Climate change - It’s time to make hard decisions

Over the weekend, British Labour party leader Ed Miliband warned that climate change is now “an issue of national security that has the potential not only to destabilise and cause conflict between regions of the world, but to destroy the homes, livelihoods, and businesses of millions of British people”.

Hours later, US secretary of state John Kerry spoke in equally strong terms: “When I think about the array of global climate, of the global threats, think about this: Terrorism, epidemics, poverty, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — all challenges that know no borders. The reality is that climate change ranks right up there with every single one of them.”

Tens of thousands of Irish people, who in recent weeks have experienced new levels of adverse weather and the chaos it brought, will agree with Mr Miliband. Some may even wonder why we have, for so very long, ignored warnings about what the future holds for societies unwilling to prepare for a very different world.