Irish Examiner view: Willful ignorance the biggest threat to dealing with climate crisis 

Report shows the world is not averting climate collapse

A man watches as wildfires approach Kochyli beach near Limni village on the island of Evia, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Athens, Greece. A new massive United Nations science report is reporting on the impact of global warming due to humans. Picture: AP Photo/Thodoris Nikolaou

Athens may be the first European capital threatened with devastation by climate collapse but it will not be the last.

As Greeks flee from fires razing the fringes of their ancient capital, tourists have been evacuated from beaches in southwestern Turkey, where wildfires rage. At least six people have lost their lives in those fires. These are just two instances of the fires garrotting our world.

Other capitals, like ours, must contemplate the impact of rising sea levels.

Today, UN researchers will publish their strongest statement yet on climate change. It will detail significant changes and warn that we must dramatically curb methane emissions.

This report has been previewed over recent days and though its conclusions are harrowing, some reactions to those reports are even more so. They suggest that averting climate change will be, just like containing the pandemic, far more difficult than it should be because of misinformation, disinformation, and weaponised ignorance.