Madam, - Michael Parsons (An Irishman's Diary, Thursday, July 19th) suggests that "one of the least discussed aspects of the climate 'crisis' is the inconvenient truth that many Irish people are secretly delighted by the prospect of global warming. After. . . biblical downpours and unseasonable chills, wouldn't a little warmth and sunshine be welcome?"
The writer was being playful and tongue-in-cheek. Nevertheless, this piece illustrates the ignorance displayed by many journalists and other commentators on the subject of climate change. An average global rise of 2 degrees, the situation to which he refers in the above article, is a very different prospect from a temporary local rise of the same number of degrees.
While the latter might barely be noticed, the former, if it occurs, will very likely be extremely dangerous and possibly catastrophic. One reason for this is that such a change brought on so rapidly in geological time could severely disrupt and possibly permanently damage our fragile planetary eco-system leading, ironically, to truly biblical extremes of weather in certain areas of the globe and bringing death and disaster on an unprecedented scale.
Furthermore, an average global temperature rise has feedback effects whereby the higher the rise in average temperature, the more extreme the processes which initially caused the temperature rise become. At some stage, we are likely to pass a critical point after which the feedback loop becomes irreversible. We do not know at what temperature this might happen but an average rise of two degrees in global temperatures is so extreme and unsettling from a global ecological perspective that it might well happen at or even before this stage.
Scientists know much less about what might happen in a scenario involving runaway positive feedback of average temperature but the chemical and biological changes that are hypothesised in those circumstances could conceivably change the ecosystem to such an extent that it is incapable of supporting plant and animal life. Thus, whereas a rise of one to two degrees in the global average temperature is frightening to contemplate, a rise of over 2 degrees might conceivably bring mass extermination of species, including our own.
This is an extremely serious issue and it behoves all thinking individuals to at least become aware of this. This is especially the case for those such as journalists in national newspapers whose opinions can influence so many others. - Yours, etc,
IAN STEWART, Cuan Na Coille, Fort Lorenzo, Galway.