Tag Archives: Oil

A Climate Bill Post-Mortem

Now that the Climate Change Response Bill 2010 has officially been consigned to the scrap heap, it is a good time to take stock of how the public debate around the Bill played out. As has already been discussed on … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Out of his depth in Deepwater thinking…

According to a tweet from John Gormley in the last couple of hours, a climate change bill will finally make its way to the Cabinet next Tuesday (16th). Much credit here is due to Labour’s Liz McManus, rapporteur on the … Continue reading

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Can industrial civilisation and the biosphere both be saved?

Even when you don’t agree with him, Monbiot remains essential reading. Whether you regard the Dark Mountain Project as a bunch of  dystopian doomers, or simply realists probably depends on how you feel about peak oil (in the shorter term) … Continue reading

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North East Passage open for business

The fabled North West Passage, allowing shipping from Asia to Europe to navigate via the Arctic Ocean, is now routinely used. This passage cost the lives of many earlier expeditions. Times have changed, and a century of relentless global warming … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sceptics, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Weaning ourselves off the fetish of growth

A cynic, according to Oscar Wilde, is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. He could have easily been talking about economists. It’s hard to open a newspaper or turn on the radio these … Continue reading

Posted in Biodiversity, Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Let them eat cake

It takes around 230 kg of corn to feed a child in the ‘developing world’ for a year, according to UN estimates. By a ghoulish coincidence, that’s around the same amount of corn as is needed to produce enough biofuel … Continue reading

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There Will Be Oil!

The prolific American author Upton Sinclair died 40 years ago, but his novel Oil, published in 1927, has recently had a second coming, being the book upon which the Oscar-winning film There Will Be Blood is based. Another of Sinclair’s … Continue reading

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments