Category Archives: Irish Focus
When feeding the world is a fact, not a slogan
In June, I took the car ferry to Dunkirk, then drove from there to Amsterdam where I was based for several days of touring and visiting sites in Holland mainly related to their food sector, more specifically the famously productive … Continue reading
We need a Department of National Food Security – now
It’s been quite some time since I pitched an article to The Irish Times op-ed page, despite having been a regular there some time back. The below piece ran on Monday August 17th, under the newspaper headline: ‘The food industry … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture, Global Warming, Pollution, Sustainability
Tagged Denmark, Irish Times, Martin Heydon, Mette Frederiksen, Simon Coveney, Teagasc, The Lancet
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Stumbling ever deeper into the Pyrocene
I ran the below analysis piece in the Irish Examiner at the start of August, to coincide with Europe’s fourth heatwave of the crazy summer of 2026. Europe is heating at more than twice the global average, for a number … Continue reading
Taking tea with the President
AN undoubted highlight for me, not just of the last week but of the year, was a Courtesy Call on September 18th to Áras an Uachtaráin to present President Michael D. Higgins with a copy of ‘The Lie of the Land’. … Continue reading
First broadcast interview on The Lie of the Land
On Wednesday, September 3rd, I did my first broadcast interview to discuss the launch of my new book, ‘The Lie of the Land’, and chose The Last Word on Today FM to do the piece, given that the show and … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Irish Focus, Sustainability, TodayFM
Tagged Brazil, Matt Cooper, Mercosur, The Lie of the Land, Today FM
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Finding out the Lie of the Land
IT’S ALMOST two years since I was approached and commissioned by Penguin to write a book – my first – about Ireland and the climate emergency. While genuinely chuffed to be asked, I did also have something of an inkling … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged John Gibbons, Penguin, The Lie of the Land
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The perils of light pollution
Pod of the latest Last Word on the Environment, with Matt Cooper on Today FM, as broadcast on Thursday July 31st is below. We discussed the workings and finances of the hugely popular deposit return scheme for cans and plastic … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability, TodayFM
Tagged aviation, light pollution, Matt Cooper, recycling, Today FM
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Official Ireland turns a blind eye to widespread illegal peat mining
Pod of The Last Word on the Environment, with Matt Cooper on Today FM, as broadcast on Thursday June 26th is below. Topics include the EPA report on widespread illegal bog mining in Ireland; health and environmental impacts of noise … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, TodayFM
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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
No good deed goes unpunished as Greens eviscerated
The Greens went into a three-way coalition as the junior partner in 2020 and have, by any reasonable measure, overperformed in terms of bending the national political agenda towards meaningful climate action. Of course, mistakes were made and opportunities missed … Continue reading
Posted in Irish Focus, Media, Politics
Tagged Election 2024, Green Party, Holly Cairns, Roderic O’Gorman
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Taking the man in charge down a peg or two
The Cop28 conference got off to an eventful start in Dubai, with our own former president grabbing international headlines in her forthright exchanges with the new president of Cop, as I reported in the Irish Examiner in early December. IT … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Irish Focus
Tagged Charlie McConalogue, COP28, Dubai, Leo Varadkar, Mary Robinson, Sultan Al Jaber, UAE
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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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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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