Category Archives: Global Warming
ICJ ruling draws a line in the sand on climate action
Pod of The Last Word on the Environment, with Matt Cooper on Today FM, as broadcast on Thursday July 24th is below. We discussed the landmark International Court of Justice ruling on climate, plus a new study on the ‘boiling … Continue reading
Posted in Extreme weather, Global Warming, Media, TodayFM
Tagged food security, ICJ, IPCC, Today FM
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Untapped potential of district heating
Pod of The Last Word on the Environment, with Matt Cooper on Today FM, as broadcast on Thursday July 17th is below. Topics include district heating, ‘last chance tourism and reaction to sentencing of two men in England for cutting … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Media, TodayFM
Tagged District heating, Matt Cooper, Today FM, tourism
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Worst possible time to be led by the worst possible people
I haven’t written for the Business Post in a couple of years, so returned in late June with the below piece, which they headlined: ‘We must stop celebrating climate destroyers as captains of industry’. Among the topics covered was Trump’s … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Extreme weather, Global Warming, Politics
Tagged Allianz, aviation, Donald Trump, heatwave, insurance, NOAA, Texas
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Forty shades of misinformation around solar energy
What better time to write about the wonders of solar energy than during the ultra-sunny month of May 2025? Some 6.5% of total electricity production in Ireland that month was from solar, amounting to 173,000 MWh. This a new record, … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables
Tagged Darragh O’Brien, James O'Connor, Micheal Martin, Solar energy
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He hasn’t gone away, you know
Regular visitors to ThinkOrSwim may have been wondering in recent months if I’ve finally gotten sense and packed it in, some 17 years and many hundreds of posts later, as the blog ground to a near halt throughout 2024. For … Continue reading
Rain in Spain a harbinger of ever more climate pain
The horrifying floods that killed over 200 people in the Valencia region of Spain dominated the headlines in October 2024, but as I explained in a piece at the time for TheJournal.ie, these were far from isolated incidents. They are … Continue reading
Posted in Extreme weather, Global Warming, Just Stop Oil
Tagged flooding, Friederike Otto, Spain, TheJournal.ie, Valencia, World Weather Attribution
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Another year for the record books?
I filed this piece, a combined review of 2023 and preview of 2024 on the climate and wider environmental front for the Irish Examiner just before the holidays and it ran in early January. And if I sound like a … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Extreme weather, Global Warming, Politics, Sustainability
Tagged COP28, flooding, Libya, Midleton, Storm Babet, World Weather Attribution
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Winning slowly still means we’re losing
I filed my final Irish Examiner report on the Cop28 conference as it came to an end in Dubai. Next stop: Cop28 in Azerbaijan in November 2024 another petro-state, and yes, this event will also be presided over by a senior … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming
Tagged AMOC, CCAC, COP28, Eamon Ryan, Marie Donnelly, Sultan Al Jaber, Tipping points
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Seriously, why not just use a rake?
Have to admit that this one has long been a personal bugbear: the petrol leaf-blower. These are the proverbial solution to which there is no known problem, yet they are now so commonplace as to be unremarkable. I filed this … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Pollution, Sustainability
Tagged air pollution, gardening, Irish Examiner, leaf blower
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Do as I say, just not as I do
While it’s easy to finger-wag and point to the failures of others on achieving climate targets, how does Ireland stack up in terms of delivering on its own legally-binging commitments? In short, not very well, as I explained in this … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Global Warming, Politics, Sustainability
Tagged Charlie McConalogue, COP28, Dubai, Eamon Ryan, EPA, Global Meat Alliance, Livestock, Mary Robinson, Sinn Fein
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No quick climate techno-fixes at Cop28
November each year sees the annual gathering of the Conference Of the Parties, or Cop, to discuss and agree steps at Intergovernmental level to address climate change. This year’s set piece conference, Cop28, took place in the oil-rich state of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Politics, Sustainability
Tagged COP28, Dubai, IPCC, Livestock, Paris Agreement, Sultan Al Jaber
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An ill wind that blows no good
Cast your mind forward two decades and into the 2040s, what might Ireland be like by then? Let’s just hope it’s nothing at all like the hellscape vividly painted in Irish author Daniel Mooney’s new novel, which I reviewed for … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Psychology
Tagged Business Post, Cli fi, Daniel Mooney
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What economists get wrong about climate
Whether or not you believe that the dangerously foolish advice issued by climate economists will in fact kill billions of people this century, there is little doubt that we have been poorly served and grievously misled on the true costs … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
Tagged Cormac Lucey, DICE, economics, Friederike Otto, Joseph Stiglitz, Panama Canal, Richard Tol, Steve Keen, William Nordhaus
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Mitigation, adaptation – or suffering
Years and decades of dithering, denial and inaction mean that the remaining options open to humanity grow more limited and more unpalatable by the day. I explained in this Irish Examiner piece in late October the crucial differences between climate … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Extreme weather, Global Warming
Tagged adaptation, mitigation, West Antarctic, World Weather Attribution
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Climate impacts hitting home
The below piece ran as full pages in the Irish Mirror and Irish Daily Star in late October, to mark the UN’s International Day Against Climate Change. IT IS ALMOST certain that 2023 will be the hottest year globally since … Continue reading
Posted in Extreme weather, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged flooding, Irish Mirror, Storm Babet
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