APART from beginning with the letter ‘G’, there would seem to be very little in common between Greece and Garrison; however, we’ve seen pictures of the problems caused by the weather in both places in recent weeks.

Admittedly, the footage of the wildfires in Greece was much more extreme and dramatic with an almost-apocalyptic feel to the scenes as the severe heatwave resulted in hundreds of wildfires sweeping parts of the world.

Still, the scenes of flooding at Garrison were distressing for local people, particularly the sadness of a local graveyard under water.

And it’s surely no coincidence that the Fermanagh village isn’t alone when it comes to serious levels of rainfall and flooding increasing in parts of Ireland in recent years. 

These images come at the same time as reports in which leading scientists have again highlighted the threat climate change poses to the very existence of the planet, but as ever, many of us either underestimate it, ignore it or even cast doubt on the experts’s assertion that it is mankind’s behaviour that’s causing the problem.

At the extreme end, there’s even paranoia that a combination of Covid and the burning up of the earth are signs of the ‘end times’.

Back in 2008, when Sammy Wilson was Environment Minister at Stormont, he suggested that Green campaigners were engaged in “hysterical pseudo-religion” and he dismissed their warnings by saying that ongoing climate shifts were down to nature and not mankind.

It seemed bizarre, and one wag suggested that Sammy being in charge of the Environment Department was akin to King Herod being Minister of Education!

It’s time for some calm focus, not least on the idea that if the problems are man-made, then the solution is also within man’s grasp.

As time goes on, we need to take this debate more seriously. Often, it requires the impact of something close to home to make us sit up and take notice.

We see the extremes of weather in other parts of the world and think climate change doesn’t really apply to us; as if Ireland wasn’t part of the planet somehow.

But we know it’s not some abstract idea affecting more exotic parts of the world.

Following the UN report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the media here reported on some of the implications for this island, with a new report, ‘The Status of Ireland’s Climate 2020’, giving detailed statistics with “clear evidence” that global change means Ireland is now warmer and wetter than ever.

The facts speak for themselves. The annual average surface air temperature in Ireland has increased by 0.9C over the last 120 years, with a rise in temperature being observed in all seasons.

That might not seem a massive figure to some, but it is. Some 15 of the top 20 warmest years on record here have occurred since 1990.

The decade spanning 2006-2015 was the wettest on record. The figures show sea levels rising and there’s been an increase in river flows.

And yet there are increasing droughts, too.

Remember, these are all facts; and some of the media reporting was rightly shocking.

One newspaper said that parts of the east of the island of Ireland could be under water by 2030 and when I looked at the map illustrating the story, it showed places like the Aviva stadium in Dublin and the City airport in Belfast among those affected.

Malahide could be under water and Howth would be an island in itself.

In another discussion, I heard people refer to the problems created by rising sea temperatures already affecting mussels and lobsters. Coastal ecosystems are already suffering.

Globally, temperatures are rising far too fast, with some estimates suggesting they could rise by 2.7C, away above targets aimed at preventing the destruction of the planet.

These scientific facts are indisputable, the only debate among some is whether climate change is caused by mankind’s misuse of the earth’s resources.

Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change has resulted from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, with the resultant CO2 emissions.

For example, it’s estimated that every gallon of petrol used adds 20 pounds of Carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; in 2019, America alone used 142 billion gallons of petrol, producing 1.42 billion tons of CO2.

China, with its population of 1,411 million people, emits 27 per cent of the world’s CO2.

So, when we see those statistics, I suppose many of us will wonder what good it will do the overall picture if we change our light bulbs to more energy-efficient ones.

But everyone has a part to play, particularly governments and big business, in dramatically curbing CO2 emissions.

The overall trend has to be less air and car travel, and indeed, less consumption of meat and dairy products, as well as the switch to electric cars, gaining more efficient energy from offshore wind farms, etc.

This message is getting through at different levels in different countries. In Norway, 74 per cent of new cars registered are electric, while in the United States it’s only 2.3 per cent.

And yet, in a town called Petaluma in San Francisco, there are plans to ban new petrol stations as an incentive for people to go electric.

Here, electric cars do not seem to have captured the imagination yet. I confess I haven’t yet been convinced yet, due to things like a lack of charging points, and a general perception that the technology isn’t great yet. So, we still stick to petrol and diesel.

We also like our dairy products and find it difficult to change our diets, especially in a place like Northern Ireland where the agriculture industry is so important.

One newspaper this week ran with the headline claiming the Ulster Farmers Union warned “Climate target would ruin NI farms”, which seemed an incredibly narrow view of a situation where a lack of climate targets will ruin the planet.

A short column like this, and from a lay person, can only scratch at the surface of a major debate about the potential catastrophe for our planet; and indeed, many of us continue to switch off from it.

But it scares me to think that large parts of Ireland could be under water in just nine years, and in the coming decades, within our lifetimes, earth faces an existential crisis.

The Covid crisis came quickly and affected us very directly. It was supposed to make us recalibrate our values and attitudes, the way we live and treat other people.

A far worse crisis for the world, that of climate change, is rumbling away in the background and rapidly progressing.

People like me and you should pay it more attention.