No one could have failed to notice the recent mass action by students to protest against climate change. The demonstrations took place worldwide as well as in this country.
I recall the nervousness on the part of one school Principal a few years ago lest even a partial unofficial evacuation of her students from school to participate in the event could create problems for the proper regulation of school that day. Since then, this form of action by Irish young people appears to have grown hugely in popularity.
A whole article could be devoted to certain questions. What are the substantial objectives of such climate action strikes? Who is driving this particular form of protest? What is the potential for its success (however success might be defined)?
Suffice to say that probably most or all of you who read this considered yourselves as environmentalists long before it became the popular thing to do. The only distinction to be made would be how far each of us, especially those of us who tried to be “green” before the Green Party had a snowball’s chance of even reaching a quota, can go along with the agenda of a green movement in its contemporary form.
What is undeniable, however, is that young people and strident action on environmental action seem to have discovered a mutual marriage made in heaven. It is almost impossible to imagine any young Irish person in 2021 who takes some “radical” action on a green issue being castigated by either her peers, her school or by mainstream culture, notwithstanding the actual diversity of views, for example, on the science behind climate change or the methods considered appropriate to agitate on green issues.
Why is this? The short but undeniable answer is that such action is “popular” or culturally acceptable.
I began to consider the phenomenon behind this. We see a global issue that has attracted almost universal uniformity of approach on the part of young people. We see an issue which is certainly eliciting a very commendable concern on the part of young people for the earth, all its inhabitants and the need to address its vulnerability.
On the other hand, at least from what I have observed, we see little to no critical thinking applied to this very real issue and almost no fostering of an awareness of the nuances involved.
For example, is the rush to shut down power stations in Ireland wise if it leads to electricity shortages for years? Is it sensible to ban localised turf cutting while peat from abroad is being legally imported? In an age where mobile phone technology has been all but deified despite the death and destruction caused by cobalt mining, why is there no big drive by climate action protesters to push for simpler, more functional technologies?
So, we have a laudable issue, potentially as much driven by popularity as substance. This raises a significant issue. Are there issues, globally and nationally, that do not fit this “popularity over substance” paradigm?
There certainly are. One such issue is the pro-life cause. Anyone who takes an objective interest in this will be immediately aware of three realities. The first is the global and national impact of abortion. Over 13,000 preborn Irish babies in 2019 and 2020 alone have lost their lives to abortion since the 2018 referendum. In the USA alone, over 62 million is the figure since Roe v Wade in 1973.
The second reality is the wilful blindness and deafness on the part of most of the Irish national media to the impact of abortion in Ireland. The third is admittedly my perception but I would say borne out by the evidence: many, if not most, of the young Irish people who stand up for the right to life of the preborn are aware that their stance is very often now far more counter-cultural than the popular stance on “climate justice.”
It is worth summarizing the latter point in the form of a question. Have we reached a point in Ireland at which our country’s tiny percentile contribution to the degradation of the planet globally has become universally more urgent among the young than the wiping out of the equivalent of the town of Arklow in just two years by legalized abortion?
This is not an article dismissing the reality of climate change. It is not an article patronizingly telling young people how to get their priorities straight before taking to the streets. It is an article asking very basic questions. Questions about the need for critical thinking. Questions about the need to pay attention to science at all times, not simply on issues to do with the physical environment, but with the scientific reality of biological human life from conception onwards.
It needs to be acknowledged that there are a great number of young Irish people who are already speaking up for and acting selflessly to respect and protect human life from conception.
Many of these are getting involved in political parties that support them in this such as Aontu. Many of them, in Gianna Care for example, are showing real and continuous care and compassion for women (and their babies) who find themselves experiencing a crisis because of pregnancy.
What we must not allow to happen is that those who agitated to legalize abortion in Ireland are allowed to create a society that normalizes the killing of thousands of our preborn children with virtual silence from mainstream media.
What we need to have is a society in which the laudable instincts of the young person who protests at the destruction of the planet is accorded the same respect, the same encouragement and the same opportunities when he or she demands an end to the killing of the weakest of our own species in our own country.
Neil Carmody