I was at COP26 and COP27 to hear President Joe Biden tell the world how seriously he takes the climate crisis.
So you can imagine my surprise when he rocked up in Belfast this week with no less than a jumbo jet, his own helicopter, armoured cars, limos, 4x4s as far as the eye can see - some filled with secret service operatives - no less than four mini buses of reporters and a police escort including no less than 12 motorcycle cops, two police cars, two ambulances and uncountable police and special forces cars.
I did the sums on his journey from Grand Central Hotel to Ulster University on Wednesday and counted no less than 48 vehicles all to bring one man to a speaking engagement. And I’ll tell you what, not one of them gave off the air or sound of an electric vehicle to me - but I would be more than happy to be proved wrong.
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The route they took from Grand Central to Ulster University, round the back of CastleCourt Shopping Centre is 1.1 miles according to Google maps. And just for that one short journey my climate calculator estimates Joe’s cavalcade emitted 0.033 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
While the very same organisation says 0.600 tonnes is the maximum amount of C02 that can be generated by a single person in a year in order to stop climate change - so that means Joe used a whopping 5.5% of his annual allowance for that one short trip across Belfast if we are to hold each and every person on the planet to account for their own emissions.
And that doesn’t even factor his the ride to and from Belfast International Airport or the squad of security services, planes, vehicles and more sent ahead to clear the path for the most important man in America right now.
Or even the flight to Dublin, car journey to Louth and back (he’d have been better going from this side) or the visits and events he’ll add to the trip before he heads home to the States again.
I asked the PSNI on Thursday if they could give me a list of the vehicles they used during Biden’s stay - I’m still waiting.
We do know however, it was their biggest operation since the G8 summit in Fermanagh a decade ago and involved no less than 2,920 police officers costing an estimated £7m - but the jury’s still out on the actual cost.
But no one in a position of authority is thinking about the climate cost of such visits.
The police helicopter hovered over Belfast for ages as the Biden cavalcade crossed the city.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing he visited - it was nice of him to drop by and voice his support for the Good Friday Agreement - without which we still wouldn’t be talking about the environment.
No one had time for such things when bombs, alerts and shootings were double stitched into the fabric of everyday life here.
A time when each and every strike at the heart of communities across Northern Ireland showered down bricks and mortar leaving the place looking like the war zone it was.
People weren’t thinking about other people, never mind nature. But times have moved on for the most part and people are thinking about how our actions impact the natural world, our rivers, our lakes, the animals we share our lands with and the impact inaction is having on our own health and wellbeing.
So why then, are leaders not? Does Biden really need such a gas-guzzling cavalcade with him everywhere he goes?
And even if the answer to that is yes - how will he and leaders like him start showing the world they mean what they say about the environment and start putting their money where their mouths are.
Why not a cavalcade of Teslas? They’re the American dream made real afterall.
I was there when the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, announced a new initiative at COP27 in Egypt to encourage governments the world over to show their people the way forward on climate by cutting emissions in government buildings.
Ireland got a pat on the back for their plan to add solar panels to every school. But I remember thinking at the time, ‘I wonder if that will include the Army, Air Force, Marines and Government vehicles for America and the other countries involved’.
Clearly not - or when it comes to reducing emissions for travel to visit other countries. These are the things that muddy the waters.
If I had a pound for every time someone hit out at the actions of leaders on climate-harming globe trots for this meeting or that.
Don’t these guys realise yet that people are watching everything they do. And as long as Governments fail to lead by example on the climate, they can’t expect everyone else to fall in behind.
The days of do as I say, not what I do, are long gone. It’s time for folk like the great Joe Biden to stop and have a think about the messaging around their actions. If he needs 48 vehicles to lead and follow him across Belfast - they should be electric at the very least.
Leaders should be considering the emissions impact of everything they do.
Don't fence nature out
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on socials about the impact of fencing on wildlife of late. And you know what, I think groups like Ecofact have a point.
We know wildlife has been pushed to the periphery of our towns and cities and that we should be making it easy for them to traverse the countryside with wildlife corridors. But none of this is written into regulations - yet.
The builders of the A6 told me way back when they put a wildlife tunnel underneath it every 1km or so when building the new road - but they didn’t have to.
And I would hazard an educated guess that when councils, government organisations and landowners install fencing they spare little thought to creatures like hedgehogs, otters, pine martens and more when they are sticking it tight to the ground.
It’s a very simple fix - but why not have fencing around boundaries with a few holes underneath it for creatures to pass safely through the countryside.
Is this something authorities are thinking about when they are paving and fencing new greenways? We are in a biodiversity crisis after all.
Tip of the week
Why not cut a whole or leave a space under your backyard fence for nature to cross through. I have one. I don’t have a camera up to see what passes through but last summer I spotted a wee hedgehog in my pal’s back garden and he was able to get in through gaps under her fence.
We should be making space for nature to live alongside us - not fencing it out.
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