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CLIMATE CHANGE COULD put more than 60,000 Irish homes at heightened risk of coastal flooding by 2050, according to a new survey of vulnerable coastal locations across the country.
A data and mapping analysis by Gamma Location Intelligence (GLI) has found that more than 70,000 addresses will be at risk of coastal flooding by the middle of the century, some 88% of which are residential.
Dublin, Louth and Clare are expected to be the most affected counties.
The analysis, published today, predicts that 21,513 residential addresses and 1,922 commercial properties in Dublin will be at risk.
Louth is expected to be second most affected county, with some 10,280 residential and 968 commercial properties predicted to be impacted, followed by Clare with 7,376 homes and 1,320 businesses at risk.
Limerick (5,426 properties) and Galway (4,501 properties) rounded out the top five areas expected to be most impacted by increased flood risk as a result of climate change.
The findings are based on a predicted global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius, which climate scientists expect to happen in the next 30 years in some scenarios.
Such an increase would cause sea levels to rise up to 1.75 metres and bring about more extreme weather events, leading to higher and more frequent coastal flooding.
The figures are relevant for coastal flooding only, and do not refer to other types of flooding brought on by heavy rainfall and high river levels in addition which could cause even more properties to be impacted.
The modelling also omits existing or planned sea wall defences.
Richard Cantwell of Gamma Location Intelligence said explained how the effects of climate change would become more tangible and extreme in coming years.
“With increasing global temperatures, sea levels are rising which means flooding will become more commonplace,” he said.
“This will have a major impact on many Irish counties, particularly along the coast, and a significant number of properties are set to be affected, unless carbon dioxide emissions are reduced which will help to delay the process.
“Of course, the situation that is unfolding across the globe due to the Covid-19 crisis has resulted in a drop in carbon emissions over recent weeks with flights grounded, businesses closed and less pollution.
“Whether this decrease will continue when lockdown measures are eased remains to be seen.”
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Eamon , Lieo and Mehole gonna sort the planet with more taxes for us on our 0.01 percent of global emissions…
@Gary O CONNOR: can you imagine if Mary Lou was Taoiseach at the start of the Covid 19 outbreak… ?? Do you think Pearse would have come up with Covid 19 payments ? No we would all be getting food parcels delivered to our door, ….
@Gary O CONNOR: If only we could pay €50 for a bag of coal and €5 per litre of Petrol it would make this all go away. These fuels are extremely clever and only emit small or negligent amounts of C02 when they know their price. Magic stuff lads.
@Paul O’Sullivan: Ah I see you’re a new FG account set up in Jan. Troll away…
@Paul O’Sullivan: How can you prove that Paul?
@Gary O CONNOR:
No one has ever said we are fixing the planet for everyone else…Ireland is only tackling irelands emissions. All 0.01% of them.
@Bren: I am actually a Socialist Party voter… since 2002 and was Labour until then…….. certainly never voted FF/ FG or SF and NEVER WILL.
CLIMATE CHANGE WILL put more than 60,000 Irish homes at heightened risk.
No, it COULD. As the article says, it’s a prediction. PREDICTION.
@Hugehure: Yeah, lets wait until 2050 to find out if it does.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: If we’re alive we will and I predict bullpish.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: what has that got to do with the article clearly contradicting itself?
@Hugehure: Auld Moore’s Almanac stuff .
@Hugehure: a pandemic was predicted for 2020 years ago…….
Climate change is not man made.
Climate change fear is man made.
Climate change is an evolution of our planet.
@Gerard Casserly: then when we got locked down we suddenly saw that it was not the cows responsible for our emissions…
@Gerard Casserly: Sure burning millions of years of stored carbon in the form of gas oil coal in just 200 years and creating highest co2 level in 3 million years is not going to change our climate. It already has and its not natural its man made. Greenland’s ice sheet lost an average of 200 gigatons of ice per year, and Antarctica’s ice sheet lost an average of 118 gigatons of ice per year.
“The amount of ice lost from both ice sheets is equivalent to a layer of water half an inch [1.27 centimeters] thick on top of all the oceans or to fill around 13 billion swimming pools,” https://eos.org/articles/shrinking-ice-sheets-lifted-global-sea-level-14-millimeters
@Gerard Casserly: Good man Gerard, there’s no way 9 billion carbon reliant people are having a negative affect on the earth natural cycle, sure you’d have to be an eejit to think that, even the hair on your head couldn’t stand being around you any longer Gerard. I
@Gerard Casserly: you’ve been caught lying before, Gerard. Why should we believe you? You spout anti-immigration, anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown views as well as being a supporter of Gemma O’Doherty and John Waters. You can’t even spell the name of the school you attended. You don’t believe in science, yet here you are waffling on about it as if your opinion is equally as valid as someone who has actually studied and worked in the field. You have no expertise, experience or qualifications in this area at all. Go back to your frog-marching, 5G chemtrail, Lizard people conspiracy theories. You really should hide that stuff from your Facebook profile.
@Gerard Casserly: and the earth is flat?
@Paul Cunningham: Yup. Humans in lockdown saw air quality globally drastically improved. River pollution dropped, increases in birds, bees, wildlife, etc.
@Gerard Casserly: Then explain the freshest air on this planet in years or the fact that fish are returning to heavily indutrialised rivers during the various lockdowns! You are correct the climate change is part of the evolution of the planet…..but slowly. Only 2 types of things can cause it to happen at the accelerated rates that we are seeing today: 1) An astronomical event such as a solar flare or impact of of an asteroid or comet, both of which have happened in the past, as well as several other types of astronomical event, and 2) Mankind, which as far as I can see not only accelerated this climate change event, but started it in the first place.
@GO GREEN: What is the average yearly rate of sea level rise now, and what was the average yearly rate of sea level rise 100yrs ago ?
@Tommy Roche: The answers to your question can be found here (it’s a PDF file so will automatically download):
https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/slr/
@Tommy Roche: and here: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2680/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/
@Tommy Roche: And here: http://ocean.si.edu/through-time/ancient-seas/sea-level-rise
@Tommy Roche: And here (PDF):
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/TAR-11.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjhyZKvyMXpAhWCShUIHXtAALU4ChAWMAN6BAgCEAE&usg=AOvVaw25F5sKCPtS4Z4mBA3G8RzZ
@Tommy Roche: And here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10712-011-9119-1
@Tommy Roche: This one goes back even further: http://datazone.birdlife.org/sea-level-rise-poses-a-major-threat-to-coastal-ecosystems-and-the-biota-they-support
@Tommy Roche: And here: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/sea-level-rise-3/assessment
@Tommy Roche: But, we all know you won’t read any of those links, will refuse to listen to the experts, have already formed an opinion based on fear of changing your ways and some tyre salesman on YouTube who thinks he has it all figured out. And then you wonder why people laugh at you. Do you also believe the Earth is flat? And go to the barbers to get your car engine checked out?
This crisis with corona is nothing compared to what’s coming of don’t drastically take action. Unfortunately decision like Germany’s latest on their new coal mine show that nothing is changing. It’s heartbreaking
@Craic-Hommy: Listen, we were told by all the save the whalers and soap dodgers that the planet was as dirty as a tramps sandel and we were all doomed. Then after only 6 weeks lockdown they tell us that the air is clean again and holes in the ozone layer are fixed. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.
@Craic-Hommy: Where are you getting all this future new from? Where would Eamonn Ryan’s plan fit in in this real world?.
@Crispy Brown:
The air is cleaner, not clean. The hole in the ozone opens and closes every year, this year it was the biggest on record. We ate still adding millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Maybe you don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
@Tim Pot: lets see what happens to the air quality when the world finally exits lockdown, and the amount of CO2 being pumped into the air goes back to the levels it was before lockdowns happened. We may still be pumping millions of tonnes as you say, but in this country at least, it was from essential trips. What will happen when all the non essential ones start up again.
We could carbon tax ourselves to the hilt, put in every single proposals even the most wacky thought up one by the green, save the earth lobby and it wouldn’t make a difference, if the large polluters, china, usa, India, Brazil, etc, ignore the problem.
I’m not saying we do nothing, we have to, but we can’t afford either to be the best child in the class room. The 7% carbon reduction a year, will desimate rural Ireland in the short to medium terms.
We need sensible workable suggestions.
@Karl Mc Cauley:
We are not trying to be the best. 7% is literally the target for every other country on the planet.
@Tim Pot: like how u avoided my point about it decimating rural communities.
@Karl Mc Cauley:
Alright well the current path for agriculture has all but one sector relying on eu and governmental supports. It wasn’t green policies that had the beef farmers out protesting recently. Forgive me for thinking expanding organics, forestry and supporting farmers who sequester carbon in their peat soils and enhancing biodiversity loss is a better outlook for rural ireland rather than forcing them to produce more for less every year. It wont devastate agriculture, but with a bit of luck it might fundamentally transform it.
@Karl Mc Cauley: Do you live in a rural community? Because I do, and the vast majority of rural dwellers are not in the agri business. Protecting our planet by introducting sustainable industries and behaviour will not decimate rural communities. Continuing business as usual will damage all communities.
@Karl Mc Cauley: Absolutely correct My Friend .
Tax will sort that . Lol
@james r:
Well you have been asked nicely to stop burning fossil fuels for more than 2 decades already with little success, so maybe it’s worth trying to make them more expensive to use.
Big Al and obummer must be getting worried after buying their beach side mansions.
@Tom Fitzgibbons: probably not…he’ll be 103 by then!
@Clubhouse Barman.: going by big Al his mansion should’ve been under water before he got a chance to buy it, but you already knew that didn’t you?
Another Cock and Bull Story drawn up by more of these top class EXPERTS. We are blessed with Experts, all with an Agenda of their own. We are being fed far too much Bulls…e , and far too many people are believing it.
@Eugene Comaskey: because ignorant people don’t have an agenda? Then there are those that can understand the information and would rather not change anything as it will have a negative effect on them whether financial or power. They want people to not believe the experts so they can carry on.
@Eugene Comaskey: any proof for any of what you claimed? What’s your expertise, then? What qualifications do you have?
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: My expertise is gained by living on this Planet for nearly 70 years, I don’t need loads of letters after my name of degrees to know that Climate Change has gone on for Centuries . Are you one of these “Experts” who believe all the stories that some half idiot of a lecturer spun to a large group of young people and tried to brainwash them with ” knowledge” . Every day as we listen to the Radio we hear Presenters talking to Professor this or Professor that , about some Goddam nonsense or other., And They Are ALL EXPERTS. I have to quote a previous contributor there, ” Climate change is Not Manmade, – Climate change fear is Manmade, – Climate Change is an Evolution of our Planet.” Give up the auld nonsense.
We have been shown in last few months that things will change and can change in a minute.deal with it when it happens all this worry and negative news is stopping humans from doing anything without thinking of next thing.the world changes it always has.cant change it.if it’s not the climate it could be another flu .if we spend all our life on earth worrying about the next 50 years then when that comes it could be something worse and we have not enjoyed a day..i believe the earth has its own way of dealing with things.and it will turn..we are all in this world together.enjoy it best you can.till something raises its head and we will realise we are only here for a short time…nature will take of it.we can’t save the world…we are not meant to.if it happens it was going to anyway.Its fate.
@Shirley Hollingsworth: Ah Shirley, don’t you know that line from T2 That Leo loved so much he used in his speech; There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.
@Shirley Hollingsworth: You are witnessing how nature finds a balance. And how nice of you to condemn our children to suffering not of their making. And not to forget the millions of species who are also being affected by our behaviour.
Map of areas below annual coastal flood level in 2050; coastal.climatecentral.org/map/8/-7.9577/52.6012/
The Arctic is unravelling as we speak – in one of coldest places on Earth, some parts of Siberia recording highs of over 20C. https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/arctic-sea-ice-temperature-spring-record-high-melt-climate-change-environment-a9519931.html
Over 7 million acres already burned in Siberia
Massive reductions can be made and it will not only cost nothing but save money, such as people continuing to work from home, but as we see most people on here are hostile to any form of climate action.
@GO GREEN: people on here are living day to day..week to week..not being paid enough for dam hard work.and people dying every day in this country every day from many things..and may I say your weren’t invited by the people to join the government so hold your head up and tell your party have some pride..sorry but I can’t deal with it today .we don’t need it.i definitely don’t.today ,not 50 years.go save the planet .but it’s not your s to say how it’s saved.it s much more powerful than you..
@GO GREEN: can you get a more reliable source other than a UK shit rag?
@Tom Fitzgibbons: The scientific evidence is astounding. The trouble is that some people are inconsistent and selective in what they are willing to accept. Science does not give a shot about feelings or political bull it is just a tool that lays out the data. If you don’t trust it then you shouldn’t use technology and you definitely shouldn’t ever get on an aircraft again. Evidence is here https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
We’re going to tax into a depression while rest of the world parties
So who pays for the massive flooding and hurricanes. People working from home would cost nothing and save money, but u are even against that.
@GO GREEN: are you saying we would have no floods or hurricanes if climate was all natural? The greens are idiots and you are living proof.
@Tom Fitzgibbons: Nonsense, warming waters fuel more powerful hurricanes- just look at Bangladesh now suffering one of most powerful cyclones ever recorded.
Just when is everyone going to cop on and realise that this problem is only going to be solved by a mass worldwide movement, not just planet Ireland, into Generation 4, modular nuclear power. The sooner we get wise to the big scam of grossly intermittent wind and solar power, the better. Talk of 70% renewables is complete and utter dishonest rubbish. Please stop it. All being pushed of course by the fracked gas gang, well knowing they will have us over a barrel for filling the big gaps.
We can argue the cause for this and how much influence we have on changing the outcome. What’s much easier is calculate how much it will cost to reduce climate change or how much it will cost to deal with the effects. In this case it will be far cheaper to increase/improve coastal defenses than trying to prevent this from happening.
Not saying to reduce our effect on the climate, but let’s not lose sight on just dealing with the effect instead of trying to prevent it from happening.
Maybe it’s time to revisit the Clontarf sea wall?
have your say