Letters

Urgent action on climate

Many pensions are used to fund fossil fuels

Tue Mar 28 2023 - 02:15

Sir, – The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report made for stark reading (“Ireland’s stuttering climate performance brought into focus by IPCC report”, News, March 21st).

Wealthy countries such as Ireland have been called on to “defuse the climate time bomb”. Mary Robinson has warned that without drastic action, we will get to a point where people won’t be able to live.

In the wake of these fire and brimstone predictions, ordinary people are wondering what they can do, how they can help. It can be a hard question to answer when a handful of huge global organisations are responsible for generating the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, and fossil fuel companies are unchecked as they continue to explore new sites to drill for oil and frack for gas.

Something hardly anyone is talking about is money; that is, the money a regular person has in the bank, or tied up in a pension or other investment fund. This money is not sitting there passively but is being used to fund exactly the fossil fuel infrastructure and exploration that is detrimental to our survival on Earth.

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I’m leading a grassroots campaign, Divest Ireland, which sprang up in 2023 from the One Future Ireland network, and is trying to spread awareness of this issue.

While most people in Ireland may not be able to afford to switch their diesel car to an electric one yet, anyone who has pension savings of any size can make a difference.

Divest Ireland is asking them to start a conversation, with their employer and/or pension provider, about divestment of these funds from fossil fuels and provision of sustainable fund options.

We need to start asking questions and using our consumer power to demand change. This is how the tide will turn.

By the end of 2023 the Government aims to introduce a scheme to automatically enrol all workers in a pension fund. Without the provision of sustainable fund options, billions of Irish euros will continue to fund the fossil fuel industry, and thus the continued pillaging of Earth’s precious resources. This would be a disaster and can still be avoided. – Yours, etc,

DR JANE O’HARA,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Climate change represents the greatest existential threat to life on Earth since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The difference with climate change is that, unlike the case of the dinosaurs, the metaphorical asteroid headed our way is of our own making and we have had plenty of advance notice that it is headed our way.

We may well be the last generation who can prevent runaway climate change.

If we do not address this problem in the near future, virtually the entire scientific community predicts that the consequences for life on Earth as we know it will be catastrophic, and irreversibly so in some circumstances.

What kind of species, knowing that it is destroying its only home, knowing how to prevent this and possessing the means to do so, continues on its path of destruction?

Homo sapiens – the “wise man”, apparently. Surely we – the species of Einstein, da Vinci, Shakespeare, Darwin and Bach – can do better than this? – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.