David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----emergency. We used the word "Emergency" for the Second World War in this country. If we really thought there was a war on, and there is, this House would be full, as it should be.

On the tram on my way in today, I saw an advertisement for a gangster movie that said "The world's not going to save itself." That is true. We cannot await the planet coming to its own rescue. We are all in this together and I would like to say to Senator Reilly that we discussed the Mercosur agreement yesterday and we were talking about Bolsonaro and the rainforests and so on. Senator Reilly asked how we would like it if people started talking about our bogs and how we can say the rainforests in Brazil are our rainforests. I want to say here and now that they are. We are all in this together. This is a planetary problem. The rainforests do not belong to Brazil. They were there long before the Spanish or the Portuguese conquered Brazil. They are part of our inheritance and the bogs in Ireland are part of the world's inheritance as well because we are not alone and we have responsibility for the other life forms on this planet.

As an aside, I would also like to say that we are only gradually becoming aware of this problem. We did not think of it before. I remember the hot summers in the 1950s and we thought it was glorious. We had no idea of the damage that was being done even at that stage. Some 25 years ago, I was on the transport committee and I remember raising the question of exhaust emissions from jet aeroplanes. That has multiplied. The Government is granting licences for fossil fuel exploration and that is a controversial area. In every area where there are concerns we are not really living up to our responsibilities. We are deliberately magnifying and investing in an enormous increase in air transport.

I would like to look at the scale of the problem. Of the assessed species living exclusively in Europe and Central Asia, 28% are threatened. Among all the assessed groups of species living in the region, mussels and liverworts are particularly threatened. Some 50% of mussels and liverworts are threatened, 37% of freshwater fish are threatened, 45% of freshwater snails are threatened, 33% of vascular plants are threatened and 23% of amphibians are threatened. Three quarters of the land-based environment and about 68% of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions. That is an extraordinary situation. A recent and very dramatic report, which was compiled by an enormous variety of scientists, found that about 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, many within decades. This is more than ever before in human history. The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%. More than 40% of amphibian species, 33% of reaffirming corals and more than a third of all marine animals are threatened. These are staggering situations.

Underneath it is something I have been trying to draw attention to, without any success, for all my political career, namely, the enormous expansion of the human population of the planet. The global population, which is now three times what it was when I was born in 1944, is set to expand from today's figure of 7.3 billion to nearly 10 billion in 2050 and 11 billion by 2100.I do not see how the planet can sustain this. It is underneath all of the difficulties, including climate change, and is something that cannot be ignored.

The response of the fossil fuel industry is very interesting. I have just read a report about how the industry responds to announcements about climate change. Following the announcement that 2015 was the hottest year on record, CNN aired 23.5 minutes of advertisements by Vote for Energy, a project of the American Petroleum Institute, compared with approximately five minutes of coverage of climate change or the temperature records. It is a five to one balance in favour of coverage sponsored by the oil industry. In the week after the hottest year announcement, CNN aired less than one minute of climate-related coverage and 13.5 minutes of oil industry advertisements. Following the announcement that February 2016 was the most unusually hot month ever, CNN aired four minutes of climate-related coverage and ten minutes of fossil fuel advertisements. Coverage is hugely disproportionate. The fossil fuel industry is trying to win the argument with the public and that is where we must be active.

Certain things are happening. Government policy is frequently interrupted by considerations of, for example, the property rights that are enshrined in the Constitution. In this regard, I have always said that no Government has ever taken into account the question of the public good. I urge the Minister to take on board that we need to consider the public good as a primary motivating factor in legislation. This is starting to happen in America, which has, for example, what is known as atmospheric trust litigation. This is an approach that considers the atmosphere to be held in trust by government for the public. It is not something to be dealt with by the government alone.Interestingly, a very significant case has been won in the American courts. A Pennsylvanian Supreme Court decision relied on the public trust doctrine to hold that a law promoting fracking violated a state constitutional right to a healthy environment. That is one example.

While I have praised the Minister, Deputy Bruton, I wish to put on record the response of the Taoiseach who made the following statement in January 2018 in the European Parliament:

As far as I am concerned, we are a laggard. I am not proud of Ireland's performance of climate change.

That is an astonishing admission for the leader of the Government to make. We have had the announcement, which is very welcome, that-----