Pádraig Hoare: We cannot bury our heads in the sand - action on climate change is long overdue
Climate Activist Beth Doherty from Fingal outside Leinster House following the announcement of the first instalment of the IPCC's sixth assessment report.
In 1945, the relief at the end of the conflict that had ravaged a world was temporary. For there lay an even greater and more daunting challenge ahead. Impossible even, to most eyes.
At the conclusion of World War II, how could millions of refugees be given shelter, where would the homes come from to give the displaced, where was the steel and other valuable commodities to rebuild decimated railways and ports, where were the crops to feed starving populations?
In the end, governments and people of the world rose to the gravest of challenges, and post-war reconstruction and solid planning gave rise to economic miracles and a European community that would largely put war and conflict behind it.
Granted, fossil fuel and carbon-intensive industry was intrinsic to meeting the challenge, but the logical next step of progression is to extricate ourselves from such helpless dependence on unsustainable practices.
In many ways, the insidious and surreptitious nature of climate change has crept up on us, despite vocal dire warnings from scientists and environmental campaigners in recent decades.
Perhaps we just didn't want to see it or hear it. That's immaterial now, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has shown. Damage has been done, it is irreversible, but at least it has not yet metastasized into a fatal condition.
‘You [IPCC] have been telling us for over three decades of the dangers of allowing the planet to warm. The world listened, but it didn’t hear… As a result, #climatechange is a problem that is here, now.’@UNEP’s @andersen_inger on the release of the #IPCC’s #ClimateReport. pic.twitter.com/kKkzpYlixC
— IPCC (@IPCC_CH) August 9, 2021
An international effort to reconstruct a slow-burning world is now needed along the lines of post-war reconstruction, before the world's population of humans, animals, and biodiversity is set on an irretrievable downward trajectory.
That means changing the way we have lived for decades, coming to terms with the change that is coming, and accepting things cannot go on as normal.
We cannot leave our leaders off the hook - we must demand action, lest we leave our descendants a shameful legacy of frozen intransigence.
Last year, our General Election showed a desire for change, with traditionally apathetic political parties compelled to bring green credentials to the table.
The Climate Bill has been a welcome step, but it is no panacea. Citizens must collectively demand results and perpetual action to be taken. We must lobby and cajole, at local and national level, and be heard internationally.
The onus is not just on the population at large and those who govern us. We in the media, along with the scientists and activists who dedicate their lives to the cause, must do a much better job in relaying the message.
This reporter has often been crestfallen at reader engagement gauged from datasets. People just really don't want to read about climate change, I thought. But that is me shirking my responsibility. I have to get better at sharpening the messaging, at telling the stories, at examining the evidence. We all do.
Start by soaking up knowledge from those who know it best, like following campaigning journalist John Gibbons on Twitter, or UCC climate change and energy expert Dr Hannah Daly, or Dr Tara Shine from Change By Degrees. For all its dreadful faults, social media can be hugely informative.
Was asked on @eastcoastfm just now what is most important thing we as individuals can do to address #climate crisis
— John Gibbons 🇵🇸 (@think_or_swim) August 9, 2021
My answer: get political, irrespective of who you vote for. Force your politicians to make it their top priority. They will listen if we, the voters, demand #IPCC
Taking Cork as a microcosm of what is at stake and what can be done, look at the progress of cycle lanes in the past two years. Thanks to relentless campaigning by passionate local activists in Cork, what seemed impossible until recently is now a reality - sharing roads between motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians has been transformative in places.
It is still not perfect, there is much still to criticise about the infrastructure, but they aren't stopping in their desire for a better world.
It is our fear of change that largely holds us back, according to Dr Shine.
"I think most people would want the future to be safe, and if that means making some changes to our lives that are going to be good for us in the short-term too - they will make our air cleaner, make us fitter, make us more connected to our communities, create new kind of jobs for people - then why would we not do it?"
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