Will Ireland Survive 2050?
In a dynamic and dramatically constructed television documentary for RTE, Gerald Fleming and Dr Cara Augustenborg examine the disturbing consequences of extreme global weather and ask the question: Will Ireland survive 2050?
For the first time on RTE television, this new documentary will visualise for audiences the damage that this planet’s increasingly extreme weather patterns are having on Ireland.
To most of us, the effects have already become apparent. In some instances, too, direct action is being taken – globally and here in Ireland – but the question begs to be asked: are we doing enough? Despite this growing awareness, the answer seems to be a simple ‘no’.
Will Ireland Survive 2050? provides us with a brutal wake-up call.
Mixing existing archive with newly created 3D representations of the country, and under the strain of extreme weather patterns, the viewer will be confronted with a number of worst-case scenarios and be left wondering where and how it all went wrong: why we appear to be sleepwalking into potential oblivion?
The 3D representations employed will show what parts of our country will look like in the year 2050: flooding such landmarks as Trinity College, O’Connell Street, large areas of Cork (as that city deals with the dual threat of sea and river), and Galway’s Spanish Arch.
People may not realise that Irish weather as we know it today (the prediction of which is our national obsession!) will no longer be very ‘Irish’. Instead, in this Anthropocene era, as huge changes occur in the Arctic, our temperate climate is about to become a lot more unpredictable; the frequency by which we experience extreme weather events is going to accelerate during the course of this century.
Will Ireland Survive 2050? includes interviews with scientists and visionaries, as well as Irish people on the ground who have been impacted by severe weather events. The documentary also brings Gerald Fleming to Greenland, home to the second largest body of ice in the world. RTE’s popular former weather forecaster, who will be 93 in 2050, explains to viewers how the melting of that ice cap will have disastrous consequences for Irish weather and our way of life.
A new documentary by Midas Productions. Presented by Gerald Fleming & Cara Augustenborg | Produced by Geoff Power & Kathriona Devereux | Directed by Martin Danneels
Gerald Fleming is a senior consultant in operational meteorology and weather communication, currently working on a range of projects in South-East Asia in association with the World Meteorological Organisation and World Bank. One of Ireland’s best loved weather forecasters, he delivered the weather for RTE from 1984 until 2008. He joined Met Eireann in 1980, retiring from that organisation in December 2017 after serving as Head of Forecasting for nine years.
Dr Cara Augustenborg is an Irish-American environmental scientist, climate change lecturer, writer and activist based in Ireland. She is a Fellow at University College Dublin in Environmental Policy and a member of the President of Ireland’s Council of State.
Martin Danneels is director of the acclaimed RTE2 ‘Reality Bites’ documentaries Born Addicted and Ireland’s Sulky Racers. Previous work includes the IFTA-nominated series How the Irish have Sex (2009), and Only Fools Buy Horses (2004).
LISTING INFORMATION
Will Ireland Survive 2050?
Monday 11th November, RTE One, at 9.30pm
Presented by Gerald Fleming and Cara Augustenbor