Madam, - Allison Phayre's sceptical view of climate change (November 28th) will have received a soggy reception - published, as it was, on a morning when many Irish households found themselves under several feet of unexpected flood water.
In many cases this was for the first time in living memory. For many others, it was for the second time in less than a week. The misery is beginning to bite. It is important, therefore, for the sake of precaution - and with a view to appropriate action - to get the scientific account of climate change correct.
Ms Phayre quotes extensively from the Third Assessment Report (TAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As she correctly says, the TAR finds that the planet has warmed by 0.6° C over the past 100 years.
She neglects to mention that it also predicts that warming over the next 100 years will be in the range of 1.4° to 5.8° C - an astonishing rate of change in climatological terms, and one which foretells impacts which dwarf our current experience.
Recent research published since the TAR tends to indicate that current rates of change are operating at the high (pessimistic) end of this range - not exactly encouraging news for recently flooded Irish households.
Secondly, Ms Phayre neglects to mention that the TAR states categorically that "emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel burning are virtually certain (greater than 99 per cent confidence) to be the dominant influence on trends in atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the 21st century". (TAR, Vol. 1, p.12.)
Ms Phayre recommends waiting "another 30 years for a clearer picture of our climate and the forces at work within it to emerge", and that "individuals clamouring for the withdrawal of the combustion engine consider instead recycling and other local efforts". Nobody I know working internationally against climate change is clamouring for the withdrawal of the combustion engine. Such a call would be both unrealistic and ineffective. What most of us are actually demanding is a switch away from fossil fuels, which is far from the same thing.
It is quite possible to continue with private ownership of internal combustion engines, providing that the fuels they run on do no further harm to the climate. Hydrogen generated from water by renewable electricity offers one such alternative, and represents no technological challenge. Almost all the world's motor manufacturers have hydrogen-powered vehicles already designed, built, and ready for manufacture. Currently, they do not see sufficient margin in the market to justify large-scale production, because the price of renewable energy is still too high.
This week provides a significant opportunity for the Government to finally do something substantial about tackling climate change, should Mr McCreevy finally announce the long-delayed CO2 tax in his budget. Revenue from this tax is sorely needed to encourage investment in renewable energies capable of replacing fossil fuels.
Waiting another 30 years for action against climate change, as Ms Phayre recommends, flies in the face of both science and common sense. It should not be an option in Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Co-ordinator,
PAT FINNEGAN, GRIAN (Greenhouse Ireland Action Network),
Brookfield Place, Blackrock, Co Dublin.