We Irish love our cows as evidenced in our language. The Irish word for road is bo-thar (cow-way), coin is bo-nn (replacing the cow as currency) and even inflation is bo-ilsciú (a lot of cows!) Many cultures revere cattle, it shows how mixed up our histories are. How ‘global’ humans have always been.

These days though, our cows are killing us, but we’re having difficulty adjusting. Our brains are chronologically challenged. Some of us have met a great grandparent and others might meet a great grandchild but beyond that is hard for us to imagine. It may be our grandchild’s grandchild that will suffer most from our choices today?

They will struggle for food, water and somewhere to live as the whole world competes for the last few habitable areas. The world’s forests will have died due to rising temperatures and the oceans will be too acidic for life (we crossed that Global boundary last November!).

The longer we delay in addressing climate change, the longer the world will suffer before the planet starts to come back but we’re looking at hundreds or maybe thousands of years.

Our illogical cow-love is not serving us. The politicians who stand ‘behind’ the Meat and Dairy industry, making it the exception to every attempt to reduce carbon, methane and nitrogen, are not doing the farmers, Ireland or the world any favours. They need to stand ‘in front’ of the farmers and be the leaders that the role of TD requires.

It’s not easy being a politician and, as we know throughout history, good leaders are rarely thanked, which is why, as the people, we must support them. Let politicians know that we stand with them in decisions to reduce our emissions.

No one likes to hear that the party is over and it’s time to tidy up, but the world is in a mess and we don’t have any other bóthán to go to!

Tidy Towns Malahide supports Sustainable Development Goal No. 13 Climate Action