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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The EU is next week due to propose a ban on imports of many kinds of biofuels. If approved by European governments, the law would prohibit importing fuels made from crops grown on certain kinds of land – including grasslands, forests or wetlands into Europe.
The draft law would also demand that biofuels used in the EU deliver “a minimum level of greenhouse gas savings”. Biofuels, you may recall, are the great Green Hope, promising the dream of guilt-free motoring to the worried middle classes. Continue reading
When you follow climate issues, prepare to be confronted with bad news, lots of it. But no matter how bad things seem to be getting, at least some things are reassuringly constant.
Things like Antarctica. This frozen continent is so massive that it creates its own weather, and is therefore our great bulwark against climate catastrophe. Continue reading
“The recent conference in Bali gave us hope that we can construct an effective, concerted response (to climate change) for nothing less will guarantee the safe future of all our children and our earth”.
That’s how President Mary McAleese addressed a gathering of the diplomatic corps from more than 50 countries in the Aras yesterday.She went on to describe climate change as a ‘contemporary and frightening phenomenon’ that demanded responsibility at every level. And who could disagree? Continue reading
Four years ago, in January 2004, what was then a startling claim was made by the UK Government’s chief scientific adviser. Climate change was a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism, according to Sir David King.
He went on to single out the US for failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Given King’s role as Tony Blair’s right hand man, you can see how this story rattled the wires. This, remember, was just a couple of years after 9/11 and only months after US tanks had rolled into Bagdhad in search of those non-existent WMDs. Continue reading
First, there was Al Gore and his ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, the hugely successful documentary film which managed to bring climate science to the masses. That film turned a washed up politician into a movie star.
Now a bona fide movie star is joining in. Next month sees the launch of ‘The 11th Hour’, a new documentary film produced and narrated by a Hollywood A Lister, Leonardo DiCaprio. It is in many respects the natural heir to Gore’s scary but optimistic film. Continue reading
