Author Archives: John Gibbons
Doom with a view? Trap tightens on our diminishing prospects
In the current issue of ‘Village’ magazine, editor Michael Smith has explored at length and in some depth the array of formidable challenges that humanity (and all other species on Earth) face in the years and decades ahead. It’s a … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged doomer, Michael Smith, Sustainability, Village
9 Comments
An interview with Irishenvironment.com
Robert (Bob) Hernan is the man behind Irishenvironment.com, an online resource for all things in the environment and ecology field on the island of Ireland. Bob was formerly Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau, and his professional scalps … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
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To save lives, we must first abandon hope
Below, my article, as it appears in the latest edition of ‘Village’ magazine: Is it a biscuit? Or is it a bar? Does the convergence of a range of environmental, energy and resource crises compound a problem – or a … Continue reading
A warning from history
It’s almost 20 years since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. This led to the ‘Rio Declaration’ and its 27 Principles, signed up to by the nations of the world amid much pomp and posturing. Later that year, a group comprising … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability
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Shadow of a doubt: how they fooled us about a killer habit
Below, my article, as it appears in today’s Irish Times. It’s as much about the ‘Tobacco Strategy’ as smoking. There are lessons that may be useful in facing down the climate deniers. At the very least, it’s good to know … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sceptics
14 Comments
When science and special interests collide
Below, my column, as it appears on TheJournal.ie… Do you reckon GPS is a hoax? How about x-rays? Or satellite communications. Or perhaps the Internet, smartphones or germ theory. Or how about evolution? What these seemingly unrelated themes have in … Continue reading
Inside the dark Heartland of climate denialism
James Brown put it best in a song: “Don’t tell a lie about me and I won’t tell the truth about you”. A terrible crime has been committed against the libertarian US Heartland Institute. Someone has nefariously gotten hold of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sceptics
Tagged denial, GWPF, Heartland Institute, Media
10 Comments
Media throws in the towel on coverage of climate change
Below, my article, as it appeared in last Thursday’s Irish Times (and fair play to the IT for running a piece that is openly critical of its own editorial policy in this area; that’s the true mark of a serious … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Irish Times, Media, Met Eireann, RTE
9 Comments
Weird weather is our ‘new normal’
The folks over at TheJournal.ie asked me to do an OpEd on the ever weirder weather that is now featuring in pretty much every other news bulletin. Turns out that this is one seriously busy website. The posting has been … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sceptics, Sustainability
8 Comments
2011 – another year of living dangerously
It’s been one hell of a year for the planet, with the meteorological and climatic record books being re-written and in some cases, thrown away. This year ushered the concept of the ‘new normal’ into being, as US scientists simply … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability
7 Comments
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will
Any lingering sense, however slight, that humanity could shake itself from its collective somnambulation in time to arrest the coming twin ecological and resource catastrophes was finally snuffed out this month in Durban. Here, the nations of the world in … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Economics, Energy, Global Warming, Media
Tagged Canada, Chris Martenson, Crash Course, David Korowicz, Durban, Feasta, Kyoto, Tar Sands, Vesuvius
11 Comments
Phoney war ends as military eyes up new ecological foe
Late last year, Village magazine carried a cracking article entitled ‘Our deluded ESRI’, which opened as follows: “Patchy and boosterist forecasting, unquestioning neo-liberalism, an unempirical attitude to science and systemic ambivalence to environmentalism taint the performance of this apparently domestically-unassailable … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
9 Comments
Hogan’s U-turn on climate is short-sighted and damaging
Below, my article as it appears in today’s Irish Times: WILL THE real Phil Hogan please stand up? On June 16th last, responding in the Dail to questions from Sinn Fein’s Martin Ferris on whether climate change legislation was being … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Green Party, IBEC, IFA, IPCC, John Sweeney, Mary Robinson, Phil Hogan
24 Comments
Population surge difficult to halt and almost impossible to reverse
My article, as it appears in this morning’s Irish Times: Today, just like every day for the last 50 years, around half a million babies will be born. Every 16 days or so, the equivalent of the population of Ireland … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
22 Comments
We are earning the scorn and condemnation of history”
He’s hardly a household name, but US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (a Democrat representing Rhode Island) delivered a quite extraordinary 23-minute speech last week on the floor of the Senate – the speech we hoped, back in the heady days of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sceptics, Sustainability
Tagged deniers, Obama, Sheldon Whitehouse, US Congress
9 Comments
