The Challenges posed by Climate Change will have impacts on Clare in the future and should not be underestimated despite recent media coverage claiming climate change is over hyped. I have had a number of contacts from people that assert that climate change is a myth peddled by the “likes of me of further my own political career” I wish to make it clear that the sources I listen to on this matter are well researched and if anything are over conservative in their opinions. Professor John Sweeny leads the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit (ICARUS) in NUI Maynooth and one of his clear predictions is that Climate Change will change farming patterns in Clare as one of the more serious impacts of the predictions of the climate change are changes in Rainfall.
What is becoming clear is that the science backing up the predictions is extremely robust and the recent attempts to undermine or rubbish the risks posed by climate change are dangerous.
Its like the Fag’s
Dismissing the threat’s posed by changes in Climate are similar to the actions of the cigarette manufactures in the 50’s and 60’s to rubbish the soundly held view that cigarettes were a major cause of Cancer. Doubt became the ally of the cigarette industry, as it is now the ally of those that seek to undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions
Although warmer temperatures would be expected to result in shorter winter housing times for livestock, a trend towards wetter winters may result in problems of poaching and soil damage which may negate this. The balance of grazing season length against winter rainfall will dictate the stored feed requirement, and the actual climate will dictate the choice of forage crop grown. Opportunities to spread slurry or dirty water in winter will be substantially reduced and increased slurry storage requirements are likely to be needed. Drought stress will become increasingly important.
Irrigation will become important for all crops in the eastern half of the country. This will have a major impact on the economics, machinery requirement and labour demand in both tillage and livestock systems. Irrigation in dairying in the drought-prone southeast is currently justified economically only if water is available without charge and without the construction of farm reservoirs. With the projected scenarios, a much greater area of agricultural land will be affected by drought loss, and the quantities of water involved to compensate by irrigation will be large. Given that agriculture may have to compete for scarce summer water extraction with other users, the consequent economic effects may make crops with good potential uneconomical.
No More Spuds
It is hard to believe but because of drought stress it is likely that potatoes will cease to be a commercially viable crop over much of Ireland. I know given the wet summers of the last three years this may seem nonsense but I have checked with Maynooth and they are still firm in their view that this will be the case. Any way we are better off without the things. Spuds got us in to a big mess in the mid eighteen hundreds. Some people are saying that the current economic crisis is the worst this Island has ever faced. The Famine was many times worse than today’s malaise. I am firmly of the opinion if you don’t plan for the future impacts of a changing climate and our ability to produce our own food we will be setting our selves up for something like the calamity of the Irish Famine