Category Archives: Sceptics
Sensationalist ice-age story may betray covert media agenda
[This is a slightly extended and fully referenced (hyperlinked) version of an article which first appeared in Village Magazine on 14th August 2013.] GHOST: But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged Climate Change Denial, Irish Times
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Safe bet that this year will be one of the hottest yet
Below, my article from today’s Irish Times, where I took a slightly different tack and asked the ‘real experts’ on risk, i.e. the bookies, to give the odds on 2013 being yet another year for the record books. The results … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
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Myths and mischief-making in renewable energy reporting
I couldn’t have claimed to be Ireland’s greatest fan of wind energy. Not because I don’t think it’s a good idea – it is – but rather, my concern is whether it will ever be deployed on a scale sufficient … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics, Sustainability
Tagged emissions, Energy, GWPA, Pat Rabbitte, RTE, wind farms
7 Comments
Extraordinary, unprecedented – but still not newsworthy?
Earlier this month, something quite extraordinary and unprecedented occurred in Greenland. The satellite image on the left above shows (in red) the area of Greenland which was experiencing summer melt on July 8th. It amounts to around 40% of the … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
Climate scientist fillets Pat Kenny
Prof Richard Somerville of the University of California is one of the world’s top climate experts. A lead author for the IPCC’s AR4, he is research professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is also a big fan of … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged EPA, Pat Kenny, Richard Somerville
27 Comments
Could climate change be linked to freak weather? Never!
By Bill McKibben* Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, … Continue reading
2084: An Oral History of the Great Warming
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future”, the famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr once quipped, only half in jest. Scientists, as we know, are a dry lot, preferring to leave the purple prose to the scribes while they pore … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sceptics, Sustainability
21 Comments
Reflections on a Long Good Friday
“My God, my God, why hath thou forsaken me?” These are the words attributed to Christ on the cross, as recorded in two of the Gospels (Matthew and Mark). It is one of what are known as the ‘Seven Last … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
37 Comments
The Viscount, the architect and Phil Hogan
The shocking images from Japan since Friday are a frightening reminder of the fact that, for all our sophistication, even the most technologically advanced societies exist at the caprice of nature. Seeing large tracts of the north coast of Japan … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
Tagged Conor Skehan, Fine Gael, IBEC, IFA, Monckton, Neil Walker, Phil Hogan, sceptics, TCD
9 Comments
