Five Minutes to Midnight - Ireland and Climate Change

Cabragh Wetlands Trust is hosting a very special evening on the crucial topic of Climate Change at the Wetland Centre on Wednesday 25th November at 8.00pm. Our speaker is a very distinguished Tipperary man, Dr Kieran Hickey, Lecturer in Physical Geography at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Kieran has taught and studied widely in Ireland and the UK, writing many articles in academic journals, and recently published a very well reviewed book on Climate Change, entitled “Five Minutes to Midnight? Ireland and Climate Change”. He has made a special study of the impact of climate change on storm patterns, coastal vulnerability and sea-level rise in Ireland and elsewhere, and has spoken at conferences as far afield as New Zealand, Slovenia, Spain and the USA as well as Ireland and the UK.



This promises to be an exceptional evening, with a chance to hear a recognized expert talk on a complex subject that could not be of greater significance for each and every one of us. Here at Cabragh Wetlands we are striving to work within the local community to address the important questions raised by the changing climate. Do come. Listen, learn, think, and share your ideas. Let’s work as a community to move towards a better future. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Students (especially budding Third Level Geographers) will be very welcome. Entrance is free, and copies of Kieran’s book will be available.



The UN Conference on Climate Change is meeting in Copenhagen in December to try to hammer out a treaty that will replace the Kyoto Protocols and set new binding targets on carbon emissions, though the latest news is not encouraging. Perhaps the best we can hope for is productive talks, better understanding and a move towards a binding treaty in the next year. One proposal is to reduce damaging emissions by 40% by 2020, with an 80% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2050. The changes to our lifestyles could be immense, and the prospect of failure suggests a very bleak future for mankind and the rest of life on Earth.



It is alarming to read this week that a poll of 1500 people in the UK found that two-thirds of them do not believe climate change is happening. Equally concerning are the number of ordinary, decent folk who turn their backs on the problem – “2050? I’ll be dead by then. It’s nothing to do with me.” It makes you doubt that oft repeated cliché, that man is rational. In the last few months we have been able to read reports about Australian states and cities that are debating the abandonment of their coastlines because of rising sea levels – steps to build sea defences are likely to be banned. Outlying islands in the Carteret group north of Australia are being evacuated by their inhabitants because sea level rises are already making them uninhabitable. The Maldives government is openly searching for a new piece of land that they can buy and move to, lock stock and barrel; it is the only way they can keep together as a national community, as their own islands steadily flood. According to the United Nations 300,000 people are already dying each year because of climate change, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.



Essentially this is the fault of the over-material western “developed” world, with their excessive demands for oil-based energy. Questions need to be raised about our morals and values, as well as our lifestyles. Can the planet cope with a population that has gone from 4.1 billion in 1975, to 6.7 billion today and a projected 10.8 billion by 2100, within the lifetime of children born today?



This is not a question that any of us can afford to turn away from. We can look at it on many levels. The massive populations of Asia must be persuaded away from the wasteful materialism that obsesses the West; that can only be done if we lead the way and give up much that we have come to regard as our right. You may prefer to see this as a local issue; every community and every family must take the responsibility for controlling their carbon emissions, preserving biodiversity and habitat, switching to sustainable sources of energy, limiting population growth and reshaping their values so that over the coming decades man becomes again a species that lives within the limits of the planet’s finite resources.



Come along to Cabragh on 25th November and join the debate. If you think those who are concerned about climate change are wrong, come and tell us why. If you have ideas on what we as a community can do, come and share them. Local councillors? Churches? Energy suppliers? Farmers? Scientists and engineers? You all have important contributions to make. Let’s hear from you.