Cares of tomorrow must wait ‘til this day is done

Country Living with Francis Farragher

It’s strange times indeed in the West of Ireland if we’re to place any credence in recent reports that Connemara is beginning to slip into the sea while over the coming decades (well maybe that should be centuries) we could all be buffeted mercilessly by savage Atlantic storms.

Strange as it may seem, both scenarios are likely to be correct, given that they are the result of research work carried out by reputable scientists and academics, but irresponsible at it may seem, it doesn’t lead to any restless shuffles under the covers when sleep calls.

It seems pretty much beyond any doubt that the world is warming up as we burn more fossil fuels, and hotter oceans carry greater energy that in turn will create more ferocious storms over the coming years.

The latest academic to throw his tuppence ha’penny worth into the mix last week was Oxford professor, Myles Allen, whose research involved the utilisation of tens of thousands of computers to analyse the link between more severe Atlantic storms hitting the West of Ireland and global warming.

I wouldn’t dare for one second doubt the integrity of the research work carried out by Professor Allen, and how data from different eras collected under widely differing methods can be compared is completely beyond my comprehension.

Over recent times, the BBC announced that they were spending close on £100 million on a super-computer covering an area the size of a few football pitches, to process and unscramble, staggering volumes of data, that keep being produced every minute of every day. And yet, at times, they struggle to predict an accurate forecast beyond four or five days, and sometimes less.

Of course, we should all be worrying (well maybe that should be concerned) over our grandchildren’s welfare in 50 years time, but sometimes it’s hard to get bothered about things that far ahead, especially on a bad day when the cattle have broken into a neighbour’s meadow or the back tyre of the tractor is flat, just when a bale needs to be put out.

That might be a slightly facetious view of the whole climate change debate but the transition is so gradual that it’s very difficult for the climate change worriers to impart any sort of urgency into ordinary people’s mind about our world warming up.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.