Category Archives: Psychology
2029 – A letter from the future
We live in consequential times. “What we do over the next 10 years will determine the future of humanity for the next 10,000 years”, is how former UK chief scientific advisor Prof David King put it recently. There is no … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sceptics, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, heatwave, IPCC, Long Emergency, permafrost, Village Magazine
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Drafting a roadmap for a climate-altered world
I was delighted back in May to receive an email from Andy Revkin letting me know he was coming to Ireland in early June and offering to meet up for a chat when he was in Dublin. We spent a … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology
Tagged Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth, New York Times
1 Comment
A society of altruists, governed by psychopaths
Below, the article I filed for Village magazine’s first edition of 2019, which appeared in the middle of March. The Guardian’s George Monbiot has long been the gold standard for excellence in environment and climate reporting, analysis and campaigning. Like … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged George Monbiot, QUB
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A harrowing but narrow vision of our climate-wrecked futures
Back in July 2017, I wrote a précis of an astonishing essay published earlier that year in the New York magazine. Titled ‘The Uninhabitable Earth‘, it set out an uncompromising picture of the rapid unravelling of the global climate system … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology
Tagged David Wallace-Wells, Irish Times, Uninhabitable Earth
1 Comment
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
3 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
5 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
