Category Archives: Psychology
Pinker serves up a Panglossian three-card trick
“Things can only get better”, went the lyrics to the hit by D:Ream which became the anthem of the incoming New Labour government in 1997, fronted by the relentlessly upbeat Tony Blair. Six years later, Blair joined the US in … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Psychology
Tagged Bill Gates, Steven Pinker
3 Comments
Can direct democracy succeed where politics has failed?
Earlier this month, I was pleased to have my third article appear on Guardian Environment. The topic was one I have previously teased around the edges, here and elsewhere, on numerous occasions. In a nutshell: once we’ve figured out our … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology
Tagged Citizens Assembly, FIE, Guardian, Urgenda
2 Comments
Eating the future, one bite at a time
Futurology is a favourite journalistic parlour game, usually reserved for a slow news week or the lifestyle section. When I saw the following bold opening statement in a recent Irish Times magazine cover story, “Half of the babies born today … Continue reading
Nuclear near-miss a chilling portend of our climate future
Below, my article as it appears in the current issue of ‘Village’ magazine. I’ve included links to watch the film in its entirety, as well as the subsequent ABC studio discussion. A third of a century later, it’s still strangely … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology
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A goose wrapped in tinfoil, pushed further into oven each year
Earlier in July, New York magazine ran a thumping article titled ‘The Uninhabitable Earth‘, by writer David Wallace-Wells. It was a meticulously researched piece of long-form journalism, based on an extensive review of the scientific literature as well as interviews with leading … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine
4 Comments
Engineer Trump leads Human race to the bottom
Below, my article, as it appears in the current edition of Village magazine (ok, apart from adding in the referencing, there were a few other tweaks and alternate adjectives I had probably wished I’d completed with for one final round … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged EPA, GOP, Obamacare, Putin, Trump
10 Comments
A new age of endarkenment draws ever closer
Like millions of people all over the world, I’ve spent the last almost two weeks in a state of shock and disbelief. I had sat up with friends late on the evening of Tuesday November 8th into the early hours … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology, Sceptics
3 Comments
Cultivating hope, managing despair
There have been countless millions of words written and spoken in recent years on how humanity can and must begin at last to grapple in earnest with the existential challenges of climate change, resource depletion and the ongoing global biodiversity … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
Tagged acceptance, denial, psychology, workshop
6 Comments
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
4 Comments
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
1 Comment
An Inconvenient Truth – 10 years on, it’s truer than ever
How’s this for a deeply unpromising script idea: making a movie about a failed politician trailing around the world presenting wonkish slide shows on his laptop to mostly small audiences about, of all things, climate change? It hardly helped that … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, documentary
6 Comments
Brave new world – or dystopian wasteland? Visions from 2100
Ever stop to ponder what kind of a world might await our descendants by the end of this century? Irish-Australian entrepreneur and author, John O’Brien has spent more time than most gazing towards the year 2100 through the environmental prism. The fruits … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology
Tagged John O'Brien, Mary Robinson, Visions2100
7 Comments
Francis speaks frankly on the crisis of civilisation
Below, text of my article that first appeared on TheJournal.ie last night, just ahead of the unveiling of the eagerly awaited Papal Encyclical. Thus far, it has been read over 48,000 times, with well over 1,000 shares via Facebook and solid … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged encyclical, Pope Francis, TheJournal.ie
2 Comments
The Dream (A Fantasy at Christmas)
It was still dark when Enda Kenny fell awake from a fitful sleep. He rose unsteadily, exhausted, almost stumbling as he made his way to the bathroom. With the light on, he noticed his pyjamas were almost completely soaked in … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology
2 Comments
‘We asked for signs. The signs were sent’
We are the children of the Enlightenment. Our ancestors lived for countless centuries with only the vaguest idea of the world around or beyond them. Education and literacy was the preserve of tiny elites, usually in the service of religious … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Carl Sagan, neoliberalism, Oreskes
13 Comments
