A Galway academic who has been contributing to a major study on health and climate change for each of the last eight years believes the most recent results should serve as a major wake-up call for Ireland.

Karyn Morrissey, Professor in Environment and Marine at the University of Galway, said the 2024 global report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change has seen ten out of the 15 key indicators break new records in terms of increased heat, exposure to cold snaps, floods, droughts and wildfires.

“That’s two-thirds of the climate change-related health hazards, exposures and impacts. The key of course as far as Ireland is concerned is increased precipitation and rainfall.”

The record rainfall and flooding here will continue to directly adversely impact on sectors such as tillage farming, beef farming, construction and transportation. Some industries may simply not survive.

“What people don’t seem to realise, is it’s not just an annoyance that we don’t have a summer. It has direct and indirect impacts and disruption on our everyday lives, it’s impacting on our infrastructure, housing, transportation, which impacts on food security.”

She believes that unless major changes to reverse climate change are implemented in the short-term, today’s children will experience food insecurity.

“And I’m not just talking about food like aubergines and courgettes not being available. We’re going to see a lot of macronutrients and micronutrients not being available. Kids born today are going to go through periods when they can’t get basic food items.”

The report – written by 122 authors across 57 academic institutions and UN agencies – found that people were exposed to an unprecedented 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures than expected without climate change last year.

Caption: Karyn Morrissey, Professor in Environment and Marine at the University of Galway.

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