Catherine Conlon: As the lights of planetary ecosystems start to flicker, politicians and global markets refuse to act
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue and meat market consultant Amos Kim at Majang Meat Market in Seoul, South Korea.
As homes and businesses across a number of counties grapple with the impact of unprecedented flooding following record levels of heavy rain, the point at which the planet tips into a new equilibrium draws ever closer.
The research is awash with evidence of what George Monbiot describes as ‘flickering’ — the instability that might suggest we are approaching tipping points that wealthy governments across the globe refuse to acknowledge; as politicians and global markets grapple for what is left of the carbon budget.
A paper in in June suggested that the loss of late summer sea ice is now inevitable and could happen within the next decade. This has serious implications for the weakening of the jet stream.
The melting of sea ice in the Antarctic in the southern hemisphere summer reached an all-time low in 2022 and failed to recover during the following winter. This puts freshwater ice shelves perched above the sea ice at risk of collapse, resulting in a catastrophic rise in global sea levels.
New evidence published this month in suggests that the ecosystem that maintains the Amazon rainforest is now critically threatened by land use and climate change with increasing drought and fire frequency potentially triggering the stalling of monsoon rains that keep the forest alive.
The tropical wetlands and Arctic permafrost are showing signs of approaching a tipping point for runaway climate change with some of these regions showing exceptional surges in greenhouse gas emissions.
This summer has seen record global temperatures — with July documented as the hottest month ever recorded. The evidence suggests that by 2070 a third of the global population could be living in Sahara-like temperatures. Many of the areas most vulnerable to unbearable heat are already politically unstable — risking global political turmoil.
A paper published in in May provides an increasingly alarming picture of animal population trends with almost half (48%) of species in decline.
"Can you see it, yet?" said George Monbiot in . "The point at which our planetary systems tip into a new equilibrium, hostile to most life forms? I think we can."
And still, governments close their eyes and ears.
Unbelievably, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last month announced 27 new North Sea oil and gas licences and is forecasted to use next week’s king’s speech to advance his pro-car policies, in an attempt to strengthen the Conservative vote.
But Ireland is not off the hook. Recent figures showed that two out of three cars sold in the country in 2022 were SUVs, 13% higher than the EU average. SUVs occupy a much larger slice of the percentage of all cars sold in Ireland compared to other European countries such as Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.
Green party MEP, Ciarán Cuffe said SUVs were "frying the planet", and called for new measures to limit SUV sales, including a ban on marketing SUVs and restricted access to town and city centres.
There is no evidence of political consideration being given to either of these suggestions.
There is mounting evidence signalling the benefits of reducing meat consumption to both climate and environment.
Research published by (2021) reported that if we did not eat meat it would be possible to reduce agricultural land from 4bn to 1bn hectares, offering huge benefits to wilderness to provide habitats for wildlife.
New evidence in published in September found that cutting in half the amount of pork, beef, chicken, and milk that humanity consumes could halt net deforestation and other loss of natural lands almost entirely and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use by nearly a third (31%).
In the midst of all of this, the Dublin Declaration was signed in 2022 by over 1,000 scientists in support of meat production and consumption, endorsed by the EU’s agriculture commissioner, and used to exert influence on EU officials on environment and health policies.
The statement has recently been reported to have multiple links to the livestock industry with many of the supporters being researchers in the animal and food sciences.
Livestock is "too precious to become the victim of simplification, reductionism or zealotry. These systems must continue to be embedded in and have broad approval of society," the declaration said.
However, leading environmental scientists view the declaration and associated studies as "propaganda." Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University, Matthew Hayek stated that "the scientific consensus is that we need rapid meat reduction in the regions that can afford that choice."
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and three government ministers are travelling to Korea as part of a high-level trade mission to strengthen ties and open up trade, investment, and education links with a focus on Irish food, beverages, and beef.
The delegation includes Simon Coveney, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue.
"Korea is a market with significant growth potential for Irish agri-food exports. Korean consumers are sophisticated and there is a demand for the high quality, safe, and sustainable agri-goods Irish farmers, fishers, and food processors produce," said Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, prior to the visit.
"This trade mission also provides a valuable opportunity to further progress Ireland’s market access application for beef. The Taoiseach and I will be raising this issue in our engagements with the Korean Government this week."
The repeated claims that Irish agri-goods are sustainable are not supported by the evidence. EPA director-general Laura Burke said last year that from examination of the evidence "the environmental sustainability of the sector as a whole is largely not supported by the evidence. Agriculture needs to be able to validate performance around producing food with low environmental input."
A paper in (2018) reported that pasture-fed beef and lamb have by far the worst climate impacts— three or four times worse than beef and lamb, raised intensively on grain, harmful as this is.
This is because of the lower efficiency of converting grass to protein and the slower growth of pastured animals: the longer they live the more methane released from their stomach and nitrous oxide from their dung. Both are powerful greenhouse gases, significantly contributing to the alarming surge in methane emissions.
Continuing to market Irish agriculture as "sustainable" denies the reality of the impact of grass-fed beef and dairy farming on both climate and biodiversity; and is a serious reputational risk for the agri-food sector in Ireland.
Meanwhile, the remaining carbon budget — the net amount of carbon dioxide humans can still emit to have a 50% chance of staying within 1.5C of global heating — will be exhausted in six years.
At this point, everything counts — what we eat, how often we fly, how much useless tat we consume.
These are the hard facts. The climate emergency and its impacts in terms of intense heat and rainfall, droughts, storms, and the ensuing destruction of homes, businesses, habitats, and lives will not be resolved until we stop fudging the facts on the need for a transformation of the extractive, resource-intensive, meat-heavy, overconsuming, wasteful culture we have grown accustomed to.
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