Kenya is suffering drought, while northern Europe is lashed by storms. This past month's weather headlines have given powerful ammunition to those who have long warned of man's contribution to global warming. Even if there is no evidence of a direct link to current meteorological events, the ferocity of the elements has been a foretaste of things to come.
And it is a nasty taste at that. Europe may be split in two, according to the study produced for the EU earlier this month by the Jackson Environment Institute of the University of East Anglia. It concludes that southern Europe will fare a lot worse than the north as the climate changes. The threat of acute water shortage, burnt crops, increased forest fires and scorching summer daytime temperatures in areas such as southern Spain, Italy and Greece will be greater than the increased flood risk and constant wet weather experienced up here.
Should Ireland acquire a climate similar to that of Bordeaux, as forecast in a report submitted by experts to the Department of the Environment in 1991, this island could gain at others' expense. However, should we lose the beneficial effects of the Gulf Stream, because of a melting Polar ice cap - a possibility not identified in that 1991 report - the impact could be devastating.
As this newspaper's Science Editor, Dick Ahlstrom, has pointed out: "Life as we know it would be gone." Ireland's latitude is similar to that of Newfoundland, but the Gulf Stream's warm equatorial water gives us our temperate climate. Without it, our ports would be frozen in winter, and "summers" would be sharp and short. At the same time, water temperatures currently appear to be warming, with recent reports by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group of an unprecedented number of strandings of the Mediterranean Striped dolphin.
The Irish Times canvassed the views of six people living on various parts of the coastline. We asked them about their concerns in relation to climate change - and their observations on weather, generally.
Gene O'Sullivan
Divisional controller, Valentia Coast Radio Station, Co Kerry:
"Are they panicking, I wonder? We've had a marvellous summer, which was much milder than usual. As for wind, there's a storm force 10 blowing outside now and two Spanish fishing vessels are receiving assistance from the Irish Coast Guard and the RAF, but the last really serious gale we had here was in December, 1998.
"Force eight and nine gales are normal for us down here, nothing exceptional. We've had a lot of rain this week, but I wonder are these weather systems part of a phase, rather than actual indications of climate change? I don't think the scientists agree on it, in any case."
Maryangela Keane
Botanist and naturalist, the Burren, Co Clare:
"From what I understand of global warming, the effect will be increased evaporation from the Earth's surface: some countries will face a deluge, others a drought when it starts to take effect. The Burren is a very fragile landscape, and it is easily upset.
"Our average winter temperature here is eight degrees and the summer average is 15 degrees. That difference of only seven to eight degrees is one of the keys to plant activity. We also have a very high light density, due to the reflection from the naked limestone and from the sea, and there is no air pollution.
"In addition, the exposed limestone absorbs heat in spring, which means it is warmer up in the hills in the Burren in winter than at sea level. That reverse temperature curve allows the grass to grow all during the winter on the uplands.
"If we were to have hotter summers, the exposed limestone areas would certainly dry up as would the plants, but I don't think the hills would be adversely affected. The karst limestone landscape means that all the underground channels would fill, and there would be flash flooding in the areas of turloughs - something we experience now anyway.
"I haven't noticed any identifiable changes, but strangely, when I came to Lisdoonvarna 40 years ago, there was a lot more wind than there appears to be now."
Tommy Flaherty
Aran Island fisherman and skipper/owner of the Westward Isle
"We have noticed that the sea temperatures have been warmer later in the year. I'm fishing for herring, and over the past 20 years I've noticed that the spawning is getting later. It used to be September/October, and now it is into November, and a week later each time.
"For the last three to four years, we've also been getting a lot of tuna. Ten years ago, you'd get the odd one, but last year we had a lot more. I remember up to 20 bluefin tuna between two boats, as a by-catch when we were midwater trawling. I notice the Japanese boats are moving north after them as well, and I read of a vessel in Iceland that was rigged for bluefin tuna for the last couple of years. And it went to sea!
"We've heard that the gales will be more intense. All I know is that there has been no break at all at times, with gales every second day."
Aisling O'Malley,
Student, Clare Island, Co Mayo. The island has been the subject of a Royal Irish Academy multi-disciplinary scientific study, similar to that undertaken by Robert Lloyd Praeger almost a century ago:
"I suppose we are aware of it, partly because the island has been the subject of scientific study. We are very dependent on the weather on the island. For 42 weeks of the year, people are totally controlled by it. It influences every decision they make, so if there is going to be any change it will have a major impact.
"I don't worry so much about it for myself, but I do think about the generation coming up. A lot of young people are trying to get jobs and stay on the island now, instead of leaving. You'd like to think there would be a future there, and that the population would remain.
"As for me, I am about to go and study geography. I'm not sure of my plans. It is a tough place to live, but it is somewhere I'd like to go back to eventually, somewhere to retire to."
Eamon de Buitlear
Wildlife film-maker, based in Co Wicklow. His new series, A Life on the Wild, which looks back on 30 years of film-making, is due to be broadcast on RTE 1 television on November 30th:
"I heard two scientists arguing on television the other day, with one saying this recent weather we have been having is due to the greenhouse effect, and another saying that it is due to changes in the universe. Whatever the reason, there is no excuse for not cutting down on our waste and being more aware of our environment.
"There is no doubt that the flooding we have experienced this month on the east coast is due to bad planning, and I fought years ago on the Heritage Council for an overall Government land-use and water-use plan which we don't have. The whole environmental scene is very depressing, and it appears as if the country is being run by developers.
"I have no objection to builders being kept busy, but it is almost as if there is a panic. And, ultimately, at a great cost."
Michael Kelly
Chairman, south Galway branch, Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), and member of the Office of Public Works (OPW) steering group set up to alleviate flooding in south Galway:
"We've been suffering from a total climate change here since September 1st. There has been continuous rain.
"In fact, the whole trend in farming is changing. Most of the livestock has been indoors for several months now, and we've lost our autumn. We've jumped from summer into winter without that balmy transition, and it is like going from one extreme to another.
"That's why it is so important to look at water systems and identify their deficiencies. When you have an inch to an inch-and-a-half of rain in a very short period, as we have experienced many times here, it has to be done.
"If we can achieve our own review of our waterways in south Galway, while adhering to the environmental criteria laid down by Duchas (the Heritage Service), it could serve as a national model. And we need that, if climate change is on the way."