Midlands will have to deal with being caught between two coastal climate extremes as conditions change in future
After a summer that has seen wildfires and floods leave a trail of death and destruction around the globe, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science, warns that more extreme weather is on the way. Heatwaves, drought and flooding are set to become more frequent and more extreme as the effects of climate change are felt, according to a report published by the IPCC recently.
Responding to the report, environmental scientist and climate change expert, Jack O’Sullivan from Castlepollard, said that the west of Ireland will experience heavier rainfall and more storms, while the east will be warmer, drier and more prone to drought. “Because we are right in the middle of these two extremes, we are not sure what we will get, but our weather is certainly changing and getting chaotic,” he said.
He warns that the Shannon River Basin is more likely to flood as rainfall increases, and that areas that never flooded before will flood occasionally, while those that only flooded every 100 years will now flood every decade. He warned that with houses built where they never should have been built, the consequences will be dire for some home owners. Mr O’Sullivan provides a check-list of things we can do individually and as a nation to stop the dramatic changes to the world as we know it. He warns that as our oceans and air get warmer, our farming patterns will have to change. Public transport will have to be extended and homes will have to be adapted.
He acknowledges that the ordinary “Seán and Mary Citizen” are doing their best and “Irish people are extraordinarily good at working together, but they have become cynical about government”. They need to press the government to provide the incentives that are needed to change the way we work and live, he suggests.
Jack says that we have to look at alternative farming enterprises and move away from beef and milk production to growing willow, apples, hazelnuts, walnuts and sugar beet, for instance, to reduce methane and carbon dioxide emissions. He says farmers “have been locked into a situation that is economically unviable and environmentally unsustainable and harmful” and they must be encouraged and helped to change. We have to revegetate our bogs so they can capture and hold carbon dioxide. The government needs to provide an extensive public transport system linking every town and village and provide better supports to help people make their homes environmentally friendly while using less energy and becoming more comfortable.
Jack lived in Dublin before moving first to an apartment at Tullynally Castle and then buying a cottage at Ballymanus, Castlepollard. Since then, he and his partner, Dalia, have extended the cottage, had it externally insulated, and put in solar thermal heating and solar panels that give them hot water and electricity for more than half the year. Grants are available from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland for external insulation and solar panels.
People need to be made aware of what is needed and helped to meet those needs, Jack urges. He judges the government, any government, on how much it helps and supports those people who are in the greatest need, “and we have many people in such need in the midlands”.
Jack is also a member of the Columb Barracks Restoration and Regeneration Committee, a group working for the last three years to bring about the transformation of the barracks into a creative, social, cultural, heritage, educational and innovative centre for Mullingar.