Ignoring the obvious - Sleepwalking towards a disaster

JUST as those who, over the past five years, warned that we were sleepwalking towards economic catastrophe were derided or silenced, those who warn us that climate change will have a profound impact are being largely ignored.

Just as we might have wished to believe former taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he sneered at the “naysayers” and wondered “how they can get out of bed in the morning” as he assured us that “the fundamentals are sound”, we might wish to believe climate change has nothing to do with us.

It is doubtful that anyone with the perception of a cockatoo believed Mr Ahern. It is implausible that anyone with the perception of a half-witted cockatoo can honestly believe that climate change has nothing to do with them. Yet, we persist in imagining that childish, half-hearted measures will confront what Obama Barack has acknowledged as one of the great issues of our time.