Mick Clifford: Politics strays from the path of science

A reduction in carbon tax was the most popular measure that people selected in a recent poll on how to alleviate the cost of living crisis. If the first reaction is to call a halt to a major plank in the battle against climate change at the first sign of trouble, what hope is there for the rest?

Protesters gather ing at Grand Parade, Cork, for a ‘Fridays for Future’ climate action and climate justice global protest last year. Science and politics are operating from different planets on climate change. More often than not, politicians’ instincts tell them that there may be an electoral cost to measures that are simply not worth paying.

Can politics keep following the science? For two years during an existential crisis politics in this country followed the science. Now, facing another potentially more catastrophic crisis, a question arises as to whether politics is capable of stomaching the science.