Irish Examiner view: Far too late for prevarication on climate
The Denier In Change The Climate Crisis, Bolsanaro And Jair Extraction, Culprits For Clearing President Timber Are Climate Land Production, The Primary Beef Brazil,
A new climate bill is expected to reach the Dáil today a day or two after the promised deadline passed. However, the content, ambition, and honesty of the bill are far more important than the timing of its arrival in our parliament.
Unless it is radically different from its predecessors, one of which was condemned as unfit for purpose and all too nebulous by the Supreme Court, the exercise will be a waste of time and energy.
It will also further undermine credibility in our politics as the majority of people now, even if grudgingly, accept that we must change how we use this planet's great resources if the world as we know it is to survive.
Yesterday's confirmation of that urgent necessity — there is a gloomy environmental report nearly every second day now — warned that swathes of the Amazon are on the cusp of losing its distinctive nature.
The region, long-regarded as the earth's lungs, is moving from being a closed canopy rainforest to an open savannah with far fewer trees. The climate crisis, land clearing for beef production, timber extraction, and the climate change denier president Jair Bolsanaro in Brazil, are the primary culprits.
Climate or environmental legislation — or enforcement — have never come easy to either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. Their commitment to economic development and a core constituency sometimes contemptuous of today's emergency has blinkered them to our obligation to tomorrow and our children.
Let us hope, as it is vital, that a new climate bill will be equal to the challenges we face.