Sir, – After all his years as a literary critic and observer of society, Fintan O’Toole should know that the primary driver of denial is fear (“Farmers’ denial of climate reality has been shaped by the parties they support”, Opinion & Analysis, August 8th).
While there is no doubt that very significant change is needed, people will, as in so many other areas of life, continue to deny reality if that reality is telling them that they must be poorer and may even lose all the work of a lifetime.
How is a farmer to earn a decent living and keep his farm going?
With the drop in production, how many food processing workers will lose their jobs? How many more shops and restaurants will close in towns serving the agricultural sector? None of the parties, neither Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Greens, Sinn Féin nor any of the other parties of the “left” are addressing these questions with anything other than wishful thinking or making any effort to propose solutions that look like anything other than the effective devastation and depopulation of rural Ireland.
Rail disruption hell: ‘There has not been one day without delays on the train’
Father’s U-turn in a will left son who took care of him with a pittance
The Guildford Four’s Paddy Armstrong: ‘People thought I was going to be bitter and twisted when I came out of prison’
The 2 Johnnies Christmas Party at 3Arena: It’s easy to sneer at the triteness and crudeness, but are 13,000 happy fans wrong?
I lived for 40 years in one of the better areas of Dublin, often working on technical solutions for the environment.
Back in my native Donegal, here on the periphery of the periphery, far from many services, in a district with incomes and social welfare dependency to match any district of inner-city Dublin, the view is very different and we need commentators in the centre, just as much as politicians, to take cognizance of our very real issues if we are to move forward with the change we all need. – Yours, etc,
LIAM MULLIGAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole does a good job of linking the climate scepticism of many farmers with the leadership of the political parties that they often support.
However, I’m not convinced that the direction he outlines, whereby farmers are being poorly influenced by politicians, is necessarily correct. When it comes to climate action it seems that leadership of the larger political parties are in some ways acting like the proverbial “rabbits in headlights”, with access to all the knowledge they need about what’s required, but seemingly unable to change course for fear of losing votes.
The problem instead may be that while media organisations are slowly waking up to the crisis, the relentless narrative of “business as usual” continues to dominate, both through paid advertising, but also by editorial choices that treat economics and business as almost entirely disconnected from climate or biodiversity.
This in turn creates a further disconnect between generally positive public perceptions of the need for climate action and the nature and scale of what’s required.
It’s undoubtedly true that political leadership is severely lacking, and that cynical opportunism is frequently employed to continue the “sensible, non-ideological” politics of allowing emissions to continue rising.
But it’s also expecting a lot of parties that have spent most of their existence supporting the status quo to take the deep, courageous steps that are necessary if they’re not being hounded about the need for such action by the public. – Yours, etc,
DAVE MATHIESON,
Salthill,
Galway.