Author Archives: John Gibbons
Cool, sparkling sense comes dropping slow
Amazing the things you never knew you never knew. This morning, for instance, I found out that if you spell ‘naive’ backwards, you come up with Evian, the cool, sparkling spring water that is full of, er, volcanicity – this … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged bottled water, David McWilli, David McWilliams, economists, Newstalk, Peak Everything, Tom Dunne, water
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Challenging the infallible economist
Colm McCarthy chaired the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, better known as An Bord Snip Nua. It issued its various prescription for what ails us in July, and much of the national discussion since then has … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, Bord Snip Nua, carbon, climate change, collapse, Colm McCarthy, Convery, emissions, Energy, Sustainability
6 Comments
Blowing up a political s**t storm
Fintan O’Toole is, for my money, the most insightful commentator on Irish life, and has been for years. Like any of the rest of us, he has his hobby horses, and I’ve often been disappointed that he rarely turns his … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged Daily Mail, Fintan O'Toole, Gormley, Green Party, Kevin Myers, Nama, RTE
6 Comments
A fair wind for renewable energy sector?
The Green Party seems to have snatched an unlikely victory at the weekend – they somehow maneuvered themselves from being pinned between the proverbial rock and a hard place and wriggled free with party unity intact and a hatful of … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Andris Piebalgs, Arklow Bay, car, carbon, CO2, Eamon Ryan, elect, electricity, Energy, fossil fuels, Green Party, interconnector, supply, wind, wind farms
6 Comments
The Anthropocene draws to a close
The term Anthropocene was coined by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen a decade ago to describe the new ‘Era of Man’, a distinct geological epoch shaped almost entirely by our actions and impacts. “The Anthropocence has yet to be accepted as … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Anthropocene, Arctic, climate change, CO2, Crutzen, David McWilliams, emissions, famine, global warming, John Gibbons, methane, New Scientist, permafrost, RTE, species loss, Sustainability
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A good day for Ireland, but where’s Copenhagen?
I was in the city centre on Friday night, just as the polls were preparing to close, and happened upon the hugely impressive illuminated Liberty Hall (hard to miss, in fact, and far and away the most dramatic installation the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged carbon, climate change, CO2, collapse, Comhar, Convery, Gormley, Irish Independent, Lisbon, Media, RTE, Sustainability
4 Comments
Comhar’s Green New Deal makes sense
At 11am today in the Irish Academy in Dublin’s Dawson Street, Comhar, the sustainable development council formally launches its Green New Deal for Ireland. It’s a genuinely impressive document, as I’ve outlined in the Irish Times today, with much to … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, CO2, Comhar, Convery, emissions, Energy, environment, Green New Deal, pollution, Sustainability, sustainable
2 Comments
Hot air, melting ice, ticking clock
Hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Declan Ganley of Libertas until yesterday. Well, Declan is of course a stickler for accuracy, so perhaps ‘encountering’ would be a more accurate term. The brief encounter occurred around noon yesterday, as I was … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, climate, CO2, Coleman, Ganley, Greenland, IPCC, Karen Coleman, Lisbon, Nature, Newstalk, sea-levels, warming
3 Comments
In the frame for Lisbon
Am usually happiest to operate from the safety and relative anonymity of this side of the keyboards, but decided to face the music, so to speak, and contribute to a press briefing held in the dramatic setting of the upper … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
3 Comments
It has to be Yes to Lisbon
On June 11th, 2008, the day before what we now call Lisbon 1, my Irish Times piece was headed: “If you care about climate change, vote Yes to Lisbon”. There are those who’d say I got my answer. I’m not … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Nuclear, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, CO2, deBurca, Duncan Stewart, electricity, environment, Gormley, Lisbon, referendum
1 Comment
Where have all the fish gone? (we ate them)
The world’s oceans are in deep, deep trouble. Industrialised fishing, in full swing since around 1950, has in essence waged a war against the marine ecosystem. And the bad news is: we’re winning. Species extinctions, population crashes and vast disruption … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Achim Steiner, collapse, extinction, fishing, global warming, marine, maritime, oceans, overfishing, population, sharks, species loss, Sustainability, UN, UNEP
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Which part of ‘conserve’ don’t conservatives get?
Let’s hear it for Connie Hedegaard. Connie who? She’s the Danish minister for climate and energy and, crucially, will host the UN-sponsored global climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December. That puts her in the hottest of hot seats in … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged carbon, climate, climate change, Energy, environment, John Gibbons, pollution, species loss, Sustainability
2 Comments
North East Passage open for business
The fabled North West Passage, allowing shipping from Asia to Europe to navigate via the Arctic Ocean, is now routinely used. This passage cost the lives of many earlier expeditions. Times have changed, and a century of relentless global warming … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sceptics, Sustainability
Tagged albedo, Arctic, climate change, Greenland, ice, iceberg, melting, Oil
6 Comments
Where will you be when the lights go out?
Prices in Ireland have, mercifully, started to ease back from the highs of a year or two ago, yet some things remain extraordinarily cheap. The two things that contribute probably more than anything else to our overall well-being, comfort, security … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, Sustainability
Tagged carbon, climate change, electricity, emissions, extinction, famine, global warming, John Gibbons, MacKay, nuclear, Sustainability
1 Comment
Unicef’s change (for good?) of heart
Following last week’s piece, I was more than surprised that neither Tesco nor Unicef Ireland issued any response whatever on the day of publication (Thursday). It wasn’t until the Friday afternoon that Tesco submitted a letter to the Irish Times … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged charity, Everylittlehelps.ie, John Gibbons, multiple, supermarket, Tesco, Unicef, website
4 Comments
