The Emerald Isle is apparently not as green as we would have thought.
In an in-depth article published on
The Guardian, it is claimed that despite all of the noise that Ireland has made lately in tackling the issue of climate change, we as a nation will still fail to hit our 2020 emissions target.
While Ireland agreed to a 20% drop in emissions by 2020 compared to our 2005 numbers, we're told that number will actually be closer to 5 or 6%, with other forms of emissions actually on the rise since then, which will result in severe penalties for the country.
There has been a climate action minister assigned for the first time, and Ireland has also recently outlawed onshore fracking, but despite this Ireland is still the third highest producer of emissions per capita in the EU, and is expected to be one of only four EU countries to miss the 2020 emissions goal.
Every excuse given to date has been argued away, including the fact that Ireland claims itself to be a "food nation", hence the higher emissions due to all of the farm animals, which was immediately debunked by the claim that Ireland isn't even producing enough food to feed itself, let alone other nations.
Meanwhile, news that the go-ahead has been given to commence drilling on a massive oil deposit off the west coast of Ireland has caused further concerns, with many noting that no matter how much profit may be made from it, it will still represent a major step in the wrong direction for Ireland's challenges with climate change and environmental protection.
If nothing else, the article has helped highlight the issues at hand, as the author announced that there has already been a huge audience here for the piece in the few hours since the article was published:
