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.

Today we report on a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that predicts that by 2070 about €25 billion in assets — buildings, transport and utilities infrastructure — will be susceptible to flooding in Dublin. The OECD warns that up to 45,000 people may be affected directly.

The unmanageable floods we saw in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina come to Fairview and Clontarf in Dublin, Salthill in Galway, all along the Shannon estuary right into the heart of Limerick as well as Cobh, Crosshaven and, essentially, Cork city centre.

Yet, we continue to book weekend Christmas shopping trips to New York. Yet we continue to light up our houses for no reason other than to show off our Celtic tiger trophies.

The OECD report is not the only one to remind us about the elephant festering in the corner this morning.

A survey compiled as part of Science Week Ireland describes us as a nation of “bluffers” in the fight against global warming. It records that only one in four people would even think about taking fewer foreign holidays to reduce their carbon footprint. Amazingly an ostrich-like majority, 75%, said it was up to the airlines to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Only one in five knew what their carbon footprint is. More people know their cholesterol level or what their daily calorie intake is.

The communal leadership, diligence and ambition required has been absent. Nowhere can this be seen better than the acceptance of the ESB’s pathetically unambitious plans for renewable energy. The state-owned body “hopes” to supply the country with up to 4.5% of our energy needs through renewables by 2020. A serious government would have insisted that a far more ambitious target be reached. By accepting this target the Government has endorsed a totally inadequate response in a country that imports 90% of its energy.

A third report this morning confirms that we are “bluffers” of the suicidal kind. When Indaver applied for permission for waste incinerators in the Cork harbour area in 2003 it believed that a plant capable of dealing with 100,000 tonnes of municipal waste a year would meet the region’s needs. In a new application it will suggest that figure be revised to 140,000 tonnes. So much for reducing waste.

These reports describe a level of complacency that reflects a lazy, indifferent society. We are already paying a heavy price for ignoring a well-flagged economic crisis; are we going to do the same on climate change?