Paul Murphy: Calls Out Government Climate Contradiction
Paul Murphy responds to remarks in the Dail, confronting Deputy Healy Ray's climate scepticism and accusing the government of acting in direct contradiction to the science. He argues ministers accept that fossil fuels drive climate change yet continue to approve projects that increase emissions.
Response to climate scepticism: Paul Murphy rebuts Deputy Healy Ray's suggestion that past storms disprove human-caused climate change. He points out that anecdote is not evidence and that claims about a mysterious paper overturning climate science have no basis in what has been presented in the chamber.
Scientific evidence cited: Murphy stresses the settled scientific consensus, noting that the last 11 years have been the hottest on record, decades have warmed consecutively, oceans are heating and acidifying, and extreme weather is rising. He frames these facts as both tracked data and lived experience.
Government contradiction: The speaker singles out the government's behaviour as worse than outright denial. He says ministers accept greenhouse gas science and commit to targets, yet proceed with LNG, Dublin Airport expansion, and large data centre and AI developments that expand fossil fuel use.
Consequences and debate: Murphy warns this contradiction will harm the planet and people's finances, and that proceeding without a proper public debate is unacceptable. He calls attention to the gap between political words and policy choices and urges scrutiny of decisions that lock in higher emissions.
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I'll try and be swift enough so we can move on. I mean, look, we've heard the same speech from Deputy Healy Ray on a number of occasions, effectively denying human-caused climate change by saying that we have had storms and extreme weather events in the past. Yes, we have had storms and extreme weather events in the past. That isn't evidence against human-created climate change. I mean, the evidence is very, very clear. There's a very clear scientific consensus. Deputy Healy Ray says he's heard that some paper exists which proves that the climatologists and the climate scientists are all wrong. And when he gets his hands on it, he'll bring it here. He hasn't read the paper. He knows that it exists. It's out there somewhere in the ether. And he trusts it because it tells him what he wants to hear, which is that climate change isn't happening. I mean, people know themselves. The last 11 years have been the 11 hottest years on record. We know decade after decade after decade for six decades now, each decade has been hotter than the one before it. We know that the oceans are heating up. We know that the oceans are becoming increasingly acidic. And we know, and people know from their own experience, you have more and more extreme weather events. And it's not just people's own experience. It's also tracked. You could go on and on and on. And this is the settled scientific consensus. But in a way, to be honest, I'm less concerned about the climate denialism of Deputy Healy Ray. He's entitled to his opinion. I think he's wrong. And I think the scientific consensus really says that there's no basis for what he's saying. I didn't get that. But to be honest, I'm less concerned about that. I mean, it's fine. The main thing I have a problem with is we have a government which, I mean, they didn't really make any effort there to object to the climate denialism, but will object on occasion to climate denialism and will say we recognize the science. If a government that says climate change is real, that accepts that climate change is caused by fossil fuels, accepts that climate change is a consequence of the greenhouse gas emissions, which says we're going to sign up to legally binding climate targets because we take this very seriously, we care about the future of our planet, and then ignores it all totally. Like that's worse in a way. Like if Deputy Healy Ray was in charge and said I don't believe that any of this climate change nonsense, it's nothing to do with human activity, and we're going to go full steam ahead for frack gas, and we'll drill for frack gas here as well, and what's the problem with more and more fossil fuel usage? I mean in a way that's logically coherent. If fossil fuels aren't the problem, then what's the problem? But the government accepts that fossil fuels are the problem and says nonetheless full steam ahead in terms of LNG, nonetheless full steam ahead in terms of expansion of Dublin airport, nonetheless full steam ahead in terms of data centers and AI, and I really think that's worse because you know what you're doing is going to destroy the planet, you know what you're doing is going to hurt people in the pocket here and now, but nonetheless you're going full steam ahead and you're not even allowing a proper debate to happen on these issues.
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