Ignoring warnings - ‘Naysayers’ are right on pollution too

WE ALL know the story of the boy who cried wolf too often and, because his neighbours became tired of his warnings, was ignored when it really mattered.

We may have reached that point with warnings about our relentless abuse of the environment, indeed too many of us have already passed it.

Next month’s emergency budget might not have been necessary if concerns surrounding our economy’s utter dependence on construction had not been dismissed as the delusions of the bewildered by the very people now promising remedial measures.

Just as the “naysayers” were right about the economy they are right about the environment. The disheartening and almost daily reports on our dreadful impact on the world around us have left us vulnerable. We are like the neighbours of the boy who cried wolf.

Already this week we heard reiterated warnings not about wetter winters and drier summers but, conversely, summer floods and intensive rain storms. We have been told to expect cyclones of increased intensity and flooding all along the south-east coast.

We have been told that seabirds along our south-west coast are starving and unable to produce enough young to sustain their populations because the fish they depend on for food have disappeared from the sea.

Today we are told again that we have contributed to the destruction of European fish stocks — anchovies are today’s indicator species — and are advised that only certain fish can be eaten with a clear conscience.

We have been told that the north-west passage is, for the first time, navigable to all shipping as the ice cap has retreated to unprecedented limits.

However, this week’s chart topper has to be the commendable RTÉ documentary on our scandalous neglect and abuse of our water supplies. Effectively, we are running out of water in the east of the country and are polluting beyond use the water in the west.

Already we have lost jobs and industries because we cannot guarantee sufficient clean water. Plans for homes and hospitals have been curtailed for the same reason.

Within a few years we will face difficulties we never imagined possible, especially along the heavily populated east coast. The recurring theme of this documentary, shamefully, was official indifference and inaction. Indeed local authorities, either underfunded or ineffective, were at the very root of so many of the problems threatening water security.

It is all well and fine to call emergency budgets to confront a situation that had been brewing — and widely predicted — for several years but would it not have been much better to heed the warnings and take preventative action to try to avert the crisis?

We may just have time to confront some of these environmental issues but unless we change the deep-rooted apathy and culture of dismissing uncomfortable truths — especially if they get in the way of development, forestry or farming — we are heading for disaster. Our Government has been forced into belated action on the economy but surely it is unimaginable that they are going to wait as long before they take meaningful action, no matter how uncomfortable, on the environment and especially on water security?