Climate Change Is Real, and Denial Is the Real Farce.

Ireland Is Not Immune.

Climate change denial is not new, but it has found powerful new advocates. The Trump administration is actively encouraging Europeans to abandon green energy policy, dismissing it as a "Con Job". Daily, I encounter people who share that view, convinced the climate has always changed, that this is just another natural cycle, and that Ireland is too small to matter. The evidence suggests otherwise, and Ireland is paying the price.

Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions were about 10 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per person in 2023, placing us amongst the highest "Per Capita" emitters in Europe. Around 90% of Ireland's EU protected habitats are in unfavourable condition, and only 52% of our surface waters are in satisfactory ecological status. In a recent interview with Niall Hatch of BirdWatch Ireland, we discussed how Ireland has lost most of its native woodland cover, how wildlife has seriously declined since the 1970s, and how the condition of our habitats and freshwater reflects a country that has too often treated environmental damage as someone else's problem.