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SUMMER IS APPROACHING, which means rising temperatures and an increased threat of wildfires.
Although Ireland is not immune to this phenomenon, other parts of Europe have experienced the true devastation this type of fire can cause.
Thousands of hectares can be left in ruin, lives lost, and the livelihoods of thousands impacted.
On this week’s episode of The Explainer, supported by the European Commission’s European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), we’re joined by two guests to discuss Europe’s response to these events and the local impact wildfires can have in Ireland.
We speak to Marcin Pater, an emergency response officer at DG ECHO’s Emergency Response Coordinate Centre, who shares first-hand experience of what a ‘mega fire’ is like, explains how DG ECHO works to provide countries with the resources they need to fight wildfires, and highlights the growing threat Europe faces from these blazes.
Pádraic Fogarty, campaigns officer with the Irish Wildlife Trust, looks at the issue through an Irish prism. Wildfires here are not part of the natural ecosystem but have become more common in recent years. What can be done to tackle uncontrolled gorse burning, and what type of damage has it caused to Ireland’s environment?
https://soundcloud.com/the-explainer-podcast/how-does-ireland-and-the-eu-fight-wildfires/s-BKveuXuoVxg?si=a9c3beeed940494a99b0dd18eb30ff02&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
This episode was created by presenter Sinéad O’Carroll and producer Nicky Ryan.
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If you buy a house on a mountain, don’t complain about wind…if you buy a house in a desert, don’t complain about sand… and if you buy a house in a low lying flood hit area, don’t complain about water
@hi from heaven: nice saying, but it falls apart when parts of the country that previously weren’t floodplains, are now floodplains because we’ve removed natural flood defences and because climate change is causing worse weather.
@hi from heaven: so you think everyone that buys a house should assume, ‘hey this house is for sale, and passed all zoning laws etc, so I better assume I know more than regulators and not buy it’
Now do that with a medication.
@hi from heaven: It’s early in the week but I think by next Saturday this will up there as one of the most stupid comments of the week
@Name not provided: when I was in national school my teacher used to be on about climate change and rising sea levels and that was a few decades ago…
@hi from heaven: I hope you listened to your teacher.
The solution to climate is not taxing Irish people to save the melting ice caps. We are paying this tax since 2010 with nothing to show for it like free retro fitting with solar panels. Paying the tax has made no difference to the melting ice caps because they are still melting. Ireland behaviour alone will not solve the problem because it’s a global problem and not all countries are on board.
Our only solution is to retro fit every house and expand solar panels on houses free of charge, plus plant trees around areas where factories are.
@Liam Foy: and your solution is free is it? We can magic up that money?
@Liam Foy: Most sensible comment here
@Name not provided: pay it out of the carbon taxed collected now for over thirteen years.
Very interesting article and certainly food for thought….the problem needs a multi faceted solution but certainly avoiding ugly flood defence structures and working with nature is the way to go.
Cabbage Head and his Green party have been screwing the last cent out of our pockets, but the main problem IMHO is that developers and local authorities have been meddling too much with ditches, drains, etc that our antecedents dug and created for a reason. They had knowledge passed down for centuries, but current developers and planners think they know it all……… They don’t!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: where I live new houses have just been built, ditch is gone and guess what, the garden is sloping towards the front door because the developer did not want to excavate mush organic matter soil out. We live on a hill and these house will flood.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: the flooding is more likely caused by land clearing, removal of vegetation and ‘cleaning’ of drains on farmland. The trick is to slow and attenuate flood flows rather than speed them up. Farmers just want to clean out all the ditches and rivers, this causes a more severe flood profile with a higher peak flow, leading to flooding downstream. Farmers must now be compelled to plant trees along all watercourses and construct weirs and retention ponds on their land.
How does cutting live broadcast of the lotto uphold integrity… does this not do the opposite… complete sham and of course rte involved by association
@hi from heaven: yeah…It’s all one big conspiracy, isn’t it?
(p.s….they really ARE out to get you!!!)
I’m sold John…but your dealing with Ireland here and our planing system,with nimbys everywhere means it won’t happen
Maybe some day there will be a Green Party in government who could drive projects like this
But wait………….
@David Cotter: You’re “sold” are you?
Do you eat “candy” and get “pumped” too?
Our miniscule carbon emissions didn’t cause our flooding it’s the result of all those countries still burning coal oil gas and other fuels. Go and stop them ruining our weather and we might get a result. In a million years we couldn’t produce the amount of greenhouse gas to do any damage to the planet.
@Pat Collins: we’ll put. But because I reading and listening to journalists, politicians, etc.. writing about their own ideas on climate, we must ask them as you have to justify they approach that no solution has been achieved world wide with the exception of Denmark where a village was completely retro fitted and free solar panel energy was supplied by the government. I want the same for every home in Ireland. That the solution that should be offered by government and looked for by the journalists etc.. who indulged in the climate problem, blame everything but offer no good solution. It’s a global problem not just Ireland
@Pat Collins: It’s an illusion to think that ‘we’ are separate from the rest of the world and what ‘we’ do doesn’t matter. It all matters, on every scale. Also, Ireland is part of the EU and change can be effected at that level.
@Pat Collins: not really one for leading by example then, are you pat?
So because somebody bigger is doing something bad, we shouldn’t stop doing that bad thing too?
@Alison Hughes: I never said that or inferred it. No matter what we do to reduce our emissions it won’t change the destruction that we are going to face in the near future. It depends on what the big countries are going to do about their production of carbon emissions. We are like one of the countries that are suffering in Asia or Africa with little or no carbon emissions. We are paying the price of their destruction of the planet and will be for years to come.
@Pat Collins: why are the Irish like this?
“Sure why would I stop murdering people? It’s not like that will stop others from murdering people. Go tell them to stop and if they do I’ll consider it.”
Why do you need others to do what’s right, in order to do what’s right? Are you that much of a sheep?
More likely, no matter what anyone else does you’ll find an excuse to behave selfishly.
@Pat Collins: you are doing great injustice to all the funds located in Ireland that finance fossil fuels and the carnivore lobby ^^
@Alison Hughes: Leading by example is one thing, being forced to constantly pay of things that in the bigger picture dont amount to a bag of beans is the frustarting part.
especially when we see, it is do as I say and not what I do!
Tackling at source makes a lot of sense to me.
@Sarah Daly:
The source of planetary climate is the relationship between the axial orientation of the Earth and the orbital plane.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: great soundbite!
Did you hear that from an “expert” on YouTube?
Any widely accepted evidence to show or is that it?
Well Alison, Galileo is speaking about the relationship of rotational inclination to the orbital plane, far removed from cars, cows and carbon.
“From what I see in partial explanation and partial refutation of the “third motion” attributed by Copernicus to the Earth. This extra rotation, opposite in direction to all other celestial motions, appeared to many a most improbable thing, and one that upset the whole Copernican system. . . . What I said was designed to remove a difficulty attributed to the Copernican system, and I later added that anyone who would reflect upon the matter more carefully would see that Copernicus had spoken falsely when he attributed his “third motion” to the earth since this would not be a motion at all, but a kind of rest.” Galileo
I resolved the issue.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: So we shouldn’t tackle flooding in areas by slowing water down earlier in the river basins but instead try to change the axial orientation of the earth? Did you read the article or just jump straight to climate change isn’t real?
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: What has your Copernicus vs Galileo argument got to do with increased rainfall? How does it help solve this problem? Does it mitigate flooding or does it allow you to stick your head in the sand?
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: ah yes, of course, Galileo!
Do you always refer to people who died in the 1500′s for your most up-to-date scientific “facts”?
Who needs modern, cutting edge discoveries, methods or meteorology when we’ve got a guy who lived in the 16th century!
You’re very good with quotes and soundbites, but I’ll ask you again…Do you have any actual evidence to show or is that it?
Ireland has a maritime climate, so as long as it sits in the Atlantic Ocean, our island climate can not change. Climate on a planetary scale has nothing to do with carbon, cars, or cows; it is the relationship described by the motions and traits of the planet in a Sun-centred system.
If people want to control the weather/temperatures, they must control the jetstream, which influences high and low-pressure systems, their strength and development, along with their trajectory. Good luck with that.
If people want to follow the modelling pied pipers, they insult themselves.
Copernicus was correct as there is a ‘third motion’ or second rotation, which can be seen 50 seconds into the time lapse-
youtube.com/watch?v=612gSZsplpE
Young people should enjoy life and creation.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: So you don’t have any actual evidence to back up your claim then…I didn’t think so!
Galileo FFS!!!
You claim he talks about the relationship of rotational inclination to the orbital plane…That’s one thing, but can you talk about it in a modern, 21st century setting yourself or can you only quote the work of other people from the 1500′s, making yourself a laughing stock in the process?
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: ah YouTube…I should have guessed!!!
That’s where all the best scientific info is, isn’t it Gearoid!!!
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: okay but Ireland did have a few Ice Ages in the past while it was sitting in the Atlantic Ocean so obviously climate can change over time.
@Alison Hughes:
Oh, I don’t mind, Alison; the instructional video is timelapse footage from Hubble demonstrating two surface rotations to the Sun that Copernicus originally suggested but dropped because of the Ptolemaic framework he was obligated to work with.
The new framework relies on a satellite tracking along with the Earth around the Sun.
sol24.net/data/html/SOHO/C3/96H/VIDEO/
Where are the young people with those inspirational qualities to enjoy what is before them? Mercury is passing behind the stationary Sun at the centre of the solar system while the stars move from left to right in response to the Earth’s orbital motion.
It takes two surface rotations to explain long-term weather (The seasons).
@Alison Hughes: You won’t get an answer, only repeated irrelevant ‘facts’ about how all scientific discovery in relation to astrophysics and climate is fundamentally flawed due to this, not sure why he thinks evolution is also wrong but he does like play the man and not the ball on that one by referring to eugenics and trying to intrinsically link it to parts of On the Origin of Species and other incorrect ideas espoused at the time of its writing and shortly thereafter. ‘Gearoid’ is right and almost the entire scientific community is wrong, that is all you need to know.
@Harry Whelks:
Harry, the idea is to sufficiently appreciate that climate covers many research areas like the other Earth sciences of biology and geology. The modellers have wrongly railroaded climate into long-term weather to dump their dire and anxiety-inducing predictions on those who know no better.
Ice ages are one area of research, just as Ireland’s maritime climate is. Planetary climate on a solar system scale, where the motions and traits in a Sun-centred system make life possible, is another area of research with many outstanding issues that genuine researchers can now quickly resolve with consideration.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: what a load of nonsense.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: You are a great beliver “If you cant blind them with Brilliance Baffle them withy BS”
You do it so well too.
Here’s a thought. Instead of building outward and taking over more and more flood plains we build upwards. Time Ireland joined modern civilization
Localise your solutions. Focus on Midleton and explain the situation and how it could be prevented through means that reflect your ideologies, as soon as you zoom out you lose the room, realise it and use it to your advantage, ffs
You are right about upland,catchment management,
But theres work need doing in lowlands too,
Certain places could benefit from earthen banks or berms , and certain areas need to have banks lowered and be allowed to flood,
This particular flood and the 2015 both have the same root cause, the bridge on the 2008 northern relief road , the road cut the flood plain in two, and funnels all the river water towards an old small bridge, 30 or 40 meters downstream – it cant all get through so backs up , it was brought up in a post 2008 area water study , honestly a day or 2 with a digger would fix it ,
This wont stop all flooding in midleton – but it’ll cure whats caused the 2 worst floods in recent times ,
@East Cork Cheeses: That’s far too reasonable for here. It probably needs both a local solution for the bridge and some work to slow down the flows in the uplands.
Is there ANYTHING to be said for another mass?!
“he thinks evolution is also wrong..on that one by referring to eugenics and trying to intrinsically link it to parts of On the Origin of Species” Diarmuid.
Biological and geological evolution is described by the fossil record found in rock strata, which existed as a research area long before natural selection/eugenics came along.
Tracing the movement of people over time across the geography of the Earth is fine through genetics; however, natural selection attempts to divide humanity into civilised/savage or favoured and less favoured ‘races’ in terms of eugenics.
en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)/Chapter_V
Natural selection is not evolution, but eugenics is natural selection. People should read natural selection with a growing horror.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: What do you propose was the method by which evolution took place if not through natural selection? Eugenics is not natural selection, by definition it is unnatural selection of humans by other humans and is horrific. Is animal husbandry also eugenics? You are either deliberately misrepresenting terms or you don’t know what the words you’re using mean.
@Diarmuid Hunt:
Once considerate younger people get over the horror of natural selection/eugenics, they may work towards an anti-prejudice position while restoring evolutionary sciences back to their original study of fossil records in rock strata.
Humanity doesn’t need or want a conviction of favoured and less favoured ‘races’ or the reason why the Irish starved as a less favoured ‘race’ compared to an Anglo-Saxon ‘race’.
en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)/Chapter_V
There may be laziness or indifference in this matter, so the more complicated issue of climate and the equally awful treatment by modellers will continue unless younger people escape scientific method modelling.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: There is no races is the modern definition of evolution. You are creating a strawman argument.
@Diarmuid Hunt: *are
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: So your plan is to ignore science!
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: Eugenics, well that says a lot more about you as a person than anything else!
Dams made of logs and branches. Of course. Bring in the Beavers a.s.a.p. and please no purist rubbish about them never having been here. What a massive change such a move would bring to our whole ecology. Let the light back in to our 90% shaded out small streams and rivers where our salmon and trout used to spawn and be reared, for starters.
The Greens spend their time on wishful or magical thinking and completely lack a pragmatic approach to flooding or other events. Stop harping on about “climate change” all the time and focus on concrete solutions for real-life problems. Landowners and builders should be oblged by law to have flood defences such as ditches, trees near waterways etc. Fine them if their actions contribute to local flooding in areas that previously did not flood.
A plan that takes in as many dofferent ways to stop the problem and not the one type fits all situation we find happening too often.
have your say