Here's an interesting article about the consequences of economic growth in Ireland:

The Guardian

I am sorry.
It is the age of make believe, sister. There wont be any prime high to mid grade ecosystems left soon. It is now all in the advertising. That is where the ecosystems are and going. In the fucking images. beutiful car commercials. beer commercials. Shit trying to sell you shit. Its going to be full blown disney world becuase even our national parks arent off limits. Its the tragedy of the commons.

This boggles my mind. Last week it hit 98 degrees in the Arctic, and now this. And the Dipsh*t in the White House STILL doesn't believe in global climate change?

From BBC:

"Fruit growers in County Armagh are counting the cost of a heat wave which has left many apples cooked on the trees.
Damage is clear to see with the fragile apple skins burned brown

Orchard owners have been left wondering whether the stewed fruit was the result of a freak weather pattern or points to climate change.

The heatwave in the orchards began on 10 July and over the next few days growers say there was barely a breath of wind to help cool the fruit."

more

Is this for real?

Your link gives a 404.

Dayyymmm!

Heres the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/nort ... 695087.stm

I can't speak for the apples, but damn, it was hotter than I've ever remembered in ireland last week.
Maybe it's global warming or maybe it's something else like global dimming combined with pollution. Who knows, all I know is that things are not right & with the limited info we are being fed it's not going to be easy figuring out whats going on.

I wonder if the Atlantic conveyor has something to do with it.

At the rate Europe is warming it wouldn't suprise me if Huricanes start ravaging Europe in the years ahead. I think there was a Cat 1 Huricane that hit Ireland sometime in the 1950s. With global warming we could see that happen every year.

I hope they picked the apples and ate them. mmmm stewed apples. Cinamon and raisins...

it's been bakingly hot in London too. Mind you, my experience of SE England is that every summer, it's really hot, and every summer, people act like this is a major surprise. Oh well, I could be back in Galway where it rains every bleedin' day!

Something stinks about this report.

One of the best apple growing regions in the US is the area east of the cascade mountains where summer temperatures can and do get as high as 110 for sustained periods of time. Temperatures in the high 90s and to the low 100s are not going to damage the fruit as long as there is sufficient water to the trees.
Perhaps the problem is the variety of apple.

To be honest I don't know what to make out of these extreme weather phenomenons and if they are really linked to global warming. The problem is, that we are human beings and tend to have selective perception. For example if you are interested in a certain car model you suddenly will see this model all over the place wherever you go, even if you never noticed it before. The same with the weather: You don't notice it if it's just normal, just if it sticks out. You said that there was a hurricane in Ireland in the 50ies, how would we perceive that hurricane now?

On the other hand the overwhelming majority of scientists seems to agree that there is indeed a greenhouse effect and that the logical consequence from that effect is more extreme weather. I guess we will have a clear picture only in retrospect.

I am certainly for the Kyoto protocol and much more extreme measures to ration fossil fuels and prevent the emission of greenhouse gases, as it must be clear that this is bad for OUR environment in which WE live in, in so many ways, not only the climate change.

It's like discussing if we should limit burning the furniture in our house "because it is not proven that it is unhealthy"...

There is a huge difference in longitude, having to change the type of apple tree they use may be in order. the problem is whether or not any trees they might use can stand the cold in Ireland come winter.

If the Northern Current is dying out this will make things near to impossible. Almost makes you wish for a mini-ice age.

I just did a quick read on this phenomena, sunburn in apples. The cause is not too much sun but too high a temperature on the skin of the apple. Apparently it is a problem faced by a lot of apple growers and not too uncommon. Most growers overcome the problem by misting the fruit during the hot hours of the day. Apparently growers in County Armagh were not prepared for what are unusual conditions for that area.

Something stinks? f***ing sure it does.
Maybe the fact that the amount of sunlight reaching the earth is going down while the global temperature goes up might have something to do with it! or maybe not