Author Archives: John Gibbons
Milking the (climate) system, Irish-style
Below, article as it appears in the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine. (I co-authored this piece with Paul Price). “IT IS DIFFICULT to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”. Novelist Upton … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
38 Comments
The Dream (A Fantasy at Christmas)
It was still dark when Enda Kenny fell awake from a fitful sleep. He rose unsteadily, exhausted, almost stumbling as he made his way to the bathroom. With the light on, he noticed his pyjamas were almost completely soaked in … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology
2 Comments
What next for the apes who went to space?
I have no idea where I was on the night of July 20-21, 1969, being far too young to grasp the historic events that were unfolding, as Apollo 11 became the first spacecraft to land humans on a world other … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Apollo 11, Climate deniers, comet, George Lee, Rosetta, RTE
6 Comments
Another Fine (Gael) mess on climate change
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has in the last week or so taken political recklessness and cynicism to new lows. History may judge that he did more than any other politician of his generation to destroy the future of Irish agriculture. In … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
18 Comments
Which to choose: bare-knuckle capitalism or a habitable world?
I finished reading Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything just as a major study by the WWF confirmed that, in a mere four decades, more than half of the wild animals on Earth had been wiped out. From the time I … Continue reading
Clowns to left, jokers to the Right, stuck in middle with George
This may not be a news flash to most people, but science is hard. Really, really hard. Just how tough was brought home when I recently attended an international congress on multiple sclerosis (MS). The event brought together some 8,000 … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
5 Comments
If we tolerate this, then our children will be next
I’ve spent more than a decade first researching and then writing almost exclusively on a range of ‘environmental’ topics, with a special focus on climate change. I joined Twitter in 2010 using the @think_or_swim moniker, determined to use it as … Continue reading
Posted in Irish Focus, Media
3 Comments
‘We asked for signs. The signs were sent’
We are the children of the Enlightenment. Our ancestors lived for countless centuries with only the vaguest idea of the world around or beyond them. Education and literacy was the preserve of tiny elites, usually in the service of religious … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Carl Sagan, neoliberalism, Oreskes
13 Comments
A monkey trap of our own construction
In parts of Asia, indigenous populations have developed an extremely simple yet ingenious way of catching the otherwise elusive wild monkeys. The trap involves a hollow object such as a gourd, which is securely staked to the ground, with a … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
5 Comments
The meteorologist and the scourge of climate ‘over-alarmism’
Back in March, there was quite a kerfuffle when RTE PrimeTime tried to set up a ‘debate’ about the reality of climate change by initially loading a panel 3:1 in favour of the 3% ‘skeptical’ position that rejects or downplays … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, alarmism, climate denial, Harvest 2020, IPCC
11 Comments
When will accuracy trump ‘balance’ in media climate coverage?
Is the media now the largest remaining impediment rather than aid to an effective public and political response to climate change? If so, how exactly did this come about, and is there anything that can be done to reverse this? … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
43 Comments
Mann on a mission – Hockey Stick scientist interviewed
Michael Mann is one of the world’s leading climate scientists. He is director of the Earth Systems Science Centre in Penn State University and has been a lead IPCC author since 2001. His ‘Hockey Stick graph’ became the defining symbol … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged denial, fossil fuel, hockey stick, Michael Mann
2 Comments
A Prime lesson in how not to cover climate change
On Tuesday of last week, PrimeTime did something extremely unusual – at least for RTE. It had a programme on climate change. Well, ok, that’s not strictly true; the one-hour show actually carried three items, so climate change was wedged … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged GWPF, Media, Primetime, RTE
21 Comments
It’s not fair! I can prove I’m better than BOD…
In a recent newspaper article, I wondered aloud if maybe, just maybe, the tide was finally beginning to turn regarding Ireland getting real about climate change. As if to answer the question, the producer of Today FM’s The Last Word … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
48 Comments
Gravity of climate crisis has yet to sink in nationally
Below, my article more or less as it appeared in the Irish Times last Friday. The day it appeared, rain bucketed down across the country, and maybe this is why the article struck a chord – it was the ‘Most … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
1 Comment
