Category Archives: Biodiversity
Approaching the Precipice
My review of ‘The Precipice’ by moral philosopher, Toby Ord appeared in The Irish Times on May 1st. It’s an intriguing exercise, with Ord estimating humanity at having a one-in-six chance of becoming extinct by the end of this century. … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged extinction, Nuclear war, The Precipice, Toby Ord
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Earth Day – 50 years later, and deeper in ecological debt
This is piece ran on Cassandra Voices on April 22nd, the 50th anniversary of the inaugural Earth Day in 1970: FIFTY years ago today, more than twenty million people took to the streets in towns and cities across the U.S. … Continue reading
Shattering the illusion of control
Below, my piece for Greennews.ie, published on March 26th, just as the grim reality of the Coronavirus pandemic was finally hitting home in Ireland: ========== Right now, millions of people around the world are waking each day with a sensation … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species
Tagged Coronavirus, Covid-19, Zoonotic
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Rout of global biodiversity comes with a heavy price tag
Below, my article as it appeared in the summer edition of ‘Irish Wildlife’, the magazine of the Irish Wildlife Trust, an organisation well worth supporting. I gave a one-hour presentation followed by a Q&A at an IWT ‘Green Drinks’ event … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Biodiversity, EO Wilson, Irish Wildlife Trust, Luquillo
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Window on ecological annihilation closing fast
Below, my article that appeared in the Irish Times at the beginning of this month, inspired by the publication in October of the WWF’s ‘Living Planet Report‘. Even when generally inured to the drumbeat of ecological bad news, the Living … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged EO Wilson, Living Planet Report, National Biodiversity Forum, WWF
4 Comments
Day of reckoning on global extinction crisis draws near
Below, my article as it was published in the Irish Times last month, with some referencing added back in. To borrow one of my own lines, “A solitary species has, in a heartbeat of geological time, overturned and routed half … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Anthropocene, extinction, Irish Times, northern rhino, WWF
7 Comments
Nature is the silent victim of Nimbyism
Last November Sir David Attenborough’s Planet Earth 2 attracted 9.4 million viewers for one episode- two million more than watched the X-Factor that night. It was the most watched nature show in the UK for 15 years. No doubt, like … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Heritage Bill, Nimbyism, Wildlife
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Nine years later, and deeper in debt
It’s nine years to the week since my first posting on ThinkorSwim went live – on the last day of November 2007. It was, in many ways, a different world. The mood was radically different too. For starters, the Greens … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged 2007, Arctic, Green Party, NASA, Trump
17 Comments
One man’s meat is another’s global ecological calamity
The article below is a referenced version of my piece that appeared in the Weekend Edition of the Irish Times on Saturday last. Writers don’t get to choose the headlines –’Meat is madness’ – my preference would have been to emphasise the stark … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Chatham House, dairy, meat, obesity, Oxford, WHO
6 Comments
We’re in a war with the Earth where no one wins
Below, my article, as it appears in the September edition of Forum, journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners BY ALMOST any measure, climate change poses the greatest threat to human health and well being in the 21st century. An … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged air pollution, EO Wilson, health, Naomi Klein
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We mourn for Cecil while ignoring destruction of natural world
Below, my article, as it appears in this weekend’s Irish Times. WITH modern technology and firepower, it takes little courage and even less skill to kill wild animals. This week US dentist and recreational ‘big game hunter’ Walter James Palmer found … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Africa, Biodiversity, extinction, illegal hunting, ivory
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Breaching our planetary boundaries, one by one
Below, my article, as it will appear in the latest Village magazine: BACK IN 2009, some months before the ill-fated UN climate conference in Copenhagen, an Earth system framework was proposed by an international collaboration of environmental scientists. Their aim … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Biodiversity, boundaries, nitrogen, phosphorus
7 Comments
Time to sign up for the climate change war
Below, my article, as it appears in today’s Irish Times. There has been a pretty strong reaction thus far on Twitter (not that much uptake on Facebook) and quite a useful online discussion accompanying the piece on the Irish Times … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Economics, Global Warming, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged Arctic 30, Brad Werner, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gus Speth, Lonnie Thompson, Pope Francis, World Bank
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The oceans: cradle and graveyard of life on Earth
My first newspaper environmental column appeared in mid-March 2008, headlined: ‘Out of our depth in tackling overfishing disaster’. In researching the piece, I was staggered to read a quote from a senior UNEP official to the effect that even if … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
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