Green campaigners have warned that Ulster could lose its best loved beaches, suffer extreme storms and flooding and face plummeting temperatures unless world leaders act now to stave off climate change. The warnings come as a result of British Prime Minister Tony Blair who this month called on world leaders to unite to tackle climate change, insisting that any delay could lead to irreversible damage. This is just a matter of weeks since it emerged that people in Northern Ireland are Europe's worst for wasting energy. The province currently sits on top of the European Energy Wasters' league, according to a recent survey by the Energy Saving Trust.
Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland chief executive John Woods, said, "In Northern Ireland, gradually winters will be getting warmer and wetter and summers getting hotter and drier. The changes in weather will disrupt agriculture and there will be difficulties over flooding and weather events. There will be increased storms and travel disruption across the Irish Sea and coastal areas could suffer from storms and flooding and rivers will rise. The Lower Ormeau is already susceptible to flooding and if the Lagan is carrying a lot more water from additional rainfall, it will affect a larger area."
Woods also argues that the Government, in a bid to combat this increasing problem, should set annual targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions of 3% each year.
