Category Archives: Sustainability
An outside view on Ireland’s ‘climate action’
Below, my article, as published last week on the Guardian – my first article on what is arguably the world’s foremost news media source for environment and climate news and opinion. Having been banging on about these issues domestically for years, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Denis Naughten, emissions, Food Wise 2025, Guardian
4 Comments
In deep water: Naughten approves major offshore oil drilling plan
Below, my story, as it appeared a few days ago on DeSmogUK: IRELAND’S first minister for Climate Action, Denis Naughten, quietly signed off this month on the Druid/Drombeg exploration field off Ireland’s west coast which is eyeing an estimated five … Continue reading
Nature is the silent victim of Nimbyism
Last November Sir David Attenborough’s Planet Earth 2 attracted 9.4 million viewers for one episode- two million more than watched the X-Factor that night. It was the most watched nature show in the UK for 15 years. No doubt, like … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Heritage Bill, Nimbyism, Wildlife
4 Comments
Toothless watchdog lets its Standards slip
{PROLOGUE} LOCATION: Bord Na Mona conference room* DATE: Early 2016. TOPIC: Ad planning meeting (*fictional) BnaM Marketing Exec: “I’ll cut to the chase. Here’s the challenge: we’re a company that, pound for pound, is the biggest polluter in Ireland. We’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged ASAI, Bord na Mona, Greenwash, peat
18 Comments
Nine years later, and deeper in debt
It’s nine years to the week since my first posting on ThinkorSwim went live – on the last day of November 2007. It was, in many ways, a different world. The mood was radically different too. For starters, the Greens … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged 2007, Arctic, Green Party, NASA, Trump
17 Comments
A crisis in media and climate communication
Overlaying the climate crunch, there is a parallel full-blown crisis, in Ireland and elsewhere in the Anglophone world in climate change communications. This will not be news to regular visitors to this blog, but happily, there is now a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Media, Oxford, research, RTE
4 Comments
Battling for Ireland’s battered biodiversity
My interview below, with Dr Liam Lysaght, Director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, was published in the September edition of Village magazine: IRELAND’S largely dysfunctional relationship with its natural environment was neatly summed up by former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Liam Lysaght, National Biodiversity Data Centre, Wildlife
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Bord na Mona: of strip-mining and greenwashing
You can hardly have missed the hugely expensive PR and advertising blitz from the semi-state, Bord na Mona, whose ad agency has come up with a snazzy new campaign called ‘Naturally Driven’. They even managed to get RTE’s George Lee … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged An Taisce, bogs, Bord na Mona
7 Comments
We had better hope Jim Hansen is wrong this time
Former NASA chief climatologist, Jim Hansen has an unfortunate knack of being right a lot more often than he’s wrong. And when it comes to projecting the future path of climate change, he has an equally unfortunate habit of being … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged AMOC, Jim Hansen, Peter Thorne, sea level
4 Comments
One man’s meat is another’s global ecological calamity
The article below is a referenced version of my piece that appeared in the Weekend Edition of the Irish Times on Saturday last. Writers don’t get to choose the headlines ‘Meat is madness’ – my preference would have been to … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Chatham House, dairy, meat, obesity, Oxford, WHO
6 Comments
2011-2016: five more lost years for Ireland’s climate response
Below, my article as it appears in the Election Edition of Village magazine. This was written ahead of the publication of the assorted party manifestos (these are just now starting to trickle out) but it seemed a more useful exercise … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
5 Comments
On the brink of history, at the edge of the abyss
News tonight from Paris is surprisingly good. The latest Draft text catches up with scientific reality in emphasising that the mythical +2C global average temperature rise is not some political bargaining chip; rather, it is the place no sane climate … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, aviation, COP21, INDCs, Paris, shipping
8 Comments
“Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”
Coalition partners Fine Gael and Labour are fast becoming the Laurel and Hardy of environmental regulation, with chaotic, contradictory and just plain wrong statements emanating from the government parties as they attempt to talk their way out of their shambolic … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Alan Kelly, diesel, Enda Kenny, VolksWagen
2 Comments
Microbeads – tiny pollutants with a fearsome impact
Below, my article, as it appears in the Sept/October 2015 edition of Village magazine: THERE ARE some products, notably tobacco, that are only tolerated by dint of having been around for a very long time. These days, no one in … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Irish Water, microbeads, PCB, water pollution
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We’re in a war with the Earth where no one wins
Below, my article, as it appears in the September edition of Forum, journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners BY ALMOST any measure, climate change poses the greatest threat to human health and well being in the 21st century. … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged air pollution, EO Wilson, health, Naomi Klein
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