Irish Examiner view: We must act now to stave off coastal erosion

Individual homeowners, littoral communities, and huge numbers of historic monuments and heritage sites are under threat

High seas crash over the seafront in Youghal, Co Cork, in April. An increase in the number of fierce storms and the extreme weather events which have latterly been battering the Irish coast has seen many vulnerable areas exposed to greatly graver threats from the waters which surround us. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Rising sea levels triggered by global warming are affecting large tracts of the globe from almost the entire Atlantic seaboard of America, to large sections of the Indian sub-continent, and Bangladesh in particular, through to small low-lying island nations in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

In Ireland, the effects have triggered concerns about rapidly increased levels of coastal erosion which are affecting individual homeowners, littoral communities, and huge numbers of historic monuments and heritage sites in danger of falling into the sea.