Even here in our little part of rural Ireland of Mayo, we are in the mire
COUNTRY FILE
WITH the entire future of humanity allegedly riding on the success of Glasgow's Conference of the Parties, it's a little disconcerting to see the media focus more on half a dozen anxious teenagers rather than on the issues at hand.
Items do creep into the news. 'One billion people face life threatening heat under 2C rise,' whispers the BBC. Not too bad, we conclude.
After all, it will hardly be us. We could do with a temperature rise in this part of the world.
Meanwhile, smiling oil executives tell us how money from one of the world's most polluting industries can be used to develop alternative energy sources.
Even as they speak, plans are afoot to start bringing oil ashore from the giant Cambo oilfield, just a few miles west of Shetland.
The estimated yield from Cambo is expected to be in the region of 800 million barrels. With oil prices on the way up (some project 100 dollars a barrel in the near future) we can quickly do the sums.
With all that cash at hand, enthusiasts of wind energy can look forward to the time when armies of windmills are raised on every horizon.
And even more encouraging, the continued pollution of an oil industry invigorated at the prospect of movement away from fossil fuels will provide the wind needed to get those turbines turning.
The initial phase of extraction from the Cambo field is expected to yield in the region of 170 million barrels of oil.
According to a report in The Scotsman newspaper, this will produce about the same amount of greenhouse gases as 18 coal-fired power stations, and it is these very greenhouse gases that are warming the planet and increasing the velocity of storm-driven winds. See? Just what is needed for a profitable wind farm. The answer is simple.
It is too easy to be cynical. These are critical times, scientists and climate experts agree.
We would like to see a sincere unity of purpose among those with power to make the necessary changes, yet people are not open to any agreement and real security, no matter how much sought after, remains elusive.
By the time this gets to print COP26 will be finished and those wealthy enough to have flown in their private jets (118 of them, we are told) will have flown home again. What will have been achieved?
A majority of those involved in the discussions have promised to take better care of the world's forests.
Deforestation, they agree, must come to an end. In 2020, about 11,000 square kilometers of Amazonian forest was destroyed, mostly by burning. Other forests around the world share a similar fate. Those responsible will presumably be asked to stop.
Around half of the countries on earth have agreed to cut global methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Russia and China do not agree. A 30% global reduction does not mean a 30% Irish reduction, our livestock farmers will be happy to hear.
About 40 countries have agreed to use less coal. Not surprisingly, countries that currently burn a lot of coal, including the US, China, India and Australia, do not agree. Loopholes are already being sought. "We didn't put any time frame on this," says one party.
What COP26 does mean for us is that a lot of things are set to become a good deal more expensive. Already, energy prices are escalating. There are few things that will not follow.
The Times newspaper ran with the best headline I've seen about the whole affair. 'Johnson’s green machine gathers steam to turn Cop into a coup,' it says, suggesting we might want to watch the spin.
Even here, in our own little corner of Co. Mayo, we are in the mire.