst thou me?"
( The Rime of the Ancient Marinerby Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
I'll tell you why I was stopped. I had the temerity to cast a little doubt on the latest sacred cow, ie global warming. I am sceptical about many aspects of this and the rolling waves of orthodoxy that seek to engulf us all. Apparently, I am heretical, although I am comforted by the thought that they don't burn heretics any more as that would only contribute further to such warming. However, there are other ways to put the recalcitrant in place.
A writer to this paper referred to my poor understanding of this issue and characterised my poor utterances as "pub talk". I had not heard this phrase for many years. It used to be a favourite of my late mother. I don't know why I assumed the writer castigating me was some sage weighed with age, knowledge and experience.
This kind soul, while acknowledging that I may have been okay as a surgeon, goes on to warn me "that future generations may not be grateful to those who use their influence to obstruct necessary behavioural change to reduce our carbon emissions. The cost of getting it wrong is too great to trivialise this subject".
He then goes on to solemnly warn me that "the future of the human species on earth is at stake". Bless my soul, I didn't realise that one little column could consign us all to oblivion. However, there was a hint of "betwixt the stirrup and the ground, mercy was sought and mercy found". All was not lost, the writer sincerely hopes "that I will acquaint myself better with this topic in the hope that he will revisit it in a future column and undo the damage he has caused".
Wow, I didn't realise I laboured under the delusion that the readers of this newspaper were mature enough to make up their own minds on issues like this. They will know that this irresponsible columnist is very far from being alone in harbouring legitimate doubts concerning this topic. I dare say that many would feel that changing light bulbs, banning bonfires and corking cows are pathetic, indeed banal answers, to the perceived problem.
Freedom of thought and opinion, speech and expression are fundamentals held dear by all. So back to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
"Hold off! Unhand me greybeard loon!"
I'll do my own little thing.
Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon