Tag Archives: agriculture
Global food system hurts people, crushes nature
It’s hard to keep being shocked or even surprised at the litany of reports on the dire condition of our biosphere, but the recent Chatham House study on biodiversity is still an eye-opener. Politicians often claim their job is to … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, Biodiversity, Chatham House, food, Sunday Times
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Green in name, but not in nature
Despite huge ongoing investment of both political capital and marketing euros in selling the message that Irish agriculture is green, climate-friendly and sustainable, it still keeps on running into the knotty problem that this simply isn’t the case. Recent comments … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, Bord Bia, EPA, Irish Wildlife Trust, Origin Green
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Can the farmer and the environmentalist really be friends?
The piece below ran in the Farming Independent in early September. It started out life as a rebuttal of a recent piece by a Findo columnist and dairy farmer, which did a lot of indignant huffing and puffing about an An … Continue reading
Failing farmers, the environment & wider society
My article on our broken agricultural system, as it appeared in the Irish Times on April 7th last. Getting a decent splash on the main OpEd page in the Saturday edition (the IT’s most read day of the week by … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged agriculture, Bord Bia, dairy, IFA, Origin Green, Phil Hogan
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All talk, no action: agri sector’s spin over substance
My article, which ran in the Irish Examiner in early February, is below IRISH agriculture faces enormous threats, both from direct climate change impacts and the urgent need to sharply reduce emissions, yet the sector has been remarkably slow to engage … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, ICOS, Irish Examiner, Phil Hogan
8 Comments
From pipsqueaks to bullies: farm leadership, 50 years on
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Ireland’s National Farmers’ Association (NFA) was a political pariah, with then Taoiseach, Fianna Fail’s Jack Lynch threatening to have the organisation proscribed, a move that would have placed every farmer in the … Continue reading
The ICSF – Irish Contrarians Serving Farming?
When I first heard about the newly formed climate denier group, the self-styled Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF), I tipped off my usual Dublin media outlets, but nobody was biting, so from there, I went to the London-based Desmog.uk, part … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, climate denial, ICSF, Matt Dempsey, Ray Bates, Richard Lindzen
8 Comments
Every sector must pull its weight on curtailing climate change
Below, my article as it appeared in today’s Irish Examiner. I wrote this piece on behalf of An Taisce, prompted by this self-serving and misleading piece by the IFA in the same paper last week. The agribusiness lobby has been working … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged agriculture, flooding, food security, Irish Examiner
2 Comments
On the brink of history, at the edge of the abyss
News tonight from Paris is surprisingly good. The latest Draft text catches up with scientific reality in emphasising that the mythical +2C global average temperature rise is not some political bargaining chip; rather, it is the place no sane climate … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, aviation, COP21, INDCs, Paris, shipping
7 Comments
Never mind the bullocks, Enda isn’t cowed at COP
And so, to Paris. COP21 kicked off on Monday with each of the almost 200 world leaders chipping in their opening contributions. The feeling at the last mega-COP (in Copenhagen in December 2009) was that leaders only engaged at the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged agriculture, COP21, Enda Kenny, GHGs, IFA, Paris
1 Comment
Challenging Ireland’s climate contrarian-in-chief
Back in May 2014, UCD meteorologist, Prof Ray Bates penned a heartfelt plea for continued inaction on climate change, under the lurid headline: ‘Warning of over-alarmist’ stance on climate risk’. It was a weak, poorly argued exercise in that most … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, COP21, IPCC, Irish Times, John Sweeney, NASA, Ray Bates
2 Comments
The meteorologist and the scourge of climate ‘over-alarmism’
Back in March, there was quite a kerfuffle when RTE PrimeTime tried to set up a ‘debate’ about the reality of climate change by initially loading a panel 3:1 in favour of the 3% ‘skeptical’ position that rejects or downplays … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, alarmism, climate denial, Harvest 2020, IPCC
11 Comments
Ireland after Durban
After Durban, how Ireland will deliver its 20 per cent emissions cut moves centre-stage. We need to move quickly from the headline figure to a hard-minded sector-by-sector approach. The new climate agreement reached in Durban is bitterly disappointing for its … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming
Tagged agriculture, carbon levy, Durban, Ireland, law, Minister Hogan, policy, transport
4 Comments
Labouring under some misconceptions
What has meat go to do with climate change? At first glance, not a lot. But dig a little deeper and you’ll soon find that the sharp increases in meat consumption in the last decade or two is a major … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, CO2, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, emissions, IFA, IPCC, Labour, meat, Sherlock, Tuffy, vegetarian
4 Comments
