Sir, – I echo Finn McRedmond’s sensible commentary on climate change and the doom-mongering of the likes of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion (“Greta Thunberg is wrong on one thing –mainstream politicians do care about tackling climate crisis”, Opinion & Analysis, August 10th).
Increasingly, there appears to be a growing backlash against the fight against climate change, arguing it should not be pursued, on grounds of cost, or even to suggest that climate change is not real.
I contend that this growing “denialism” is a direct reaction to the hysterical doom-mongers. I note that, by and large, the doomsters are of the left, while the deniers are of the right.
The more traction the deniers get, via electoral politics, the march towards solving climate change will be at least slowed (if not reversed). If instead of proclaiming doom and demanding outlandish and stupid things, environmental protestors had adopted a more moderate position, supported the good work done to date, and conveyed a positive message, then the deniers would have been easy to dismiss as the cranks, and we would not have to deal with them now. But when everyone is a crank, then no one is.
An Irish businessman in Singapore: ‘You’ll get a year in jail if you are in a drunken brawl, so people don’t step out of line’
Protestants in Ireland: ‘We’ve gone after the young generations. We’ve listened and changed how we do things’
Is this the final chapter for Books at One as Dublin and Cork shops close?
In Dallas, X marks the mundane spot that became an inflection point of US history
Good job, Greta. – Yours, etc,
EVAN BYRNE,
London.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole (“Farmers’ denial of climate reality has been shaped by the parties they support”, Opinion & Analysis, August 8th) notes the climate-change denial evident in the Teagasc National Farm Survey of 2014. The blame, he states, cannot be laid at the door of individual farmers whose attitudes were shaped by the leadership in their representative organisations and by the political parties they support. It suited these parties to pretend that the threat was not climate change but climate action, a menace from which they themselves would defend rural Ireland.
This reminds me of a similar leadership response in the Catholic Church in the early 1970s. At that time the church was struggling for relevance as many of its teachings were being challenged by its increasingly more educated membership. The Vatican II council set up to address the problems promised significant change. All that remained was for church leadership at national level to put the changes into practice.
In response, John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, quickly reassured his people that they would be protected from such change; “no change will worry the tranquillity of your Christian lives” were his words. And so, change was blocked and the power and authority vested in church leadership was protected and continued for a time, until the consequences of this became evident in falling numbers and disappearing relevance.
Climate change is an absolute emergency and needs to be treated as such. This requires active, concentrated leadership across all of our political institutions and representative bodies. One can only hope that, in the nine years since the Teagasc report was published, the critical need for change is now recognised. Obstructive protection of power and influence can no longer be tolerated. – Yours, etc,
J.A. O’GRADY,
Harold’s Cross,
Dublin 6W.