Author Archives: John Gibbons
Airline industry’s sky-high emissions crash climate targets
All the clever plans the aviation industry is developing to reduce emissions have one thing in common: the one sure-fire way to truly reduce emissions, ie. by flying less, is absolutely off the table. Just like in so many other … Continue reading
When nature is the enemy, whose side are you really on?
The iron grip of agri PLCs and the farm lobbyists who work on their behalf on the EU’s agriculture policy was seen yet again in the outright rejection of modest proposals to give nature restoration a chance amid an ever-deepening … Continue reading
Nothing ‘natural’ or safe about gas hobs
Was there ever a cleverer sleight of hand than the labelling of the fossil fuel methane as ‘natural gas’? Oil and coal are also natural, but have you ever heard of ‘natural coal’ as a marketing slogan? Mercifully not, yet … Continue reading
The Late Late no-show on climate emergency
Back in more innocent times, i.e. before the whole soap opera over how much Ryan Tubridy was getting paid, and by whom blew up into one of the biggest “stories” of the year, there was the small matter of who … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged David Bellamy, Late Late Show, Pat Kenny, RTE, Ryan Tubridy
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Beware the radical climate inactivists
It has long puzzled me that those promoting ecocidal policies that in the short term impoverish and kill millions and that in the longer term may well kill us all have somehow managed to maintain the illusion that they are … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming
Tagged Antonio Guterres, heatwave, Ministry of the Future, Peter Kalmus, PNAS
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Between the AMOC and the deep blue sea
The Environmental Protection Agency hosted a public meeting as part of their ongoing series on climate change in the Round Room at Dublin’s Mansion House in late April, chaired by Ella McSweeney. I met the guest speaker, Prof Stefan Rahmstorf … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged AMOC, Antarctic, EPA, Stefan Rahmstorf
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A defining moment for humanity
A number of people active in the area of climate science and activism were asked by the Irish Times in April to contribute a fairly short vignette on where we saw the current situation. My contribution, titled “Few options available to … Continue reading
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone
They say that, given half a chance, most people would instinctively love and cherish nature. If that’s the case, then something must have gone seriously awry in Ireland in recent decades, given our collective neglect of our natural heritage, along … Continue reading
Natural-born killers wreak ecological havoc
According to the French Novelist, Victor Hugo, “God has made the cat to give man the pleasure of caressing the tiger”. It’s an apt description of these scaled-down apex predators. The fearsome toll they take on wildlife may come as … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged cats, IUCN, Red List
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When all hope is lost, keep fighting
On the one hand, it’s simply impossible to overstate just how dire the climate and biodiversity emergency really is, and in truth, most people either have no idea, or else are in absolute denial. So, is it already Game Over? … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Psychology
Tagged Antonio Guterres, Cassandra, doomer, Greta Thunberg, IPCC, Michael Mann
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Progress through technology? Nein, danke
Every country has its deeply entrenched lobby group, and in the case of Germany, its massive motor industry pulls the political strings, exercising a negative influence on policy throughout the EU. Ever wonder why European regulations on emissions from cars … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Dieselgate, EVs, Germany, motor industry, T&E, Tesla
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Dire warnings falling on deaf ears
March saw the launch of the IPCC’s AR6 Synthesis Report, which brings together the three main strands, as well as other IPCC special reports, into a unified, albeit hefty, document. Despite its quite shocking conclusions, it made barely a ripple … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Advertising, Antonio Guterres, AR6, Friederike Otto, IPCC
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To save our world, we must fall in love with nature
“In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught”. These words were spoken at the 1968 General Assembly of the International Union for … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Anja Murray, Business Post
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Feeding aircraft while people go hungry
As the squeeze on heavy users of fossil fuels to be seen to be cleaning up their act intensifies, there is now a flurry of activity especially from the aviation sector behind promoting “renewable” fuels such as biofuels and synthetic … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged aviation, Biofuels, Eamon Ryan, T&E
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