Category Archives: Psychology

Sorting scientific fact from fiction on climate

Posted on September 20, 2022 by John Gibbons

Seeking out and clinging to reassuring myths as an antidote to the often frightening realities around the climate emergency is a surprisingly common reaction among the public, and even persists amid the all-too-obvious signs of climate breakdown happening in real … Continue reading →

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The future is green, Soylent Green

Posted on August 2, 2022 by John Gibbons

Back in the early 1970s, even the year 2000 seemed an infinity away; for many, it conjured images of a glittering high-tech future. For others, a grim dystopia. The latter view definitely inspired the only film of that era to … Continue reading →

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Austerity or catastrophe: options grow ever narrower

Posted on July 16, 2022 by John Gibbons

Our chronic dependence on an invented system of growth-based capitalism that is destabilising the global climate system and laying waste to the natural world looks increasingly like a Faustian bargain, and metaphorical Mephistopheles is now knocking at the door looking for … Continue reading →

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Putting our bodies on the line to save everything

Posted on June 21, 2022 by John Gibbons

I contributed the below piece to the Business Post in mid-June looking at the extraordinary phenomenon of climate scientists taking to the streets and risking professional ridicule, arrest and more in order to ring the alarm bells on the ever-deepening climate … Continue reading →

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Turf wars signal betrayal on climate action

Posted on May 1, 2022 by John Gibbons

The bizarre and pointless recent ‘turf wars’ are a throwback to an Ireland many of us thought was gone forever. The scramble by politicians to outdo one another in capitulating to a handful of industrial turf cutters and their noisy … Continue reading →

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Things are Looking Up as climate crunch hits funny bone

Posted on December 26, 2021 by John Gibbons

It will come as no surprise to regular ToS readers to learn that the biggest ‘story’ of the 21st century, or perhaps 66 million years of Earth history, is the rapidly unfolding climate emergency and simultaneous global mass extinction event, … Continue reading →

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Confronting consumerism for a safer future

Posted on December 18, 2021 by John Gibbons

Among the many challenges we face this decade is how to achieve radical decarbonisation in a way that does not entirely alienate the public. This is no mean challenge. After all, we are all bombarded with constant advertising and promotional … Continue reading →

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We are Generation Incineration

Posted on August 30, 2021 by John Gibbons

This piece ran in the Business Post magazine in late August, as more and more media outlets rallied to engage with the climate emergency and its vast implications for all life on Earth, humans included. AT EXACTLY 1.18am, on June … Continue reading →

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When scientific facts and corporate fiction collide

Posted on January 24, 2021 by John Gibbons

The article below ran in the Business Post in late January. Just days after the inauguration of a new US president, it seemed like an opportune time to explain to a wider audience how the blitz of malignant lies aimed at … Continue reading →

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Withdrawing the social licence of fossil fuels

Posted on January 17, 2021 by John Gibbons

The once all-powerful fossil fuel industry is, at last, on the ropes. Behemoths like Exxon Mobil are bracing for massive drop in demand for their products in the next decade and more, as the global transition to low-carbon energy, currently … Continue reading →

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Good grief: grappling with eco distress

Posted on September 7, 2020 by John Gibbons

The feature piece below appeared in this week’s Business Post Magazine, under the heading ‘Distress signals from Earth: the new condition of ‘eco-grief’. This is a subject that has long been close to my heart and no doubt for most … Continue reading →

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Long day’s journey into the ecological abyss

Posted on May 20, 2020 by John Gibbons

My review of Mark O’Connell’s ‘Notes from an Apocalypse’ was published on Cassandra Voices in May. It’s an intriguing, engaging and often hilarious read, leavened with plenty of graveyard humour. If, like me, you’ve been staring into the fast-approaching ecological … Continue reading →

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Coronavirus an appetiser for what climate breakdown has in store

Posted on May 17, 2020 by John Gibbons

The piece below ran on Thejournal.ie in early May, and to my surprise, made quite an impact, with over 83,000 views, 142 online comments and thousands of tweets and reposts on social media. Thejournal.ie is now very much part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Pollution, Psychology, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Out of the frying pan? A tumultuous decade draws to a close

Posted on December 19, 2019 by John Gibbons

The hottest month ever recorded on Earth occurred in July 2019, during what has been yet another year of record-shattering extremes. France was hit this summer by two ‘once-in-500-year’ heatwaves in rapid succession. Expect extreme weather to dominate the 2020s. … Continue reading →

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How flawed logic puts the world in danger

Posted on October 4, 2019 by John Gibbons

Below, my review of ‘The Irrational Ape’ by David Robert Grimes, which was published in the Irish Times on September 22nd last. In an era of fake news, with crackpot theories and conspiratorial nonsense ricocheting around social media at dizzying … Continue reading →

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