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Tackling the climate crisis

The clock is ticking

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.
Mon Jul 22 2024 - 00:04

Sir, – John Leahy (Letters, July 18th) correctly points out that Irish CO2 emissions are a tiny percentage of the overall amount for humanity as a whole. But his conclusion that we should not worry about emissions and instead focus on adapting to climate change doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Every person, city, county, province and small country on earth can use exactly the same argument that their emissions only represent a small percentage of the overall problem and therefore it’s up to everybody else to make changes.

For example, the emissions of Texas are also a small fraction of the world total, so why should Texans reduce theirs when China emits far more? But the people of Hainan in China can make the point that their emissions are only a tiny fraction of the Indian total, so surely that gets them off the hook?

We live in a country with high per capita emissions, which means that most of us “overshoot” our share of the budget that scientists tell us is required to keep the climate habitable.

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So instead of trying to think of justifications as to why this is somebody else’s concern, it’s surely much better to accept the part that we have to play in both the problem and in its solution. – Yours, etc,

DAVE MATHIESON,

Salthill,

Galway.

A chara, – Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan, while speaking at the Patrick MacGill summer school, warns that humanity has just five years to prevent irreversible climate damage (News, July 18th).

Surely the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles should be an event where only athletes and officials travel and the 10 million spectators stay at home.

Irreversible is a one-way ticket. – Is mise,

DERMOT O’ROURKE,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.