Good Advice?
I thought I might pass on a
random sample of some of the personal advice I have been given over the years.
You dear reader might, like me, benefit from some of it. Or perhaps
not.
‘If you get arrested say nothing. Sign nothing. Ask
for your solicitor. I’ll be there.’ PJ McGrory human rights lawyer
and my solicitor for decades.
‘Dont get arrested’ Joe
Cahill. August 1971.
‘The least said the soonest
mended’. My mother.
‘Always be on time’ Rita O
Hare.
‘Dont say a word about anyone
else’s children when you’re rearing chidren of your own’. Maggie
McArdle.
‘Beware the hoof of the horse,
the horn of the bull and the smile of the Englishman’. Fonsai Ó
Muruchú
‘Use your head. Your feet’s
for dancing’ Cleaky Clarke.
‘Dont let the old man in’
Martin Ferris, 2021.
‘Face the bloody Póc
Out’ Gerry Begley.
‘The potato is the most
versitile vegetable. There are so many things you can do with it.’
Ted
‘Never miss the opportunity
for a pee’. Paul O Dwyer, New York based human rights lawyer and
proud Irish republican.
‘Put honey in your porridge’
Martin McGuinness . A JB (O Hagan) Special.
The Climate Emergency
This weekend the United Nations Climate Change
Conference (COP 27 – the Conference of the Parties) will begin in Sharm El
Sheikh, in Egypt. It will be the 27th UN Climate Change
conference and last for 12 days
It comes at a critical juncture in the effort to
tackle climate change and follows the publication of three keynote reports by
UN agencies warning that we are on the cusp of climatic changes from
which there is little prospect of recovery.
Last week I wrote about the drought and famine
devastating millions of lives in Somalia in East Africa. The images are
frightening. This is the fifth year there has been no rainy season and the
experts are predicting that next year’s rainy season, due to begin in March,
will fail also. That means an estimated 22 million people are at risk of dying
from hunger in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya as crops fail again.
There are many factors responsible for this human
catastrophe - political, regional, economic, societal, and financial - but the
greatest is climate change and the failure of the industrialised states to take
the steps necessary to reduce the damage being done by the climate emergency.
This year heat waves in Europe broke temperature
records and caused widespread damage. Over 50,000 Europeans died from heat
stress, forced thousands more to evacuate their homes and adversely impacted on
food production. Spain alone estimated that there were almost 4,000 excess deaths as a result of the heat wave. It
is generally accepted that while there have been heat waves in Europe before
climate change means that they are increasing in their frequency and
intensity.
There have also been
devastating floods in Pakistan which left millions homeless; heat waves in
India and Pakistan; a heat wave and drought in China; excessive high
temperatures in the USA with wildfires causing huge damage; a heat wave in the
Middle East; floods in Sudan and South Sudan; the bushfire season in Australia
now lasts month longer; and in June Bangladesh face its worst floods in over
100 years.
Most of those who face the human cost of climate
change are in regions of the world that have in reality contributed least to
it. It is the behaviour of industrialised nations that have contributed most
and it is their refusal to honour commitments made at previous Climate Change
conferences that now place our planet in peril. The G20 industrialised nations
are responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. The three United Nations
reports published in recent weeks underline this reality.
The UN's climate scientists, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have said that should temperatures rise to
1.7c-1.8C that half the world's population could be exposed to life-threatening
heat and humidity. The danger is of a world facing extreme weather conditions,
rising sea levels, and as the UN concluded itself, “endless
suffering.”
It is also important to note that as millions face
food insecurity and millions more are confronted by a cost of living crisis the
global oil and gas multi-nationals are raking in the money. Last week Shell
reported its second highest quarterly profit on record. It made nine and a half
billion dollars in profit between July and September. TotalEnergies made almost
10 billion in profit in the same period. The oil and gas sector is expected to
amass four trillion dollars this year. That would be enough to end the climate
emergency if used and invested properly. But oil and gas multi-nationals are
unlikely to do what’s right to save the planet and save millions of lives.
The onus is on all of us as individuals and on
political activists to act speedily to increase pressure on governments and
multi-nationals to act responsibly and compassionately. COP 27 needs to produce
an emergency series of measures that will more quickly wind down fossil fuel
use, invest in green energy and new technology and reduce harmful emissions.
Governments also need to introduce a meaningful windfall tax that raises the
resources needed to make a difference. In Britain the Shell company has
successfully avoided a windfall tax this year by claiming that its investments
in that economy mean it has made no profit and consequently has no windfall tax
to pay. This should not be allowed in any state.
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres pulled no
punches in urging governments to attend COP 27 and to honour commitments
already made. He said: “There has been a tendency to put climate change on the
back burner. If we are not able to reverse the present trend, we will be
doomed."
The people
of Somalia and East Africa and the estimated 345 million people around the
world who are going hungry today are
already doomed. Unless
we act to save them.
Well Done Lula.
The successful election in Brazil of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (popularly
called Lula) has raised hopes that the huge damage being done to the Amazon
rain forest and the threat to the indigenous peoples of that region will now
end. The election was a fraught affair and the strength of both candidates will
test the Brazilian democracy in the time ahead. I wish the
people of Brazil and President
Lula well.
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