Irish Examiner view: Taking away the car keys

Unlike Joe Biden, ordinary people in their 80s do not have their fingers on the nuclear button

US president Joe Biden and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington. 

Here in Ireland, protected by the triple lock and the constitutional commitment to neutrality, it is tempting to take only an academic interest in Nato, the mutual-defence organisation that was established 75 years ago this week in Washington. Tempting, but foolishly short-sighted.

As leaders of the 32 nations — including the US, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Italy, Spain, and Turkey — that comprise the alliance gathered in Washington, much of the political attention has been on the mental vigour and acuity of the incumbent US president, Joe Biden.

After close scrutiny by his allies on Thursday night, Mr Biden faced another high-stakes moment, when he engaged with reporters in an unscripted news conference at the end of the three-day summit.

Mr Biden has held fewer news conferences during his term than any president since Ronald Reagan.

Other than the interview with ABC, this was his first solo appearance since that rocky debate in Atlanta more than two weeks ago.

It can’t be said that he passed with flying colours, wrongly introducing Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as “President Putin”, and fluffing a reference to his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

For ordinary people in their 80s, these would not be horrendous slips. 

Ordinary people do not have their fingers on the nuclear button.

But what will happen if the Democrats lose the next election in November is an issue.

It is causing furrowed brows in chancelleries, presidential palaces, and parliaments around the world.

Because although Donald Trump often talks nonsense, there is one matter on which he is partially correct: When it comes to defence, much of the rest of the West is not paying its way.

In Donald Trump’s last year in office, just nine Nato countries spent the target 2% of their national economies on their armed forces.

While Mr Biden has proclaimed Nato “the bulwark for global security”, Mr Trump has warned that he would not support “delinquent” underspending members if they were attacked by Russia, thereby destroying Article V of the treaty, which regards an attack on one nation as an attack on them all.

The irony is that Mr Biden, unlike his blustering predecessor, has overseen a significant increase in spending by members.

In Mr Trump’s last year in office, just nine Nato countries spent the target 2% of their national economies on their armed forces.

Since Mr Biden entered the White House that has grown to 23 countries. He also oversaw the incorporation of two highly important countries, Sweden and Finland.

In these efforts, the illegal and brutal war waged by Vladimir Putin has helped to concentrate minds, although there is plenty of evidence that many politicians and the public still underestimate the threat posed by the Kremlin’s rogue behaviour, the worrying signs of acquiescence from China and India, and support from the usual suspects, such as Iran and North Korea.

Earlier in the week, in a communique approved by all 32 leaders, Nato broke with tradition and called out China for becoming “a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine”.

China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation”, the declaration said.

It also blamed China for “malicious cyber and hybrid activities, including disinformation” aimed at the US and Europe.

The scaling-up of international rhetoric may be followed by more sweeping commercial sanctions against Beijing.

In a time of tension, democracies require stability and consistency of leadership.

The basic question this weekend is whether his friends on other continents believe that can be provided by Joe Biden.

Many people will have had to tell an aged relative that it is time to hand over the car keys. That moment is not far away for the president of the US.

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Why the Irish still have the write stuff

Everyone has their own golden age, or so it’s said. And when it comes to literature, we in this country have been spoiled by the riches placed before us.

The 1920s are often considered the apogee of Irish writing, in terms of creativity and imagination. And it would be a brave person to gainsay the claims of WB Yeats, Shaw, Joyce, Sean O’Casey, Elizabeth Bowen, and others.

And that’s without considering the Irish impact on the United States’ output of the last century.

But there are equally pressing claims for the modern generation — and the arguments for and against can form a useful debate for visitors to the ever-welcoming West Cork Literary Festival, which opened yesterday in Bantry.

The eye-catching programme includes sessions with Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, Irvine Walsh, David Nicholls, Paul Lynch, and actress Miriam Margolyes, the highest-priced ticket on the programme.

Miriam Margoyles will feature as part of the festival. File picture: Simon Schluter

Netflix and all the streaming platforms, with their massive appetites for content, provide useful incomes for our authors. But nothing beats reading the original, or meeting the writers. That’s why the festival remains, as it has for years, one of the best events of the summer.

Two years from now, it will be celebrating its 30th anniversary, a considerable achievement and testimony to much hard work from its organisers and volunteers. It deserves your support and encouragement this week. And buy a few books while you are there.

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We’re going to need a bigger boat

When we consider literary merit, as visitors to Bantry will over the next week, there will not be many who consider Peter Benchley’s blockbuster as a stylistic classic.

However, what we can say about Jaws, published 50 years ago, is that it is a fine example of a compelling page-turner which captured the imagination of the public. It has sold more than 20m copies. Steven Spielberg’s movie adaptation grossed more than €500m when it reached cinemas in June 1975.

We commented yesterday that this goes some way to explain the general interest in this week’s news that there is to be major research into the expanding territory of the great white shark and whether climate change is encouraging it to enter Irish waters.

However, another, newly published, study on the domestic impact of global warming provides a much more tangible reason to make us shiver.

Findings released by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) demonstrate that hotter weather in Ireland caused a surge in people admitted to hospital as they suffered in higher temperatures — and will lead to many more deaths in the coming decades.

Between 2015 and 2019, emergency hospital admissions for temperature-affected diseases and ailments were 8.5% higher on hot days when mercury hit 22C-25C compared to moderate temperature days at 10C-13C.

The largest increases in hospitalisations on hot days were seen for circulatory, respiratory, and infectious diseases.

Between 2015 and 2019, emergency hospital admissions for temperature-affected diseases and ailments were 8.5% higher on hot days.

For the hottest days when temperatures exceed 25C, results showed potential evidence of adaptive behaviour, especially among older people, suggesting that advance notice of very warm days can help people to change their habits.

Under the most pessimistic forecast, Ireland could experience 1,400 additional deaths per annum by the end of this century. Even with maximum benefit reaped from climate mitigation, excess mortality is projected to be 483.

This is chilling news not only for families, but for health planners and politicians, and very relevant data for Irish delegates to carry into the Cop29 climate conference which is being held in the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, this November.

That 11-day session will focus on the need to strengthen the financial plans required to bring about meaningful change and to ensure that the private commercial and trade sectors commit to climate action.

ESRI associate professor Anne Nolan said: “We find evidence that higher temperatures increase hospitalisation rates significantly. These results emphasise the need for policymakers in moderate-climate countries, including Ireland, to implement adaptive measures and increase capacity to accommodate the higher hospital demand from higher temperatures, especially during the summer months.” Peter Benchley put it another way when he penned his blockbuster: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”