February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Irish economy has been tanking and, in a few days, those living in the Republic will be facing into a most severe budget. So incessant rain and widespread serious flooding, to put it mildly, is the last thing that the country needed.
A hint at the seriousness of the financial situation was contained in the initial statements with regard to possible government compensation for flood victims. It was, no pun intended, a drop in the bucket against the backdrop of water damage that will likely exceed a billion euro.
The Irish economy, just a handful of years ago, would have been in far better shape to deal with what has been, in truth, a meteorological catastrophe.
Right now, the economy is in a state that leaves it ill equipped to deal with much of anything at all and Dublin has been casting anxious glances towards the European Union, which, if it is what it believes itself to be, should be ready to pony up for those living on the union’s westernmost isle.
It would be tempting to think of the rain and flooding in terms of it being some kind of biblical retribution for the years of high living. But that would be wide of the mark. The weather is a matter of science and, of course, we are lately hearing much from science about climate change resulting in greater extremes in prospect for Ireland, especially in terms of winter rainfall in the western parts of the island. So could the conditions of recent days be a soggy harbinger of things to come?
Regardless of the answer, the task right now is to deal with the immediate consequences of a deluge that could not have been more ill-timed, no matter what the predictions are for Ireland, and the planet’s, climate.
In many parts of the world people pray for rain. In Ireland it is the other way around. Perhaps there’s a future in soaking up floodwaters, storing them and shipping them in tankers to those parts of the planet that are parched. If we can do it with oil, we can do it with water.
At the rate the rain is lately descending upon Ireland, that “if” could well end up being a matter of necessity.