David Norris (Independent)

I welcome this motion. The original Labour Party motion was one in Irish about the education system and I thought to myself "What fools". They have missed the obvious issue which is climate change. I had decided to table a motion and I got my colleague, Senator O'Toole, to second it. However, the issue is what is important rather than the personalities involved. I congratulate the Labour Party on tabling this important motion.

I note at the outset that the evidence for climate change is now both overwhelming and incontrovertible. It is not simply confined to the apparently short historical records of scientific accuracy in our possession, because we also possess tools such as core samples and geological evidence. We can go back hundreds of thousands of years to ascertain the prevailing conditions. We know a highly significant change is taking place and that we are responsible for it. Even those who have no altruistic concern for the planet or for future generations have been jolted by the report of Sir Nicholas Stern, of which mention has been made. Effectively, he rattled the money box in the face of international capitalism. Demonstrating that the unchecked emission of carbon gases would lead to a 20% drop in global production has at last caught the attention of erstwhile blasé political leaders. This was followed by the report of the findings of a committee of more than 2,000 internationally reputable scientists, which pointed in the same direction.

However, there are still those who would deny it. A few voices, either eccentric or representing vested interests, have attempted to challenge the facts. Channel 4 broadcast a disreputable film along these lines that purported to represent a reasonable scientific viewpoint. However it is clear that the quotations from the few scientists whose views could be manipulated to these ends were selectively employed and even these scientists have, in large part, protested against the abuse of their names. One would not expect anything else from Channel 4, which has sunk from being a reputable station of strong investigative and progressive bent to being a mere vehicle for the recycling of the American situation comedies, vulgar so-called reality shows and similar rubbish. Just as in the past one had the disgraceful example of Holocaust deniers, one now has the unappetising spectacle, even among some Irish shock-jock journalists, of climate change deniers. Such people remind me of Mrs. Noah in the medieval miracle play "Noye's Fludde" who, drunk and irresponsible, had to be hauled on board the Ark by her unfortunate husband at the very last moment before the waters covered the earth, even as she continued to pretend that nothing was happening.

How is it possible for even the meanest intelligence to deny the clear evidence of climate change and human involvement in such change? All available evidence points in this direction. I saw it myself last year when I travelled to Svalbard in Spitsbergen because I heard an invitation over the airwaves from the Norwegian foreign minister. He stated that everyone who was interested in the subject should go there to see what is happening. This was not a sponsored trip and I was obliged to fork out myself for hotels in Norway.