They told us, but we didn't listen

It’s Lúnasa. A time to celebrate light, a time to harvest, and in Waterford a time to enjoy Spraoi!

One of the legends associated with the Celtic God of light, Lugh, is that his mother died of exhaustion after clearing the land of Ireland for agriculture. 

Maybe if she hadn't we would still have our native woodlands and some hope of surviving the coming apocalypse!

Meanwhile it is a wonderful time of the year and the heatwave has brought joy to sea swimmers and families enjoying their summer holidays.

There’s no shortage of gratitude amongst the people I meet every day and the greetings between us are usually: “Aren’t we blessed/lucky,” or even “Aren’t we spoiled!” And we are! Mostly we are surrounded by beauty and creativity. 

We don’t have too far to look to see other parts of the world that are not as lucky. 

But there are still problems to be solved and solutions to be found, many of them right under our noses.

They told us, but we didn’t listen. How often have we heard this? Whether we are talking about man made climate change, the cost of energy, the lack of public transport, the failures in education or health; Ireland is running into a glut of problems that we have failed to step up to for decades.

It’s not just Ireland of course, humanity worldwide is running out of options. 

The inevitable consequences of our stupidity and short term thinking are being exposed to us every day. 

Nature is not impressed with how we have turned a blind eye to everything we were warned about and we will suffer as a result.

At last, because of the wildfires across Europe, there is currently a bit more interest in how to prepare for Climate Change. 

The scientists told us for the last 40 years that increasing global temperatures would cause significant weather, fire and flooding events. 

Weirdly we never listened to the science and so here it is!

We thought that the apocalyptic images on our screens of droughts and food shortages in lands far away were never going to be our problem.

But now those of us living close to dangerous and traumatic “wildfires” are seeing up close a small sample of the anxiety and chaos weather events can create.

In Ireland where there is forestry, it is generally made up of Sitka Spruce varieties which have been grown for commercial use. 

Unfortunately, unlike native woodland, these trees burn easily once a spark goes astray.

I have witnessed a number of forest fires over my lifetime. I think that traditionally there has been a deliberate element, and of course there is criminal activity too. 

I once saw and reported a fire being purposely lit by a group of teenagers.

It turned out to be a monster fire and took days to extinguish. 

Now it seems certain that the huge Killarney fire was caused by a discarded disposable barbecue.

The current issue is that the hot dry conditions make dangerous fires much more probable. 

Maybe it's the first time that the penny has dropped about what man made Climate Change actually means? Is France still too far away for us to believe that such devastation could happen here? I think it is! 

We don’t seem to plan, prepare or face the music about anything until the house is literally burning down around us.

This brings me to the whole question of who is actually in charge and how are decisions made? 

There was a huge brouhaha about the latest government announcements to speed up the delivery of nine crucial infrastructure projects. 

Naturally my first instinct was to see what would be delivered in Waterford? Yes you guessed it……absolutely nothing! (At this point I started to sound like my fellow columnist Phoenix, a man I can relate to more and more as I join in the chorus of “Waterford ignored yet again!”) 

But the other baffling part of this big announcement was that these projects were to be prioritised so that the agencies involved could work together to achieve completion? 

In other words here was the recognition that our systems for delivery are utterly hopeless. 

It was like a cry to say, “lads get your act together and at least talk to each other!!!” Working together across agencies should be basic!

If a sudden need to get a move on is required, can I suggest that we have some much bigger issues to address that are being sidelined all of the time. 

The elephant in the room is that our state agencies are each a law unto themselves with the left hand literally not knowing what the right hand is doing while Rome burns…..

As I write this the fire in France is four times the size of Paris and anxiety is building that this one and the huge fires in Spain and Portugal will take months to fully extinguish. From here today I can see more smoke on the Comeraghs and my friends there are living in dread that this is their future.

So how are we prioritising the protection of our beautiful landscapes, our wildlife, our parks and walks? 

How are we planning to protect our people from the threat of increasing temperatures, water shortages, droughts and food security when agriculture is hampered?

When will we actually start to believe what science has been telling us for decades?