"A necessary journey took me from the Mayo coast, through the mountains, to Galway city on a stormy day in January. Floods on the twisty road made it tricky to lift one's gaze, but the white skeins of water spilling down the steep mountainsides were spectacular. As climate change takes the winter rainfall of western Ireland to even more dismal levels, what nourishment, one wonders, could be left in the upland soils?"