Sir, – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is yet another dire warning about the consequences of climate change and the immediate need for action ("Human-induced climate change already affecting 3.3 billion people, report finds", News, February 28th).
The report states that “human and ecosystem vulnerability are interdependent”.
It is not just an abstraction called the environment that we are destroying, but ultimately ourselves.
Climate change will limit our access to food and clean water, and decimate critical infrastructure, livelihoods and economies.
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It will also inevitably lead to further humanitarian crises, as extreme weather and degraded ecosystems limit our resilience.
Ireland’s stated commitment to lowering emissions is consistently undermined by our failure to deliver on actual reductions.
This report makes it clear that imagining we can somehow adapt to climate change without changing our lifestyles is just a dream.
We must act to decarbonise every sector of our society in a way which is just and equitable for all, and we must do it now.
The consequences of not acting to mitigate the effects of this crisis will be a nightmare. – Yours, etc,
Dr CIARA MURPHY,
Environmental Policy
Advocate,
Jesuit Centre
for Faith and Justice,
Dublin 1.