Category Archives: Sustainability
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
Risky ‘global cooling’ projects mooted
Recording of my Last Word on the Environment with Matt Cooper broadcast on September 11th is below. We began by discussing controversial new plans to cool the global atmosphere artificially, using a range of possible technologies. As I explained, given … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability, TodayFM
Tagged IPCC, Matt Cooper, Phytoplankton, sea level rise
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
Armed conflict also means going to war on nature
By any standards, 2024 was a grim year for armed conflict worldwide. At the time I filed this piece in the Irish Times in February of that year, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was bogged down in a bloody stalemate, … Continue reading
Another year for the record books?
I filed this piece, a combined review of 2023 and preview of 2024 on the climate and wider environmental front for the Irish Examiner just before the holidays and it ran in early January. And if I sound like a … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Extreme weather, Global Warming, Politics, Sustainability
Tagged COP28, flooding, Libya, Midleton, Storm Babet, World Weather Attribution
1 Comment
Seriously, why not just use a rake?
Have to admit that this one has long been a personal bugbear: the petrol leaf-blower. These are the proverbial solution to which there is no known problem, yet they are now so commonplace as to be unremarkable. I filed this … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Pollution, Sustainability
Tagged air pollution, gardening, Irish Examiner, leaf blower
Leave a comment
Do as I say, just not as I do
While it’s easy to finger-wag and point to the failures of others on achieving climate targets, how does Ireland stack up in terms of delivering on its own legally-binging commitments? In short, not very well, as I explained in this … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Global Warming, Politics, Sustainability
Tagged Charlie McConalogue, COP28, Dubai, Eamon Ryan, EPA, Global Meat Alliance, Livestock, Mary Robinson, Sinn Fein
Leave a comment
No quick climate techno-fixes at Cop28
November each year sees the annual gathering of the Conference Of the Parties, or Cop, to discuss and agree steps at Intergovernmental level to address climate change. This year’s set piece conference, Cop28, took place in the oil-rich state of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Politics, Sustainability
Tagged COP28, Dubai, IPCC, Livestock, Paris Agreement, Sultan Al Jaber
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
Nature holds key to tackling flood risks
Flooding remains Ireland’s top climate vulnerability, and it once again came home to bite in county Cork in October 2023 when the town of Midleton and some surrounding areas were inundated, with millions of euros in damages, but thankfully, no … Continue reading
Posted in Extreme weather, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Climate Action Plan, Eamon Ryan, flooding, Midleton, OPW, Pickering
Leave a comment
Planetary lines we shouldn’t cross
I filed this piece with Village magazine in October, charting the growing number of critical planetary boundaries that have now been breached, and why this matters. ON ANCIENT mariners’ maps, areas of uncharted waters were often marked with illustrations of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged CFCs, nitrogen, ozone, PFAs, Planetary boundaries, Stockholm Resilience Centre
Leave a comment
When it gets too hot, things die
Heat is a silent, stealthy killer. As climate change accelerates, the regions in the world becoming too hot for human habitation or even survival are set to expand rapidly. US journalist Jeff Goodell has been on the climate beat for … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Business Post, Friederike Otto, Jeff Goodell
Leave a comment
What happens when the law no longer protects us?
Imagine you could somehow project yourself 10 or 20 years into the future, and were looking back at the world in the 2020s, in full knowledge of the slow-motion catastrophe that was unfolding. What would you have done differently? I … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Politics, Protest, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Chris Packham, Emmeline Pankhurst, Extinction Rebellion
Leave a comment
Is insurance the first climate domino to fall?
While most economists and much of the financial system is still living in la la land when it comes to failing to account for the climate emergency, one sector where the impacts are already piling up is the global insurance … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Central Bank, insurance, Swiss Re, William Nordhaus
Leave a comment
