Blog 16_ Food and Trees

Some people want to see Ireland plant more trees and produce less food because trees help to mitigate climate change and agriculture has more to do to reduce emissions. I hope we can plant trees and produce the food.

Forest cover is now back to around 12% of the country, the highest figure since the 16th century, but we are still below the European average.

Personally I love trees and love walking in woodland areas. I'm all in favour of planting more trees. It always strikes me as amazing to realise that the vast bulk of every tree in the world doesn't come out of the ground but is instead sucked out of the air. The wood of a tree is made largely of cellulose and the carbon and most of the oxygen for that comes from the CO2 in the athmosphere.

The deputy secretary general of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammad speaking recently about Climate Change emphasised how worried she is at the slow progress being made in dealing with it. She listed the now almost inevitable impacts coming our way including:

Extreme Weather Events: Increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires. More intense storms and hurricanes due to warmer ocean temperatures. Heavier rainfall and increased risk of flooding in some regions. Significant melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, leading to sea level rise of 0.5 to 1 meter or more. Submersion of low-lying coastal areas.

One impact she particularily mentioned was food production. Countries she said that currently produce some or all of their own food won't be able to in the future and will have to rely on others who still can.

Ireland of course will be subject to some of the same climate impacts as everyone else but our Met Office is predicting dryer, warmer summers with an extended growing season so we will still be able to produce food.

According to Board Bia, Irish food exports feed about 40 million people around the world. In a climate changed future, we could be expected to feed 400 million.

So by all means less us continue to improve forest cover but also position ourselves to respond positively, if the World Food Programme comes calling.