Flooding will worsen in the future, say experts

YOU think this summer was bad – just wait to see what the future has in store.

Climate change due to global warming means we are likely to see more destructive flooding on a larger scale, according to an Irish environmental expert attending the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

“All the projections of computer models are saying that it will get worse one way or another,” said Pat Finnigan, a climate change expert with the NGO coalition Earth Summit Ireland.

“I would argue that it’s already here in terms of the summer we’ve just had. The floods in Ringsend this year and Suir flooding in 2000 were all down to it,” he said.

Mr Finnigan’s comments are backed up by a Government report released earlier this summer. The research, published by the Department of the Environment and carried out by scientists at NUI Maynooth, predicted that winter flooding encroaching on Irish cities and summer droughts could be the norm by the middle of this century.

The report also warned that cities are more at risk as sea levels rise, especially when accompanied by intense rainfall.

Robert Watson, chief scientist with the World Bank, warned yesterday that issues such as flooding due to global warming were not just environmental issues but development issues as well.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, Mr Watson said action had to be taken sooner rather than later because many of the countries suffering worst from flooding are those already disadvantaged and marginalised by the West.

“Europe and Japan are showing some leadership. There’s no question whatsoever the US at the moment along with Australia have failed to come up with any real climate policies to address the climate issue so that’s critical,” said Mr Watson, who was bluntly forced out of his position as chair of the UN inter-governmental panel on climate change in April because the US objected to his views.

But Mr Finnigan, who was yesterday involved in negotiations over energy production in relation to the stricken Kyoto agreement, was not optimistic about the Earth Summit’s capacity to improve the situation.

“This is only soft law. The whole deal is riddled with opt-out clauses and it’s very disappointing from an environmental point of view,” Mr Finnigan said.