It rained on the Parade organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition but that didn't stop us stalwarts togging out in our rain gear and fighting the high winds with our banners. It was good to see a healthy turnout of Labour Youth members. Joanna Tuffy TD, Labour's Environment Spokesperson and myself appear to have been the only Opposition TDs to tog out.
At the Custom House there were speeches. I said I wasn't impressed by Al Gore coming to Dublin to address a rich elite (for a fee of 100,000 dollars it was reported!)while banning the media from hearing his speech. The response from the crowd and from individuals made it clear to me that many other people were annoyed at the insistence by Al Gore of a " pay per view" policy.
Tackling Climate Change is a people's issue if ever there was one and elitism just gets in the way. Nor, I imagine was it what the Nobel Prize people had in mind. Thankfully the UN IPCC have a different approach. The recent open - and free - meeting organised by the EPA and starring Dr. Martin Manning of the IPCC was filled to capacity.
I'm not convinced that the government were listening to the message when Brian Cowen published his Budget. A bit of VRT and a tweaking of motor tax will not have any impact on reaching the seriously challenging target set by the government of 3% reduction per year of carbon emissions.
Maybe that's why the turnout of the Greens at the Parade was so unimpressive. Or maybe they just wilted in the rain...
1 comment:
Hi,
I had several people call looking for my vote and did not get an answer to one of my questions regarding combating climate change.
I asked why we pay for carbon credits instead of having to put the cost of shortfall directly into green energy here in Ireland. If the Government are serious about this issue and Ireland wants to lead the way in climate change we should tighten the belt and invest heavly in becoming energy efficient and green. Also any investment in green energy production will surly pay for itself in the long run as we have to import most of our energy at a cost that is constantly growing.
Ireland has an opportunity here as our location is perfect for producing green energy and could be in a position to sell excess energy production to other Euro countries in the future.
Thanks,
Paul.
Post a Comment