I lived in Ireland for a time and never ceased to be astonished by the unfailing optimism of the locals who hung their laundry out to dry despite the fact that it was nearly always about to rain. Wet, dry, whatever–life’s too short to worry about such trivial things, and, besides, the sun’s bound to shine, sooner or later. How I envied their angst-free approach to laundry, and life in general.

But global warming threatens to turn Ireland from a place that’s pleasantly drizzly all year round into a land of winter floods and summer droughts, according to a study released just in time for St. Paddy’s Day.  Reuters reports:

Entitled “Changing Shades of Green,” the report by the Irish American Climate Project twins science gleaned from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the musings of a poet, a fiddler, a fisherman, a farmer and others with deep connections to Ireland. Read the rest of this entry >>