Irish Examiner view: Small changes add up on emissions

As much sea life is well beneath the surface, it is not always apparent just how much damage we as a species have done. Picture: François Baelen/Ocean Image Bank

It was sobering in recent days to read about the damage being wrought on the planet’s oceans, and not just in terms of overfishing but the actual acidity of the water.

Described as “a ticking timebomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies”, the British study showed that the oceans had already crossed the natural limit beyond which its ability to remain healthy is in danger of failing. 

In recent years, we have read of “marine deserts” on the seabeds off Ireland, where no life seems to exist where previously it had been plentiful. As much sea life is well beneath the surface, it is not always apparent just how much damage we as a species have done.

The sea is one side of the climate crisis, while emissions in the air are the other. The sea absorbs an enormous amount of carbon dioxide, but the reservoir isn’t infinite, and every part of the world exists in delicate balance. 

Like the butterfly effect, a change in one place can have massive, unexpected consequences in another.

Yet we have not thrown in the towel, which speaks as much to our stubbornness as a species (something that cuts both ways) and the audacity of hope, to quote the sort of leader America desperately needs right now.

Just last week, as reported by our farming editor Rachel Martin, an agriculture and climate change conference heard of a feed additive that is cutting methane emissions from cattle by 10% while also improving growth by some 12%. In some cases, the methane reduction was as high as 28%.

Why is this significant? In 2020, nearly 60% of the country’s emissions from agriculture came from methane produced by cattle and sheep, with 10% associated from storing slurry or manure.

Agriculture produces over 35% of the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, so any way of reducing it at all is welcome. And the efforts of our farmers, whose work underpins a substantial part of the economy, should be acknowledged.

While reducing methane emissions from cows may not be as sexy a strategy as, say, pulling millions of tonnes of CO2 from the air or ocean through some as-yet-unrealised technology (one faster than trees), it highlights that some of the climate solutions are already with us, as long as we’re willing to put in the work.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the conference would plot a way forward to ensure “the next generation of farmers inherits not only a liveable planet but also a thriving, competitive, and respected agricultural sector”.

Some climate solutions are already with us, as long as we’re willing to put in the work.

These are fine, indeed very worthy ambitions. But while agriculture represents a large proportion of this country’s emissions, nothing can be taken in isolation, nor indeed do cattle compensate for any carbon released from construction or the drying out of peatlands, for example.

We are already set to miss our emission cut targets by a wide margin, which might seem churlish to note given that we are making some headway.

As the United “drill baby drill” States abdicates leadership on climate and the environment, it falls to the rest of the world to pick up the slack. 

So gargantuan is the Chinese economy that even though that country is the biggest producer of solar energy, that still only makes up a small percentage, with coal the largest. 

Still, every percentage shift means a percentage of fewer clouds of carbon being belched into an already overheating atmosphere.

In the EU, however, renewables make up around 45% of energy production, and Ireland continues to acquit itself well there. 

Even 10 years ago that might have seemed a pipe dream, so no matter how big or glacial the ship it can be turned around. 

But electricity doesn’t curb emissions from SUVs, agriculture, home heating, or large corporations — and some 20% of Irish electricity goes toward data centres anyway.

Cows may end up doing more heavy lifting on behalf of this modest republic, but we can all contribute as small changes add up. 

Marcus Aurelius, some 2,000 years ago, wrote “do not waste time on that you cannot control”. 

While he didn’t live in the sort of globalised world we do, the fact remains we can only work on what’s right in front of us. We can control our own consumption, and our own waste.

Whether it will be enough to ensure “a liveable planet” remains to be seen.

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AI lawsuit 

It seems a bit like the empire striking back, but the lawsuit by Disney and Universal against AI image generator Midjourney could well end up being definitive in the helter-skelter world of artificial intelligence.

The lawsuit describes Midjourney — software that allows users to create images by entering text prompts — as “a bottomless pit of plagiarism”, with the studios claiming the company has pirated characters such as Darth Vader and the Minions.

With the deepest of deep pockets, Disney says it thinks AI “can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity, but piracy is piracy”.

The many publishers around the world — and the many writers whose work was used to train Meta’s Llama AI tool — who have found their work used without permission in developing the technology, would certainly agree with the second part.

In May, Nick Clegg, Meta’s former head of global affairs, said that if permission was needed from copyright holders to train AI language models, it would “basically kill the AI industry” in the UK overnight.

While there are benefits from the technology overall, the rampant and unlicensed use of copyrighted material to develop it remains unacceptable.

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