Going green is only wonderful if it’s real

WINTER reveals what was hidden all summer. Three nests in the garden, visible from my workroom window.

I never knew they were there.

One is a bundle of sticks, high up in the fork of an ash tree. I took it for a magpie’s nest, minus the dome, or possibly that of a high-flying grey crow. But this morning, I saw a rook up there, fiddling around with the twigs. Crazy crow, I thought. Is it complete bamboozled by the weather? Somebody told me they thought they’d seen a swallow. Could be. In 2001, I saw one in late December. However, most Irish swallows are on vacation, enjoying the balmy summer in South Africa after months of hard work, rearing a family here. Does one swallow make a summer in Botswana?

I’m sure locals hail the arrival of the halcyon days just as we do. But, of course, summer may not always be welcome in those drought-plagued countries north of the Cape of Good Hope and lush South Africa.

The recent conference on climate change in Nairobi yielded little intervention for Africa, the continent least guilty of atmospheric pollution but the one most likely to suffer as a result. Africans produce an average of 0.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, we Europeans contribute 12 tonnes each and Americans subscribe 20 tonnes per head of population. Scientists say that in Africa there will be more rain where there is already too much, and less where there is already too little.

Some 30% of coastal settlements on the Gulf of Guinea will be drowned, including Lagos, while other huge continent areas will be parched.

However, there is some reason for hope. While the signatories of the Kyoto Protocol (supposed to have been internationally ratified in 1997) still wait for US commitment, it is agreed that they will reconvene in 2008 to act upon the findings of a UN assessment report widely expected to spell out the imminent dangers and how best we can save the planet.

Greenpeace and other environmental watchdogs say, why wait? Let the signatories bring in these measures now, the long-finger approach is half-baked — as will be the planet itself by the time effective steps are taken. Before the protocol runs out in 2012, binding agreements must already be in place to radically cut emissions.

Happily, we, the citizenry, are warming to the issue, and politicians are feeling the heat. Some American states and statesmen — California under Schwarzenegger, for one — are in revolt against Bush’s fossil-fuel-forever and the devil take the hindmost.

On European high streets, the giant retailers are vying for who can appear most “green”.

Some big-money players like Goldman Sachs have pledged not to invest in companies that damage the environment. Now that the debate is no longer “if” but “how” we deal with the biggest problem the earth has ever faced, the environmental movement needs to present solutions, and that means using all the tools available, from farmers’ markets to stock markets.

The shops offer us “green” detergents; “green” home heating; “green” packaging. It’s wonderful, so long as it’s real. But when banks tell us they have a conscience and investment houses tell us they are committed to fair trade, watch out for the spin and “greenwash”. We are the consumers: our bucks ultimately control the markets and our votes control the politicians. Never mind the window-dressing: let’s have the real thing.

At Nairobi, the Russians, whose late ratification of Kyoto made it legally binding (Clinton and Gore, despite the rhetoric, let the Senate veto their vote) proposed that, between now and 2008, signatories can reduce emissions on a voluntary basis. Ireland, having consistently failed to meet its Kyoto targets, could now make amends. In our growing economy, buying carbon credits would be a temporary solution while we urgently clean up our act. Just as we would reject growth based on crime or drug dealing, our Government must reject growth based on the destruction of our planet.

Happily, our behaviour can change fast. In America, in the mid-19th century, whale oil lit 95% of homes. Then, as the whales were wiped out, the price of the oil skyrocketed. In under a decade, fossil fuels replaced whale oil completely and producers ran out of customers before they ran out of whales.

Where there’s a will, especially a political will, there’s a way.

Overnight, paper bags and reusables replaced plastic bags here. In the sea, plastic bags look like squid and I read that a minke whale washed up in Normandy had 800 kilos of plastic bags and packaging in its stomach.

At least, we cannot blame ourselves for that.