Category Archives: Psychology
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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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
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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
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‘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
A monkey trap of our own construction
In parts of Asia, indigenous populations have developed an extremely simple yet ingenious way of catching the otherwise elusive wild monkeys. The trap involves a hollow object such as a gourd, which is securely staked to the ground, with a … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
5 Comments
Mann on a mission – Hockey Stick scientist interviewed
Michael Mann is one of the world’s leading climate scientists. He is director of the Earth Systems Science Centre in Penn State University and has been a lead IPCC author since 2001. His ‘Hockey Stick graph’ became the defining symbol … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged denial, fossil fuel, hockey stick, Michael Mann
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Time to sign up for the climate change war
Below, my article, as it appears in today’s Irish Times. There has been a pretty strong reaction thus far on Twitter (not that much uptake on Facebook) and quite a useful online discussion accompanying the piece on the Irish Times … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Economics, Global Warming, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged Arctic 30, Brad Werner, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gus Speth, Lonnie Thompson, Pope Francis, World Bank
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IPCC AR5 set to reiterate bleakest of messages
Below, my article as it appeared in yesterday’s Irish Times. I had a bit of a swipe at Fine Gael’s former Environment spokesman, Simon Coveney, having sat down recently to re-watch a clip I recorded for Climatechange.ie back in January … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Psychology
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The Anthropocene – Age of the Sociopath
First off, this quite wonderful short animated piece by Steve Cutts. I showed it on a large screen by way of a little, ahem, light relief during a meeting earlier this week and it went down a storm, so here, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology
3 Comments
The psychology of bracing for very bad news
Below is my second article from Village magazine’s special issue on climate change: Once upon a time the people wearing the sandwich boards proclaiming that ‘The End is Nigh’ were a reassuringly small, fringe group of individuals, many clearly suffering from … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
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The human race is almost run
Below, one of my articles from the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine…. ‘Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule’ – Friedrich Nietzsche I like people; indeed, some of my best friends … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sustainability
7 Comments
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
“You must feel vindicated, what with Hurricane Sandy and the way the weather and climate change has gone this year”. That’s how a business acquaintance of mine put it the other day during a pre-Christmas lunch. Her point was that … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
8 Comments
