Author Archives: John Gibbons
Latest chapter in one man’s journey into climate obscurity
This piece ran in Village magazine in mid-October, tracking the latest moves by Ireland’s climate denier-in-chief in his continuing mission to spread doubt on the science of climate change and the help stymie effective climate action. OVER FOUR decades ago, … Continue reading
The most dangerous man in the world?
It’s almost always a mistake to characterise any one person as ‘evil’. There’s good and bad in everyone, as the song says. Well, almost. You could make an exception for one noxious Antipodean nonagenarian who has, over the span of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media
Tagged ICSF, Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, Nigel Lawson, Richard Lindzen, Rupert Murdoch, Thatcher
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We are Generation Incineration
This piece ran in the Business Post magazine in late August, as more and more media outlets rallied to engage with the climate emergency and its vast implications for all life on Earth, humans included. AT EXACTLY 1.18am, on June … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Business Post, consumerism, Great Acceleration, Robert Pirsig, Thatcher
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Which part of ‘Code Red’ don’t we understand?
The publication of the first working group report (physical sciences) of the IPCC’s keenly awaited AR6 report in mid-August came against the backdrop months of genuinely alarming extreme weather events across multiple continents, from killer floods in Europe and China … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged AR6, Business Post, extreme weather, IPCC, wildfires
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Climate emergency ‘widespread, rapid and intensifying’
I was asked by TheJournal.ie to write a reaction piece to mark the release of the first part of the IPCC’s new climate report in early August. I also recorded an Explainer Podcast with TheJournal.ie later in August. JUST HOW … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus
Tagged heatwave, IPCC, TheJournal.ie, wildfires
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Feeling the heat, then seeing the light
The story of RTÉ’s Damascene conversion on climate coverage has continued to gather pace. Below is a piece I wrote for the Business Post in early August explaining the background and context. AS THE STATE broadcaster, RTÉ occupies a special … Continue reading
Winds of (climate) change finally blow through Montrose
I filed the article below for DeSmog, the international website specialising in climate denial and disinformation, in late July, in the wake of the sudden about-turn within RTÉ’s senior management over its climate coverage. IRELAND’S NATIONAL broadcaster has publicly apologised … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged Desmog, Jon Williams, Peter Thorne, RTE
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Climate emergency still failing to capture sustained media focus
Here’s a piece I filed with the Business Post in July which took a look at how the alarming extreme weather events ramping up this summer are still failing to raise a red flag in the media, both here and … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
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More power to our fledgling solar industry
The missing piece of the puzzle from Ireland’s transition to clean and renewable energy has long been solar power. While wind energy has grown in just a couple of decades from almost nothing to providing more than two fifths of … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Conall Bolger, ISEA, Sarah McCormack, SEAI, Solar energy
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The heat is on: climate emergency deepens
After the savage heatwaves that swept the northern hemisphere in June and continuing into July, I was asked by TheJournal.ie to contribute a piece putting these ominous events into context. Here’s what I wrote: “WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE this historic event”. That’s … Continue reading
Dangerous myth of infinite economic growth exposed
Regular ThinkOrSwim readers will know that your correspondent is not a noted fan of mainstream economics, or most of its practitioners, for that matter. They have, in my view, done untold damage in impeding societal and political understanding of and … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Amazon, Business Post, consumerism, European Environment Agency, marketing, Steve Keen
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A mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam: our fragile world
Has there ever been a better science communicator that the late Carl Sagan? If you’ve watched the original version of the series ‘Cosmos’, you’ll have a good sense of his mastery of the medium. The BBC’s Brian Cox recalls watching, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming
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Billionaires to the rescue? No thanks
With our billionaire overlords queueing up to be the first into space or to colonise some real estate on Mars, I thought it was an opportune moment to file a piece in the Business Post taking a cold look at … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Media
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A safer future for all means a better future for most
This article appeared in the Irish Times in early May, based around an intriguing paper published in the journal ‘Global Environmental Change’, titled “Providing decent living with minimum energy: A global scenario”. As the abstract begins: “It is increasingly clear … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged degrowth, Energy, IEA, inequality, Irish Times
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Do we care enough about nature to bother saving it?
This piece ran in the Business Post in early May, inspired at least in part by the devastating fires that swept many of Ireland’s uplands yet again this Spring, an annual ritual, it seems, that comes around with depressing regularity, … Continue reading
