Friends, countrymen, lend me your processors

Posted on February 25, 2008 by John Gibbons

Writing regularly about climate change and related issues is great – up to a point. However, the prospect of being able to chip something in to the actual science part might seem a little far-fetched for those of us such as this correspondent, whose science career careered to a halt after Leaving Cert Chemistry and Biology.

All is not lost, it turns out. I have in fact been running my very own climate modelling study – so far I’m 38 hours and 46 minutes into it, with only around another 1,541 hours left to run. Continue reading →

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The China Syndrome

Posted on February 23, 2008 by John Gibbons

Beijing has a shiny new international airport. Built in just four years by an army of 50,000 workers, the terminal is 3km long, with floor space a fifth bigger than all of Heathrow’s four existing and fifth planned terminals combined. It can handle 60 million passengers a year.

China is, quite literally, taking off. In 1985, total air passenger numbers were 7 million. By 2007, this had skyrocketed to 285 million. The government has announced the commissioning of an additional 97 airports by 2020. Thirteen of China’s airports are being built with a capacity of 30 million passengers each a year. Continue reading →

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A vision of beauty

Posted on February 20, 2008 by John Gibbons

Nature is under relentless assault, entire ecosystems are being obliterated, an area of natural forest the size of Croke Park is burned or cleared every second. Around every 12 minutes, yet another species goes extinct.

The news is, to put it mildly, pretty bleak. Many of the postings on this blog are similarly downbeat. The waves of bad news seem to push further inland all the time.

Today, rather than battle with words, I’d like to let this short video clip below do the talking. The music, ‘Comptine D’un Autre été’ is by French composer Yann Tiersen. This piece was made famous in the film ‘Amelie’.

It lasts barely two minutes and 12 seconds, and has been overlaid with some sublime aerial photography. The clip is from a Discovery Channel series called ‘Planet Earth’.

For me, it’s a moment of rare harmony between the overwhelming perfection of nature and man’s capacity to create, rather than destroy. Enjoy.

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Time to put a lid on bottled water

Posted on February 18, 2008 by John Gibbons

‘Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former’. That’s the view of no less an observer than Albert Einstein.

Though his judgement may seem a little harsh, the strange story of bottled water may well bear him out. Barely 30 years ago, nobody bar a few oddballs drank bottled water. Most people rightly scoffed at paying for something that came straight from the tap, free of charge. Continue reading →

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Corporations get in on the Green act

Posted on February 15, 2008 by John Gibbons

‘Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world’s dominant economic institution. Today corporations govern our lives. They determine what we eat, what we watch, what we wear, where we work and what we do’. That’s how author Joel Bakan opens his famous 2004 book, ‘The Corporation’.

Bakan’s book paints a singularly unflattering portrait of the average corporation – grandiose, manipulative, deceitful and ruthless in pursuit of its objectives – to make as much money and exert as much power as possible. Continue reading →

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Getting some real wind in our sails

Posted on February 12, 2008 by John Gibbons

You only have to look at a map of Ireland’s rugged western seaboard to get some idea of the power of wave and wind in shaping our coastline. In Connemara the sparse tree cover leans away from the sea at unlikely angles, such is the power of the prevailing winds that batter the coast.

Tree bent

Continue reading →

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Forget chocolate – 40 steps to cut carbon for Lent

Posted on February 8, 2008 by John Gibbons

The Tearfund is a UK-based development agency which has come up with a novel idea for this Lent. Instead of cutting down on treats, how about reducing your carbon instead?

They are clearly placing the effects of climate change as a justice issue, as right now, people in the Third World are paying for our excesses in droughts, famines and other climate-driven crises. Continue reading →

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At the edge of the Olduvain abyss?

Posted on February 7, 2008 by John Gibbons

The year 1900 is little more than two generations ago. It’s the year before my maternal grandmother was born. At that time, she was one of some 1.6 billion people then alive on the earth.

A hundred years, two World Wars and countless other setbacks later, and global population is edging towards seven billion. That’s more than a quadrupling of the planet’s population in a single century. There has never been a (human) population explosion like it in the history of the world, and there never will be again. Continue reading →

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Under pressure

Posted on February 5, 2008 by John Gibbons

Our closest living relatives on this planet are the 625 species of primates. We share over 98% of our DNA with them, so the similarities are more than skin deep. In the whole of the turbulent 20th century, not a single species of primate went extinct. Things now look a good deal less certain for our evolutionary first cousins.

In 1996, 15% of all primate species were listed as ‘critically endangered’. Four years later, this figure had risen to 20%, and by 2005, a shocking 162 species were on the critical list, that’s 26% of all primates. Continue reading →

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The heat is on for patio burners

Posted on January 31, 2008 by John Gibbons

If you sat down to design a more environmentally unfriendly product, you’d be hard pressed to come up with something worse than a patio heater. Ten years ago, these were relatively rare in Ireland, but with the upsurge of ‘decklanders’ aspiring to virtually year-round al fresco dining, they are now commonplace up and down the country. Continue reading →

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All-party consensus on climate – what are the odds?

Posted on January 29, 2008 by John Gibbons

Earlier this evening representatives of all six major Irish political parties joined a panel discussion entitled ‘Three percent a year: How will Ireland cut emissions?’. The meeting, chaired by environmental broadcaster Duncan Stewart, was hosted by Cultivate in Dublin’s Temple Bar and organised by ‘People Against Climate Change.’

As the chairman set out vividly to the full house, while Ireland is on paper making all the right noises on emissions control, and is now mandated by the EU to achieve 20% emissions cuts by 2020, the reality is the exact opposite. Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | 2 Comments

Is the Lucky Country’s luck running out?

Posted on January 28, 2008 by John Gibbons

Australia is, and has been for generations, a paradoxical place. Though it’s more than ten thousand miles and 12 time zones from England, it has still looked longingly over its shoulder to the ‘Mother ship’, many decades after the British Empire has faded away.

Maybe it’s when you’re so far away that you experience such a desperate need to belong; witness the Union Jack displayed on both the Australian and New Zealand flags. And Queen Elizabeth is Head of State! Australia has long been known as the Lucky Country; rich in both coal and minerals, its subterranean wealth has meant prosperity for many Australians. Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability | 1 Comment

The health impacts of climate change revealed

Posted on January 26, 2008 by John Gibbons

For many people in Ireland, the state of our health system is of far greater concern than something as abstract as climate change and global warming. After all, it’s a ‘real’ issue as to whether or not your elderly relative or sick child can actually get a bed in hospital if and when they need it. Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | 2 Comments

A Giant step backwards

Posted on January 22, 2008 by John Gibbons

It’s not the easiest place on the island to locate, and when you do eventually get there, your first impression may be to wonder what all the fuss is about. But as you head on foot from the visitor area to the place itself, the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, you’ll soon see why it has been designated a World Heritage site. Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability | 1 Comment

A greener Apple

Posted on January 18, 2008 by John Gibbons

Computers, monitors and associated gizmos are no friends of the environment. Frequent manufacturer upgrades lead to constant pressure on users to trade up to the ‘latest and greatest’ model. In some cases, you actually have little choice but to upgrade, as much new software will only run on the newer machines.

What’s worse, all manner of toxic materials, including Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), mercury, arsenic and lead are liberally used in manufacturing of computer equipment. Continue reading →

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