Warning of floods and food shortages in Ireland

Opinion: Climate change and extreme weather patterns require a new national plan

Frank McDonald

‘Without adaptation measures such as flood defences and early warning systems to prepare for disasters, the impacts of climate change are likely to be felt more strongly in future – particularly if no brakes are applied to year-on-year record greenhouse gas emissions.’ Photograph: Alan Betson

‘Without adaptation measures such as flood defences and early warning systems to prepare for disasters, the impacts of climate change are likely to be felt more strongly in future – particularly if no brakes are applied to year-on-year record greenhouse gas emissions.’ Photograph: Alan Betson

Ireland is likely to face more extreme weather events such as the recent flooding and storm surges, increased water restrictions and shortages of animal fodder and even food due to drought as the impacts of global warming become more severe.

That’s what some of our experts have deduced from the latest report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released last Monday, which said that the impacts of global warming were already being felt “on all continents and across the oceans”.

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