Up until recently, many people seemed to believe that climate change is something that could possibly happen, and would occur some time in the distant future. Unfortunately, the last few weeks here in Ireland, and the experience of the people we work with overseas, is showing that climate change is happening now. So whether we’re in Dublin or Africa, there is no time to lose.
Across the world, Oxfam is working with people who are struggling with the very real and severe effects of climate change. As people here in Ireland deal with the effects of the flooding of the last several weeks, the people we work with are also seeing their lives severely damaged.
Most people in poorer countries make their living from agriculture and have a great understanding of the seasons and the best times to plant and harvest. But because of the changing weather patterns, it is impossible to predict when the rains will come or what crops to plant.
This change in seasons is inevitably leading to increasing food insecurity and adding to the billion people who already go hungry every day. The number of people affected by climate-related disasters like hurricanes is due to grow by more than 50 per cent to around 375 million by 2015. Diseases that have until now been limited to certain regions are starting to migrate to new populations.
As we know, it’s not just people in poorer countries who will be affected. Parts of Ireland are set to become even wetter. with the prospects of floods becoming a regular feature of life, and a predicted rise in sea level of over a metre would drown parts of Ireland as effectively as Bangladesh or Mozambique.
This week world leaders are gathering in Copenhagen to negotiate an agreement to halt runaway climate change. After nearly two years of negotiations, they have made almost no progress. Failure in these talks will make it highly likely that catastrophic climate change is inevitable. For the sake of all of us all, they cannot afford to fail.
Jim Clarken
chief executive,
Oxfam Ireland
