John Gibbons: As the smoke clears from the turf controversy, the betrayal on climate action becomes clearer

The yellow streak running through so much of our political culture as it refuses to engage with the existential climate crisis is a stain on our national discourse

Over the last two weeks, an almost unprecedented political consensus has emerged in defence of the right of a handful of industrial turf cutters to continue to wreak havoc on some of Ireland’s most sensitive and carbon-rich habitats. Picture: Getty

This weekend, hundreds of millions of people across the Indian subcontinent are enduring almost unliveable conditions, as the region remains gripped by a deadly heat dome that scientists have confirmed has been intensified by climate change.

But neither that ominous humanitarian crisis, nor the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, could even begin to compete for political or media oxygen in Ireland last week with the bizarre rolling controversy surrounding, of all things, turf.

As politicians queued ...