Irish Examiner View: Climate crisis denial makes us all cranks

Firefighters watch the Bear Fire approach in Oroville, California, last week. Picture: AP

Something short of 2,000 people marched through Dublin on Saturday afternoon protesting against health measures designed to contain the pandemic. Many carried the Irish flag, others carried banners urging us to “take off your mask”. 

Others still, offering a degree of certainty unusual even among the world's top scientists fighting the pandemic, assured us that C19 is no more than "a common cold”. Those protestors may not be the only people unsure about some C19 advice but the vast majority of people are, nevertheless, willing to hedge their bets by wearing a mask - hardly a Stalinesque denial of the liberties Connolly and Pearse died to secure for us all.

It is tempting to dismiss the Dubin protestors as cranks even if they were doing no more than asserting their right to free speech - one of the great privileges Connolly, Pearse and their colleagues did die for.  The protestors, unintentionally, performed a great public service. 

Their contrarian, awkward views, their denial of the science demands that we at least review our position to today's science on epoch-defining issues.

Does our response to accelerating climate change suggest we are all cranks? Alternatively, are we prepared to make the hard choices that science demands around this era's greater issue? 

Will our grandchildren eventually judge us all as delusional sentimentalists  - or worse - because we, metaphorically, refuse to wear a climate collapse mask?

As anti-mask protestors converged on Dublin's Custom House, Oregon officials warned of possible “mass fatality incidents” as they searched homes razed by the wildfires sweeping swathes of America's northwest. The firestorms, among the most ferocious on record in California or Oregon, were driven by high winds that swept the region just as record temperatures were recorded. 

Scientists say global warming has contributed to extremes in wet and dry seasons, causing vegetation to flourish then dry out, leaving tinderbox wildfire fuel. 

Some of those scientists, if they are numbered among those warning of climate change for nearly half a century now, might hiss a "we told you this was coming" frustration under their breath. 

That frustration will not be assuaged by the arrival of climate denier in chief President Donald Trump in the Californian state capital of Sacramento today. However, his Democratic rival Joe Biden struck a more realistic note when he said there was “no challenge more consequential to our future than meeting and defeating the onrushing climate crisis”.

A report this morning from the Irish Wind Energy Association is a reminder that this urgency applies here too. The IWEA warns that we will miss 2030 climate targets because of what they describe as a "broken planning system". 

This morning, Minister @EamonRyan met representatives from solar, wind and community projects across the country to discuss the first #RESS 1 auction results and the road ahead for #RenewableEnergy https://t.co/s9kfMFtKsg pic.twitter.com/tfh0RlPtzS

— Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (@DeptCEE) September 11, 2020

Despite that Ireland has the highest share of electricity demand met by onshore wind in the world, supplying almost 37% of our electricity over the first six months of the year. 

This puts the country on track to reach our 2020 target of 40% renewable electricity. The Climate Action Plan set a new target of 70% by 2030.

Though the IWEA describes our planning system as "broken" it is the only protection communities have against inappropriate wind developments. 

That stands even in a country where the need to switch to renewable energy is deeply understood and where developments in offshore wind projects are almost universally welcome.  

That 70% by 2030 target must be realised but offshore wind should be the major contributor to that achievement.  

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB