Author Archives: John Gibbons
Still singing the same sad old song
Denial is a powerful thing. Climate change deniers these days are, like the polar bears, an endangered species, as wave after wave of science fact gradually washes away the last stubborn traces of our excuses for inaction. Of course, there … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, Gibbons, Lomborg, Myers, Neligan, sceptics
8 Comments
A big step backwards for Europe
And so the electorate has spoken. It’s a resounding ‘huh?’, with misunderstanding and misinformation carrying the day by a 9% spread. The clearest message to emerge even at this early stage is that Lisbon has split along class lines, with … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Bali, Copenhagen, Kyoto, Libertas, Lisbon, referendum
9 Comments
Weaning ourselves off the fetish of growth
A cynic, according to Oscar Wilde, is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. He could have easily been talking about economists. It’s hard to open a newspaper or turn on the radio these … Continue reading
Soaring oil price sinks iconic Hummer
Nothing says vulgarity or hubris quite like a Hummer. Clocking in at an average of 13 miles per gallon (21.7 litres per 100km), they are no longer the biggest monstrosity on the roads these days, if you really want to … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged CO2, Hummer, Peak Oil, petrol, SUV
2 Comments
If you care about climate, Lisbon matters
What is it about us Irish and referenda? One minute the national discourse is rattling along as usual, and the next, there are swarms of (previously unheard of) groups popping up out of the woodwork to warn us of the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Chavez, climate change, Coir, EU, Gormley, Iraq, Libertas, Lisbon, Treaty, Venezuala, Youth Defense
5 Comments
Water shortages add to list of critical pressures
With oil prices steaming towards $130 a barrel, CO2 emissions climbing relentlessly, food shortages and major commodity price hikes hitting the world’s poor, “the last thing anyone needs is another crisis”, according to the current issue of Business Week. But … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Australia, biosphere, China, CO2, shortage, water
4 Comments
On a wing and a prayer
Airlines are forever telling us that aviation is just a teeny weeny contributor to greenhouse gases, nothing to be bothered about really. The figure of 2% of total emissions being attributable to flying is frequently quoted in defence of our … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Aer Lingus, aviation, carbon, CO2, emissions, pollution, travel
3 Comments
Minor drama over Major Emergencies
A number of years ago, a Fianna Fail junior minister, Joe Jacob got himself into a right tangle in an interview with RTE’s Marian Finucane. The subject was Ireland’s preparedness in the event of an incident at Sellafield. The minister … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged emergency, iodine, Joe Jacob, Marian Finucane, Sellafield
2 Comments
Food shortages come home to roost
It’s been said that a recession is when your neighbour loses his job; a depression is when it’s your job that goes. This comes to mind as reports have been pouring in over the last while about soaring food prices … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged China, climate change, food crisis, hunger, poverty, Wal-Mart
6 Comments
Let them eat cake
It takes around 230 kg of corn to feed a child in the ‘developing world’ for a year, according to UN estimates. By a ghoulish coincidence, that’s around the same amount of corn as is needed to produce enough biofuel … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Biofuels, Bush, climate change, famine, hunger, Oil
5 Comments
Some like it hot?
Climate sceptic Bjorn Lomborg was in Dublin last Friday telling the folks at the IMI national management conference that everything’s just honky dory on the climate front – a business-as-usual message that was no doubt eagerly lapped up by that … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, climate change, GISS, global warming, ice melting, IMI, James Hansen, Lomborg, NASA
4 Comments
The sweet smell of excess
‘Fused with idealism, heritage moulded to modernity, classicism reinterpreted through originality…inspired by a search for balance and harmony in a chaotic and contradictory world’ The above verbiage is taken verbatim from the current Aer Lingus Sky Shopping magazine. It’s describing … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, David Beckham, Kate Moss, marketing, perfume, Sustainability
4 Comments
ESB finally sees the light
Ireland, it appears, is at last starting to get serious about tackling our huge energy requirements, and the dagger that our massive dependence on imports of oil and gas in particular holds to our collective throat. We are reckoned in … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Nuclear, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, CO2, Coal, Eamon Ryan, ESB, Ireland, Moneypoint, Peak Oil
3 Comments
