Our environment - A righteous voice and example

YESTERDAY, as Met Éireann told us that Valentia Island has enjoyed the warmest winter since records began in 1892, two other significant events took place and a milestone was passed.

Environment Minister John Gormley urged our EU partners to be more ambitious in setting targets to cut CO2 emissions. He suggested a target of 30% rather than the proposed 20% by the 2020 deadline.

Though the programme for government sets a target of 3% a year — which would surpass Mr Gormley’s target — the 30% proposal has upset his government partners, some of whom, including Finance Minister Brian Cowen, baulked at the implications of even a 20% target. Indeed, Mr Cowen has said Ireland will fight to have the 20% threshold cut.

The second event was the report for the European Environment Agency which pointed out that the transport sector will have to accept rigorous measures to help Europe meet its greenhouse gas emission targets. Worryingly, despite technological advances, the movement of goods is becoming less efficient and freight transport is growing at a faster pace than the economy.

The EEA warned transport policy must confront this. “If transport, and particularly road transport, had followed the trends of other economic sectors, we could... have met our Kyoto targets several years ago,” they said. By not planning quickly or comprehensively enough we are avoiding our responsibilities.

Yesterday’s milestone was the transmission of the last episode of Life In Cold Blood, the final installment in the last series of made-on-site documentaries from the man who never avoided his responsibilities.

David Attenborough has done more than possibly anyone alive to make us aware of our environment and the impact of our behaviour. He has been making films for 54 years, and though he will make further programmes, including a life of Darwin, his days of swinging on vines under a jungle canopy to interview colobus monkeys or humming birds are, at 81, over.

However, his life’s work has influenced hundreds of thousands of people and awoke latent concerns about our place in the world. It is not far-fetched to suggest that Attenborough influenced many, many peopleinvolved in politics or government because they believe that profound cultural change is needed if we are to sustain ourselves and offer our children a world no poorer that the one we inherited.

It is unlikely that another human being will ever again see the range of species Attenborough saw, so many of them will have become extinct. Another achievement is that more people now know more about animals that ever before, despite being less in touch with the natural world than any previous generation.

Judaism has a phrase that it uses to honour non-Jews who worked to save Jews during World War II. They are called “righteous gentiles”. Oskar Schindler, made famous by Schindler’s List, was one.

David Attenborough is certainly a righteous gentile, though he spent his life is trying to save all of us — and all of nature — from ourselves.

Now, if we could only get him to take our taoiseach-in-waiting for a pint and get him to understand the extent of the problem facing us and think beyond the next election.