Category Archives: Sustainability
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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We mourn for Cecil while ignoring destruction of natural world
Below, my article, as it appears in this weekend’s Irish Times. WITH modern technology and firepower, it takes little courage and even less skill to kill wild animals. This week US dentist and recreational “big game hunter” Walter James Palmer … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Africa, Biodiversity, extinction, illegal hunting, ivory
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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 … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged encyclical, Pope Francis, TheJournal.ie
2 Comments
Europe’s air pollution crisis brings climate reality close to home
Below, my article as it appears in this month’s Village magazine… WHILE global pollution crises, from climate change to plastics in the oceans, are showing no signs of abating, the worst effects are, we in the “developed world” are reassured … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged air pollution, Climate Bill, diesel, health, NO2, WHO
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Guardian seeks to rouse media from its climate torpor
Below is my article as it appears in the current edition of Village magazine: THERE is nothing new about newspapers striking poses over climate change. On December 7th, 2009, some 55 major newspapers from all over the world (including the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Copenhagen, Guardian, Media
5 Comments
Come back, Liz McManus – your country needs you!
In case you haven’t heard, our current Minister for the Environment is a Labour party TD called Alan Kelly. He is the man who brought us the no-lobbyist-left-behind Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015, a piece of draft … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Alan Kelly, Alex White, Climate Bill, Eamon Ryan, IFA, Liz McManus
11 Comments
Breaching our planetary boundaries, one by one
Below, my article, as it will appear in the latest Village magazine: BACK IN 2009, some months before the ill-fated UN climate conference in Copenhagen, an Earth system framework was proposed by an international collaboration of environmental scientists. Their aim … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Biodiversity, boundaries, nitrogen, phosphorus
7 Comments
Milking the (climate) system, Irish-style
Below, article as it appears in the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine. (I co-authored this piece with Paul Price). “IT IS DIFFICULT to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”. Novelist Upton … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
38 Comments
What next for the apes who went to space?
I have no idea where I was on the night of July 20-21, 1969, being far too young to grasp the historic events that were unfolding, as Apollo 11 became the first spacecraft to land humans on a world other … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Apollo 11, Climate deniers, comet, George Lee, Rosetta, RTE
6 Comments
‘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
Climate change fuelling our weather extremes
Below, my article as it appeared in the Irish Times this week: IN THE FIRST week of January last year, I placed an 80 euro bet that 2013 would be among the top ten hottest years since global instrumental records … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
4 Comments
The oceans: cradle and graveyard of life on Earth
My first newspaper environmental column appeared in mid-March 2008, headlined: ‘Out of our depth in tackling overfishing disaster’. In researching the piece, I was staggered to read a quote from a senior UNEP official to the effect that even if … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
3 Comments
Who’d want to live in a world without us? (hint: everything else)
World Population Day earlier this month threw up some portentous figures. Here’s one to conjure with: today, there are 1.8 billion people between the age of 10 and 24 – almost as many humans as were alive at the beginning … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability
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Ecological Ponzi scheme ignores natural capital
Below, my article, as it appears in today’s Irish Times: AT THE weekend, I took a load of junk from the garden shed up to the local recycling centre. Use of the Ballyogan facility costs €30 per car. Of course, … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Economics, Global Warming, Sustainability
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