We are living through a Global Warning – and Donegal is not immune

There has been a lot of talk about climate change over the past two decades, but very little of it acknowledges the crisis’s deepening.

On July 12, 2025, Malin Head recorded its hottest day ever at  27.6 degrees celsius - confirming that Donegal is no longer shielded from global extremes. In January 2025, Storm Éowyn struck Ireland with gusts of 183 km/h - the strongest storm ever recorded on the island. These figures are not projections. They are today’s lived reality.

Just eight years ago, Inishowen experienced catastrophic flooding, landslides, and bridge collapses - cutting off entire communities and leaving roads impassable for weeks. Since then, patterns of extreme rainfall, prolonged heat, and coastal erosion have only accelerated.

READ NEXT: Graveyard Mass moved to avoid clash with All-Ireland final

Biodiversity loss is visibly worsening. Puffins, bees, frogs, and butterflies are no longer the daily sight they once were. Globally, 73% of wildlife populations have vanished since the 1970s - and Donegal is not spared.

Our environmental fragility is compounded by how we live. Rural Ireland has a culture of single-home dwellings, each with its own septic tank. Yet many of these systems are now dysfunctional. EPA audits consistently show that most domestic tanks across Ireland fail to meet health standards, leaking partially treated sewage into rivers, soil, and groundwater.

Raw sewage is still discharged untreated into the environment in Donegal towns where proper wastewater infrastructure has yet to be delivered.

In parallel, Donegal faces ongoing issues with illegal dumping and waste burning - especially in forestry plantations, boglands, and isolated backroads. Some landowners and businesses have been prosecuted for burying domestic, plastic, and construction waste. In remote areas, unregulated backyard burning continues to release toxins into the air and soil.

Peatland degradation is another silent crisis. Our blanket bogs—from Gaoth Dobhair to Glenveagh - have been scarred by turf-cutting, drainage, and dumping, releasing carbon that should have stayed locked beneath the moss and eradicating habitats.

Along the coast, marine ecosystems are under pressure. Our oceans are seeing more frequent plastic pollution. Ghost nets, waste from fish farms, and seabed damage have all raised serious concerns. Even Killybegs, a proud fishing port, is not immune to the environmental costs of industrial-scale operations.

All of this is unfolding in an island that emits 6.1 to 7.4 tonnes of CO₂ per person annually - among the highest in Europe. Yet we still hear the refrain that “we’re too small to matter.” That is dangerously false. Neither the United States, India, Russia, nor China is responsible for the condition of our rivers, chemically fertilised soils, or the leaking tanks outside our homes.

And still, climate policy is treated like an afterthought. When Minister Eamon Ryan called for a rethink on turf-cutting, he was ridiculed. But the science is clear: turf extraction destroys carbon-storing bogs, wildlife habitats, and releases long-stored emissions. Tradition should not outweigh survival.

Donegal’s coastlines and low-lying villages are increasingly at risk. A 2050 climate projection map shows multiple Irish coastal zones - including parts of Donegal - at risk of permanent submersion. Yet headlines remain dominated by short-term crises: housing, immigration, crime, road fatalities, health, and Trump’s tariffs. Climate rarely leads the news—though it will reshape everything. It is, unquestionably, the Elephant in the Room.

We are no longer just experiencing global warming. We are living through a Global Warning—and Donegal is not immune. We ignore it at our peril.

Eamonn Coyle is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist, originally from the Gaoth Dobhair Gaeltacht