Category Archives: Irish Focus
Battling for Ireland’s battered biodiversity
My interview below, with Dr Liam Lysaght, Director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, was published in the September edition of Village magazine: IRELAND’S largely dysfunctional relationship with its natural environment was neatly summed up by former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Liam Lysaght, National Biodiversity Data Centre, Wildlife
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Who’d choose to bring a child into a climate-changed world?
Below is my article, as published in yesterday’s Irish Times, under the headline (not my wording) ‘Is having children bad for the planet?’ I’ve added in some of the sources below that I used when researching this piece. The features … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
Tagged 2050, pollination, population, solastalgia, WWF
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It’s a Vision thing
Last week the Visions 2100 international roadshow came to Dublin. I first encountered it, driven by the irrepressible John O’Brien, as a side event at last December’s COP21 conference, where, as one of 80 contributors to the book from around … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Psychology
Tagged John O'Brien, Tailors Hall, Visions 2100
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Flights of folly at Dublin airport
Fallout from the recent Brexit vote may prove something of a gift for the Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA) ambitious plan to have a second runway built and ready for business by 2020. The huge cloud of economic uncertainty now parked … Continue reading
Bord na Mona: of strip-mining and greenwashing
You can hardly have missed the hugely expensive PR and advertising blitz from the semi-state, Bord na Mona, whose ad agency has come up with a snazzy new campaign called ‘Naturally Driven’. They even managed to get RTE’s George Lee … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged An Taisce, bogs, Bord na Mona
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One man’s meat is another’s global ecological calamity
The article below is a referenced version of my piece that appeared in the Weekend Edition of the Irish Times on Saturday last. Writers don’t get to choose the headlines –’Meat is madness’ – my preference would have been to emphasise the stark … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Chatham House, dairy, meat, obesity, Oxford, WHO
6 Comments
Election 2016: more fudge and waffle on climate change
Below, my article written for Village magazine’s post-election special issue. The election campaign was notable for the fact that environmental issues generally and climate change specifically were completely written out of the political and media script. Twenty, maybe even 10 years … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged Election 2016, emissions targets, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael
6 Comments
2011-2016: five more lost years for Ireland’s climate response
Below, my article as it appears in the Election Edition of Village magazine. This was written ahead of the publication of the assorted party manifestos (these are just now starting to trickle out) but it seemed a more useful exercise … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
5 Comments
Every sector must pull its weight on curtailing climate change
Below, my article as it appeared in today’s Irish Examiner. I wrote this piece on behalf of An Taisce, prompted by this self-serving and misleading piece by the IFA in the same paper last week. The agribusiness lobby has been working … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged agriculture, flooding, food security, Irish Examiner
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Met Éireann & climate change: time to break the silence
What is it with Met Eireann and climate change? Take the below, entirely typical, recent comments from forecaster Joanna Donnelly: “It is a global phenomenon that needs to be looked at globally over decades and not days…Our climate is changing … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged climate attribution, Julia Slingo, Met Eireann, weather, WMO
6 Comments
On the brink of history, at the edge of the abyss
News tonight from Paris is surprisingly good. The latest Draft text catches up with scientific reality in emphasising that the mythical +2C global average temperature rise is not some political bargaining chip; rather, it is the place no sane climate … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, aviation, COP21, INDCs, Paris, shipping
5 Comments
Never mind the bullocks, Enda isn’t cowed at COP
And so, to Paris. COP21 kicked off on Monday with each of the almost 200 world leaders chipping in their opening contributions. The feeling at the last mega-COP (in Copenhagen in December 2009) was that leaders only engaged at the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged agriculture, COP21, Enda Kenny, GHGs, IFA, Paris
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“Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”
Coalition partners Fine Gael and Labour are fast becoming the Laurel and Hardy of environmental regulation, with chaotic, contradictory and just plain wrong statements emanating from the government parties as they attempt to talk their way out of their shambolic … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Alan Kelly, diesel, Enda Kenny, VolksWagen
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Microbeads – tiny pollutants with a fearsome impact
Below, my article, as it appears in the Sept/October 2015 edition of Village magazine: THERE ARE some products, notably tobacco, that are only tolerated by dint of having been around for a very long time. These days, no one in … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Irish Water, microbeads, PCB, water pollution
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Challenging Ireland’s climate contrarian-in-chief
Back in May 2014, UCD meteorologist, Prof Ray Bates penned a heartfelt plea for continued inaction on climate change, under the lurid headline: ‘Warning of over-alarmist’ stance on climate risk’. It was a weak, poorly argued exercise in that most … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, COP21, IPCC, Irish Times, John Sweeney, NASA, Ray Bates
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