Hypocrisy, thy name is Comhaontas Glas.
Last week Green Party Councillor Dan Boyle took to Twitter to inform us all how he wanted to see Ireland having 50% less cars, 50% less car journeys, or both, all in an effort to cut transport CO2 emissions and “save the planet.”
To achieve our 2030 transport emissions we need to either reduce the number of car journeys by 50%, have 50% less cars, or some combination of both. There are of course other measures. But starting with a stark realisation should be where we make these choices.
— Cllr. Dan Boyle/An Comhairleoir Dónal Ó Baoill (@sendboyle) September 4, 2022
Now, we’ll put aside entirely the fact that Ireland has one of the lowest rates of car ownership in the entire European Union, making this crusade kind of redundant.
One car for every two people across the EU, but Irish figures show low ownership here https://t.co/cQTRGFXuQk
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) July 27, 2022
One might say this is an improvement on his party’s previous stance, after Green leader Eamon Ryan was previously mocked for saying he wanted one car to every ten families.
If you cast your mind back to 2019, he literally suggested that rural villages should car pool – a stance which he later said he regretted due to the severe and inevitable backlash in elicited.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan says he regrets rural car pooling suggestion after backlashhttps://t.co/fc9Q6EDVBV
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) October 12, 2019
So, compared to the old suggestion, only cutting 50% of the country’s cars is down-right generous.
But still and all, some people probably wouldn’t take too kindly to the fact that Cllr. Boyle wants half the country to give up their cars, while he, by his own admission, drives a car. He apparently is not included in that 50% cut he envisions.
In Dublin for a meeting in Merrion Square. Abused my privilege by taking a short cut through Leinster House (just me, left my car in Cork). The tilt is my posture not the building sinking, however appropriate a metaphor that might be. pic.twitter.com/5Y8TmYshp8
— Cllr. Dan Boyle/An Comhairleoir Dónal Ó Baoill (@sendboyle) August 31, 2022
Now, let’s be totally fair; to his credit, Boyle has said this will be his last car, and he would also probably say that he doesn’t drive it when he has the option not to. But frankly, I don’t believe that’s hugely relevant.
Yep and I've resolved it will be my last car. It's cheaper to use public transport.
— Cllr. Dan Boyle/An Comhairleoir Dónal Ó Baoill (@sendboyle) June 30, 2022
The fact of the matter is, assuming he continues to drive his car for a few more years, that’s several more years of CO2 pollution, which he tells us is utterly unacceptable. The “climate crisis” the Greens keep warning about isn’t waiting for Dan Boyle’s car to crap out, after all. And if politicians like him were really serious about this, they’d ditch the car right now, today, to lead by example.
In fact, rather than lecturing Irish Twitter about the need to ditch their cars, he might want to speak to his government colleagues, just three of whom actually drive an electric vehicle despite their generous salaries. That includes Senators as well as TDs, by the way.
A Coalition of fuel guzzlers: only three Government ministers use electric vehicles https://t.co/gkfs1rIOJn
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) March 19, 2022
And for the record, he’s opposed not only to fossil fuel cars but electric cars as well, as he says that “car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts.” Meaning all cars are bad, essentially.
We need less cars on the Roads with far less car journeys, regardless of the engine type.
Car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show https://t.co/3xE5bjpCLG— Cllr. Dan Boyle/An Comhairleoir Dónal Ó Baoill (@sendboyle) June 4, 2022
And of course, he might also want to have a word with some of his own party’s ministers about their business-class flights, which carry higher CO2 emissions.
Green Party ministers Catherine Martin and Eamon Ryan fly business class despite higher carbon footprint https://t.co/VxEE61gtz7
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) July 11, 2022
You see, Irish people are willing to sacrifice a lot if they believe in the cause in question, as we saw during the Covid restrictions. They’ll make radical changes to their way of life for what they perceive to be “the greater good.”
But what they simply cannot stand, under any circumstances, is hypocrisy. And when we have a situation where politicians are telling people to make major sacrifices to their lifestyle, while our leaders live high on the hog, that’s when your party comes crashing down to, say, 2% in the polls.
It might seem like a bit much, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that every one of the Green Party’s elected politicians prove that they have personally gone “net zero” in their own lives before lecturing anyone else about emissions.
Some would probably say that’s unreasonable, but think about it; you have more control over your own life than you have over the country at large, right? You don’t have to convince anyone to change their lifestyle – you can just do it yourself. Stop going on holidays abroad. Stop driving your car, and get the bus instead. “Be the change you want to see in the world,” as the old cliché goes.
If you can’t even manage to make cuts and sacrifices necessary while on €100,000 a year salary, then how the hell is the rest of society supposed to do it? If you can’t even convince yourself to car pool to work, why do you expect Joe Bloggs in County Offaly to do it?
Anything else would be like trying to convince people to become vegan while you tuck into a ham sandwich right in front of them. It’s a pisstake.
So far as I’m concerned, until and unless these lads start to put their money where their mouth is, nobody should take anything they have to say about the climate remotely seriously. Go sort out your own house, and then we can talk about emissions cuts.