‘REPENT OR PERISH’ IS KEY MESSAGE OF CLIMATE GOSPEL
Repent or perish, to paraphrase Luke’s gospel warning, could well summarise the message from the latest gathering of scientists and climatologists, who have come down pretty strongly on the need to cool down our earth over the coming years.
There are still climate change sceptics around but the overwhelming weight of research and scientific suggests that Mother Earth is warming up far too quickly, mainly due to the emission of what are known as greenhouse gases.
The big offenders in this regard are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane gas, nitrous oxide and what we call CFCs. When those gases are released into the atmosphere they have the ability
to trap heat that would normally radiate into space from earth – they act as a kind of giant duvet around our globe.
One of the main knock-on effects from this is that large chunks of our icecaps will melt, increasing the level of our oceans which in turns will greatly increase the risk of coastal flooding and will result in a serious loss of landmass in places.
For Ireland the downside is likely to be wetter and stormier winters but a little bit of a silver lining is that our summers could be drier and sunnier although here a caveat must be added about the impact of long dry spells on crop production, especially root crops.
Most climate experts now seem to agree that agricultural production cannot be carbon neutral but a country like Ireland, that can utilise grass and grazing for over nine months of the year, is well placed to supply food that is produced with a minimal negative impact on the environment.
One thing’s for sure though. Our planet needs a ‘guaranteed’ food supply and humans need to eat regularly, meaning the farmers will have to grow more crops and breed more animals to feed the world. But over the coming decade, bodies like Teagasc and our agri-researchers at the universities and technology centres, will be concentrating a lot of their time in coming up with ways of containing emissions, while still allowing agriculture to expand.
We do have our part to play here in Ireland but unless the ‘big guns’ like the US, China, India, Russia and Japan row in, our contribution will be akin to a loose daisy being buffeted by an Atlantic storm.
For more of Frank’s views on climate change and its effect on Ireland see this week’s Tribune