The increasing Carbon Emissions into our atmosphere is causing weather changes which are not beneficial to life on planet earth, they could also be irreversible.

If you're home was on fire you'd make every effort to do something, even if it that was simply to get out of the house. If you knew in advance that it was going to catch fire you'd make a plan of action to avoid it and save as many possessions as possible. The Climate Issue is not as easy to resolve since it's at some point in the future and there's no escape route for you or your possessions.

The list unfortunately is endless which means it will all cost significantly and change our entire economy. Businesses, workers and the Taxman rely heavily on the activities requiring dramatic changes.

There is such an overwhelming number of "Hows?" that inertia leads to inaction and denial of the problems facing our future.

The 2020 General Election in Ireland will decide whether we elect a Government which is able to take effective timely Climate Change Actions to avert a potentially irreversible ecological disaster. This may mean making some hard hitting decisions to save the planet above the economy since we can't buy or borrow our way out of this Crisis.

Double standards and short term views prevail within politics and everyone's lifestyle. To see that many Politicians do not set a good example of environmental sustainability we need only to look at our street littered with single use plastic election posters, our letter boxes containing non recycled paper leaflets. The fact that we fill our household waste bin suggests we consume and waste too much.

So far Governments and Political Parties don't appear to be communicating effectively or cooperating with each other. The General Election 2020 manifestos are still traditional in their format with Health, Home, Work, Tax etc but each should be about how Climate Change will impact on us if we don't change our focus from an Ego based environment to an Ecological Survival one.

The Dáil's declaration of a climate emergency In May 2019 came at the same time as Ireland was deemed to be the second worst performing EU member state in tackling climate change. Ambitious Policy changes were expected but 1 year later in July 2019 the Climate Emergency Bill was effectively killed off to allow for Oil and Gas exploration to continue. To state the obvious this is an extraordinary hypocritical decision. The 'bottom line' of business finance and energy needs still drives them even when it's in the opposite direction to Carbon reduction. Our Government, together with most, are not focussed on the long term goal.

Given the decision to halt the Climate Emergency Bill how can we achieve this?

It was suggested, in discussions at the Meath Climate Workshop, that most Governments resemble students debating together whether to revise for a school exam the night before without appreciating that the particular exam in question would be marked entirely on term based coursework. The time for dramatic change is right now, not next year or next decade.

Personal motivations will decide whether you're willing, or pushed, into making a change to benefit the environment at the cost of changing your lifestyle.

Everything that we buy, eat, drink, drive, wear or play with produces Carbon Emissions either in it's manufacture, transportation, use or end life.

There really is no end to this list.

Generally we've gotten use to swapping out one bad product to replace it with another which is less offensive to the environment such as reusable shopping bags, coffee cups, straws etc. Unlike generations before we're still terrible at repairing and upcycling but given that cost is usually the motivating factor it is cheaper to throw away items rather than fix them.

We're all 'grown ups' and the truth sometimes hurts.

Do we trust the Government to tell us it's going to be alright and that they know what they are doing?

For every scientist there's a response. Social Media and the internet are littered with 'Fake News' but it can look convincing.

One reason that Greta Thunberg, perhaps the originator of the Student Climate Strikes, got rapid attention was the younger generation's ability to communicate quickly. Our traditional media is more guarded in both 'what' and 'how' it communicates and Climate Change headlines are few and far between. However within 6 months of coming to the limelight there would be very few people who are not aware of Student Climate Action Protests and most importantly why they happen.