Author Archives: John Gibbons

About John Gibbons

ThinkOrSwim is a blog by journalist John Gibbons focusing on the inter-related crises involving climate change, sustainability, resource depletion, energy and biodiversity loss

Moving Heaven and Earth to expose climate charlatan

Jim Hoggan chairs the David Suzuki Foundation in Canada. Here is an excellent piece he penned for the Vancouver Sun on the hoary old saw about environmentalism being some kind of ‘new religion’. Regular readers of this blog will be … Continue reading →

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Black, white – and green

Like most people whose musical influences were formed in the 1970s, I admired Michael Jackson as a musician, especially his 1979 solo album, Off the Wall. In the early to mid-1980s, he moved from pop star to icon, selling hundreds … Continue reading →

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A sunny day on Sandymount strand

I’ve always loved Sandymount strand. When I first arrived in Dublin donkeys years ago, the first place I stayed was a ‘digs’ on Claremont Road in Sandymount. It might as well have been Ballydehob, for all I knew of the … Continue reading →

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Breaking free of a vicious, narrow Theocracy

“Life for us children was to become one long hard struggle, trying to overcome the enormous disadvantage bestowed on us by being institutionalised. Our education was totally deficient – so much so thousands left the institutions illiterate. “We left the … Continue reading →

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Welcome to the New Emergency

They call it the ‘Greenhouse Gamble’. I’d call it the Wheel of Death. Either way, it’s a gizmo that looks like a cheesy prop from the National Lottery show, but in fact it has been developed by scientists from the … Continue reading →

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Spirit of Ireland – Divine wind or hot air?

Last week, something pretty unusual showed up in a number of national newspapers. This was a full-page advert under the title ‘Spirit of Ireland‘. This tied in with the launch of a website and a big PR push through the … Continue reading →

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They haven’t gone away, you know

Some extraordinary recent findings from an 11-year Gallup tracking poll of US public opinion regarding global warming. The question was framed as follows: ‘Thinking about what is said in the news, in your view is the seriousness of global warming … Continue reading →

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A grandfather’s appeal to Obama

Politicians worry about the next election; business people worry about the next quarter. Who does that leave to worry about the longer term future? One top scientific expert believes the people who really do think ahead are parents, more specifically … Continue reading →

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Life on the far side of the Rubicon

“Electric word life – It means forever and that’s a mighty long time”. Eighties music aficionados will probably recognise this line, from Prince’s Purple Rain. It came to mind when reading a report from the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Nuclear, Sustainability | 17 Comments

The new order begins

Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address today at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC took just over 20 minutes to deliver, and runs to 2,400 words. As you would expect from one of the greatest political orators in a generation, he delivered a … Continue reading →

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Out with the old…

And so, out with the old, in with the new. According to insurance giant, Munich Re, 2008 has been one of the worst ever for natural disasters. Overall global losses ran to around $200bn, with uninsured losses totalling $45bn, about … Continue reading →

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Thought for the day!

An image snapped on a wall earlier today in Dun Laoghaire… First posting shot on and uploaded direct from my iPhone! Well, television ain’t all bad. Take last night’s Prime Time Special on the murky world of Declan Ganley, lately … Continue reading →

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The onward march of ignorance

Despite there being no shortage of hard news to cover right now, RTE’s Prime Time last night took a curious detour to air clips from a propaganda film, Not Evil, Just Wrong, made by two Irish filmmakers. It is, for … Continue reading →

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A night to remember

The last 24 hours has passed by in a blur, punctuated by less than 3 hours’ sleep. It was 6am today before we could drag ourselves away from TV screens and assorted laptops, to drift off, still smiling, into a … Continue reading →

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The waiting is very nearly over…

OCD is the term that could be used to describe a new political creature, the Obsessive Compulsive Democrat. As we now enter the last day before what has perhaps been the world’s longest (and certainly most expensive) election campaign, OCD … Continue reading →

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