Ireland's Burning

Book excerpt: How Will Climate Change Affect You? Climate change is the biggest threat to the world today. Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns are already creating havoc in parts of the world. The issue has been hotly debated by experts and policy-makers; it is now widely accepted that human activity has played a crucial part in climate change. Nobody now denies the urgency of the situation. But how will climate change affect Ireland? What do we know about climate change? What is happening now? What will happen in the future, and what can we do about it? RTÉ’s Environment Correspondent Paul Cunningham takes us on a tour of Ireland, meeting people whose lives and livelihoods have already been affected or will be affected in the future – farmers whose lands have been flooded and who find their crops threatened by unseasonal weather; coastal residents whose homes are in danger of collapsing into the sea; and ordinary parents whose children will bear the cost of our actions today. He also speaks to Ireland’s leading weather and climate experts and campaigners, who paint a realistic picture of what lies in store for us over the coming decades; businesses whose responsibility for leading change is as big as their carbon imprints; and Environment Ministers, former and current, Noel Dempsey and John Gormley. Cunningham looks at the proven facts and the various scenarios that may be played out. Finally, the author sums up what we can do to prevent disaster on a local and global scale. Ireland’s Burning is a highly readable, accessible book that addresses an issue that is not going to go away.