Irish Examiner View: Hard choices

Climate crisis

In recent days, an IFA claim that the damage caused by methane emissions from cows might have been overestimated was followed by a swift rebuttal from climate scientists. Picture: Larry Cummins

There will be many bumps on the road ahead as we try to act on the code-red warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that human-induced climate change is ravaging our planet.

In recent days, an IFA claim that the damage caused by methane emissions from cows might have been overestimated was followed by a swift rebuttal from climate scientists. It’s a perfect illustration of the kind of heated exchanges that lie ahead as we try to take the action needed to implement immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.