World's hottest day since records began

Why should landlords who are already making out like bandits get even more subsidies?

Agree, we are not tackling it in food faith and I don't know if we will because tackling the waste and trying to encourage longevity of product will impact the economy, which everyone knows, rules the world.

I will readily agree that my emissions are more than they should be, as in, more than is sustainable for everyone to have and keep the planet safe. However, even if I could go to a state of having the same emissions as someone from China, it will have so little impact on climate change I may as well do nothing. If all of Ireland did it, maybe it would nudge the needle, but we would need to find a whole new set of industry as very few people would want to live that kind of lifestyle having experienced what we currently have, and would emigrate.

Without international agreement on how to tackle the problem there isn't a way out that I can see. We will continuously pump ghg into the air, use more and more water than current levels and continue cutting down forests.

What does shouldering the burden mean to you and how do we implement it on a large scale so that it has a meaningful impact?

I have to be honest I didn’t expect this sort of realism coming from yourself- I have to applaud you. (I’m being honest hear and not taking the piss)

Climate change wether man made/ natural or a mixture of both is coming.

We should absolutely be preparing and becoming fully self sufficient

So their tenants don't have to spend all their (and tax payers) money buying fossil fuels to keep warm in winter.

The Rowan Atkinson article was heavily rebuked after his facts were checked, but this one point is missing the picture. Not everyone can afford a new car. We need the people and fleet managers who do purchase new vehicles to choose BEV now, so in 5 to 10 years time there will be a second hand market for when all the older ICE cars get retired. Anyone buying a brand new ICE today, is committing to another 10-20 years of fossil fuel emissions, or the car will end up bring scrapped early this representing an even worse use of scarce resources.

The state's role should be to actively incentivise or require the rollout of charging infrastructure. Why isn't every petrol station obliged to have at least 1 BEV charging point? Most of them already have 3 phase power on site, it would be trivial to install some charging points

(The fact that they're mostly owned by fossil fuel companies or under contract with fossil fuel companies might be a clue as to the reason why)

Every shopping centre should have to have at least x% of parking spaces devoted to charging BEVs. Same with every employer above a certain size who offers free parking to employees, etc

Once we get a critical mass of infrastructure in place, then ICE cars will not be able to compete

I know from talking to US petrol station owners (big chains) that those who invested in chargers even in places with high EV penetration have been disappointed by the returns as it appears the owners prefer to charge at home - not sure why it would be different here, not everyone (it seems) wants to hang around a gas station when they can charge overnight at home

By far the vast majority of people will always prefer to charge at home, but as the take-up of BEVs increases, there will be more and more people who need to be able to top up their car every now and then. A 10 minute charging session while someone pops into the shop buys coffee, a sandwich and an ice cream and the shop owner is turning a decent profit

Depends on what kinds of regulatory processes we have. With renewables there are so many opportunities for micro generation, community wind and solar projects, domestic PV and storage etc, were unlikely to be at the mercy of the kinds of plutocrats and oligopolies we are victims of now via OPEC

Doubt it tbh.

These companies are in the game to make profit for shareholders at the expense of customers, any other viewpoint on that is very naive.

An honest fair play to you for your efforts. Not everyone is in a position to move. We have insulated the crap out of the house, installed solar panels and try to minimize emissions where we can. However, I don't see any way of dropping my emissions by a factor of 10x or 20x to reach those from China or India. I am still going to heat the house in the winter, I am still going to shower after exercise (mostly with solar heated water and turning off the water when washing), my job requires a computer and lighting my work area, either at home or in the office for large parts of the year. Without finding a plot of land with an a rated house where we can grow our own fire wood and food, (which I couldn't afford and don't have the skills to do)I don't see how those emissions are going to drop.

I support the state where they are actually doing something sensible. They should be taxing new goods, non essential, highly to encourage reuse and repair. They should be subsidizing companies and schools to install showers, drying areas, and safe, weather protected bike shelters.

In terms of support, we have changed how we heat the house to use lower carbon fuels where possible. We try to use active travel for short distances where possible (there is no place to leave bikes at the school where they won't be soaked, and not enough space to hang wet clothes to dry during school hours).

Again, my issue is not being green or trying to be green or walking to the shop instead of driving, or wearing an extra layer in winter to reduce heating related emissions. My issue is probably quite doomsday ish but given the current effects we are seeing, is there anything we can do, as individuals or a small country that will halt climate change given the level of wasted emissions from war, private jets, private yachts, etc, or are we just peeing into the wind?

Absolutely, we can't go around expecting everyone else to cut emissions when Eire Inc doesn't. And yes, there should be economic benefits from having renewable energy. However, as the dinosaurs are playing catch up they are still causing a lot of ghgs, increasing climate change, causing more droughts and floods and human migration to more stable locations, food shortages , etc.

If the expectation that we are near a tipping point is correct, how do we stop going over it and keep the world safe for future generations?

As I reply to these comments I find myself struggling with the hope that people here have and hoping the changes we make will make an impact. However I don't see how we can avoid climate disaster when some of the biggest polluters don't always see fossil fuels as an issue, and it will be such a long time before we have sufficient renewables and storage in place to replace fossil fuels that we will be well past the tipping point of irreversible climate change.

I was hoping someone would have a realistic projection that would show that our efforts aren't futile.

At the very least if we keep doing what we can to reduce emissions and be as green as feasible, we can look our future generations in the eye and say we tried.

What parallel world do you live in ? It must be fun

thos is for MT and others who think we can just allow this to take its course without too much worry

Positive feedback loops are already emerging.

We have a brief window of opportunity to stop these from becoming self reinforcing cascades that will mean humans can no longer prevent runaway climate change

We don't know what the thresholds are, we only know that the hotter we allow it to get, the bigger the chance that we will exceed them

You obviously are a typical introspective 'green' who can't see beyond his/her own nose. I suggest that you take off the blinkers for a period and see for yourself what's really happening in the big world out there - it may be news to you & your ilk that Ireland is a tiny, almost to the point of being invisible, part of planet earth.

The current NATO / Putin war in east Europe has produced more carbon emissions to date than Ireland has produced in the last 4 years and the war will last for years. Munitions factories in the US and elsewhere which were on short time until the war are now working around the clock producing billions of $ worth of armaments including cluster bombs and in the process emitting millions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere. In the meantime sad folk like you are crying into their soy or coconut milk at the thought of Irish farmers producing almost organic products to feed the world.

I call it milk, delicious oatey milk