Taking action on climate crisis: Delay makes challenge all the greater

Ireland’s tourism sector is on the crest of a wave. It had a record year in 2018. More than 300,000 people were employed in the industry, generating billions in revenue and almost €2bn in various taxes. Turnover hit more than €6bn, a 10% increase over 2017. Visitor numbers topped 11m, a 6% increase in a year. In purely business terms, these figures are spectacular and should be celebrated. But, like everything in life, it may not be that simple, that cut-and-dried. Viewed through the Greta Thunberg prism, tourism is one of the industries contributing significantly to our climate crisis. There is, unfortunately, a diehard constituency that scoffs before disengaging, once Greta Thunberg’s name is mentioned. Maybe they should look beyond the random, challenging figurehead and consider the science.

Just yesterday, the World Meteorological Organisation reported that levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere have reached another record high. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main gas driving global warming, reached highs of 407.8 parts per million in 2018, up from 405.5 parts per million in 2017, the UN body records. Concentrations of other greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide, also surged by higher amounts in 2018 than in the past decade. WMO secretary-general, Petteri Taalas, warned: “We need to translate the commitments into action and increase the level of ambition, for the sake of the future welfare of mankind.”