Shame on those who rubbish the realities of climate change

If ever anyone was in doubt that we're facing irrevocable changes to our environment and weather very soon, then surely those doubts have finally been banished by the latest report on climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the EPA, summer temperatures will rise by as much as 3 Degrees Celsius within the next 50 years. This mightn't sound much to many people, but this will cause heat stress to many humans and animals. Also, it will lead to drought in the east and south east, causing an increased frequency of wild fires and pest infestations. Doesn't sound too pretty, does it?

Then in winter, we will see more intense cyclonic and extreme precipitation events, resulting in violent winter storms currently experienced once every 100 years becoming an annual event. If human causing global warming continues we will eventually experience hurricanes like those currently experienced in areas around the Gulf of Mexico on an annual basis. Even outside of this we will experience higher winter rainfall of between 11 and 17 per cent. This mightn't sound a lot, but combined with an expected catastrophic rise in sea levels of six metres due to the loss of major ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, it will cause catastrophic flooding of coastal and river areas resulting in drinking water being contaminated by sea water. Plus this will lead to large parts, including the centres, of our biggest cities – Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick – being permanently under water. Also low-lying places such as Louth and North Dublin, which have little or no protection from rising sea levels, will be badly affected by coastal erosion. Don't forget that we will also witness depletion of fish stocks sensitive to even small changes in temperature. This includes cod. In addition we will witness the extinction of vulnerable species requiring cooler conditions such as the Artic Char fish found in Irish lakes.

Getting scared? Well, you should be! This EPA report was compiled by eminent scientists and environmentalists, as was the recent UN report on climate change, so it cannot be rubbished by apologists for the oil industry such as George Bush, Dick Cheney, Kevin Myers, Mary Ellen Synon, Ruth Dudley Edwards and others. A right rogues gallery if ever there was one, who if they're not stopped and confronted now could cause the extinction of life on earth. That's the message that has to be hammered home to these cretins and their spin-doctor propagandists including their poodle journalists who are bribed by these cretins to try and rubbish the growing evidence of human causing global warming. I say "Shame!" "Shame!" "Shame on you!"

We must take action urgently to stop this nightmarish future becoming a reality. Painful sacrifices will have to be made by all, myself included. Start reducing our reliance on CO2 fuels such as coal, gas and oil which emit these global warming gases into the atmosphere. Time to start using renewable energy sources such as solar, tidal/wave, water and wind. Which we have plenty of in Ireland! Start cutting back our use of air travel. We need to use more public transport. The government should be encouraging us to use public transport by giving us incentives to use it, and by making it as attractive as possible. This will involve massive investment in public transport to completely modernise it, and to create many more public transport services, such as many extra buses, metros, railways, trains and trams. We need much more public transport alternatives than are presently available. Then we can start introducing congestion charges, and putting limits on private cars entering our city centres like they do in other countries. Also businesses should be encouraged and requested to use rail freight, which is far more environmentally friendly than road freight. There should be a big publicity drive by the government to encourage businesses and people to completely turn off all unnecessary lights and appliances such as computers, photocopiers, printers and TVs that are not being used, and to ask people to use dimmers, and auto-timers for their lights, and to turn down their heating systems by a few degrees Celsius. Even these few basic, simple measures will be a great start, but we need to start implementing them now.

Paul Kinsella, Santry, Dublin 9