Category Archives: Global Warming

Global Warming

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 | Leave a comment

World’s oceans drowning in plastic sludge

Below, my piece from the latest edition of ‘Village’ magazine. If you haven’t done so yet, dash out and buy it. Village is among the last vestiges of the non-corporatised media still standing in Ireland. It deserves, demands, our support. … Continue reading

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The Anthropocene – Age of the Sociopath

First off, this quite wonderful short animated piece by Steve Cutts. I showed it on a large screen by way of a little, ahem, light relief during a meeting earlier this week and it went down a storm, so here, … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology | 3 Comments

How climate change is destroying the Earth

A picture, they say, can be worth a thousand words. I was contacted recently by a group of volunteers who design and research material to help communicate climate change to the general public. They suggested the infographic below might be … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sustainability | 4 Comments

The psychology of bracing for very bad news

Below is my second article from Village magazine’s special issue on climate change: Once upon a time the people wearing the sandwich boards proclaiming that ‘The End is Nigh’ were a reassuringly small, fringe group of individuals, many clearly suffering from … Continue reading

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The human race is almost run

Below, one of my articles from the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine…. ‘Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule’ – Friedrich Nietzsche I like people; indeed, some of my best friends … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sustainability | 7 Comments

Safe bet that this year will be one of the hottest yet

Below, my article from today’s Irish Times, where I took a slightly different tack and asked the ‘real experts’ on risk, i.e. the bookies, to give the odds on 2013 being yet another year for the record books. The results … Continue reading

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

“You must feel vindicated, what with Hurricane Sandy and the way the weather and climate change has gone this year”. That’s how a business acquaintance of mine put it the other day during a pre-Christmas lunch. Her point was that … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology | 8 Comments

Steady as she goes: global climatic denial guarantees chaotic future

Below is the full, 800-word version of my article, a compressed version of same appears in this morning’s Irish Times, which runs to just 600 words, so a quarter of the original piece fell under the subs’ desk knife. This … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media | 1 Comment

Humanity’s killing spree about to come full circle

With apologies for an uncharacteristic outbreak of navel-gazing, below, my article as it appears in the current issue of ‘Village’ magazine… My interest in environmentalism is barely 10 years old. For the bulk of my adult life, far meatier concerns … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Sandy has the last word in a bitter election

Ever wonder what, in a world where the media took its cues from peer-reviewed science rather than energy industry shills, the front covers of even our business magazines might look like? Well, wonder no more. Below, is the amazing cover … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Media | Leave a comment

The Arctic ice cap is melting – and with it goes our future

Below, my article, as it appears in today’s Irish Times. The piece has ‘gone viral’ via social media, with over 2,500 ‘Recommends’ on Facebook alone, and it was No. 3 in the ‘Most Read’ category of Irishtimes.com last week. Not … Continue reading

Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Mental blocks contribute to our inaction on climate change

My article, as it appeared in yesterday’s Irish Times. There’s a busy comments section attached, with the usual handful of hard chaws piling in to an otherwise productive discussion… IT’S REASSURING to imagine we are, by and large, rational beings … Continue reading

Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Psychology | 7 Comments

Myths and mischief-making in renewable energy reporting

I couldn’t have claimed to be Ireland’s greatest fan of wind energy. Not because I don’t think it’s a good idea – it is – but rather, my concern is whether it will ever be deployed on a scale sufficient … Continue reading

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Extraordinary, unprecedented – but still not newsworthy?

Earlier this month, something quite extraordinary and unprecedented occurred in Greenland. The satellite image on the left above shows (in red) the area of Greenland which was experiencing summer melt on July 8th. It amounts to around 40% of the … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sceptics | Tagged , , | 29 Comments