This talk will examine the likely future for the Irish climate and both the scale and the timing of the expected changes. Globally and nationally, how will we live within the resources which nature provides? What sort of weather will our buildings need to shelter us from, and what materials will be available to us? How will our community structures need to adapt? While it is clear that many aspects of Irish life and living that we take for granted cannot continue indefinitely, it is far from clear what will take their place.

Gerald Fleming took out B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Experimental Physics in UCD before joining Met Éireann in 1980. He has worked in weather forecasting for the past 30 years, and is currently Head of the Forecast Office. He is a past Chairman of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorology and was Co-Chair of the First World Conference on Broadcast Meteorology (Barcelona, 2004). A member of the Irish Meteorological Society and the American Meteorological Society, he is also active in the European Meteorological Society. He chairs the Public Weather Services Group for the World Meteorological Organisation. Outside of Meteorology he is a past Chair of Wexford Arts Centre and active also in Wexford Swimming Club and in Leinster Swimming. His wife, Mary Duggan, ran her own architectural practice for 25 years.