Sir, – Michael McDowell challenges whether Ireland should aspire to be leaders in responding to the climate emergency (Opinion, June 30th). He suggests we should be content with doing just enough to avoid drawing attention to ourselves as part of the club of rich countries with excessive per capita carbon footprints.
In an article heavy on rhetorical questions he will of course claim to be just challenging the current commitments to finally addressing this critical national and global challenge. What he is doing is more insidious than climate change scepticism by appearing to reasonably question why we need to inconvenience ourselves at all. He implies we can just continue to tinker around the edges and free ride on the efforts of other, less cute countries.
It is a strange argument to make that our size gives us a free pass on climate action. In a similar vein, if I decided to stop paying my taxes there would be no perceptible effect on Ireland’s national finances. I could let others carry the load of paying for public services and the pandemic recovery. It seems Mr McDowell would think this is a very sensible approach for me to take. – Yours, etc,
Dr DECLAN JORDAN,
Department of Economics,
University College Cork.
Sir, – I believe Michael McDowell to be a good man and with his legal training, not one for overlooking important details. Therefore it beggars belief that when referring to “electricity infrastructure is buckling under the pressure of growing demand” (Opinion, June 29th) he overlooks the real truth of the extra demand which is driven by our Government agreeing to allow uncontrolled planning for data centres whcih by 2029 are projected to use 27 per cent of all energy demand.
Therefore the thrust of his argument has been undermined. – Your, etc,
SEAN DARCY,
Celbridge, Co Kildare.