Category Archives: Habitat/Species
Welcome to the New Emergency
They call it the ‘Greenhouse Gamble’. I’d call it the Wheel of Death. Either way, it’s a gizmo that looks like a cheesy prop from the National Lottery show, but in fact it has been developed by scientists from the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged carbon, climate change, CO2, emissions, environment, IPCC, MIT, Permaculture
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Life on the far side of the Rubicon
“Electric word life – It means forever and that’s a mighty long time”. Eighties music aficionados will probably recognise this line, from Prince’s Purple Rain. It came to mind when reading a report from the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Nuclear, Sustainability
17 Comments
Sustainability crisis no less critical than climate change
If self-immolation were somehow our collective goal, there is no surer way of expediting this outcome than to allow the rampant clearing of the world’s remaining forests. A critical place to start is in cracking down on imports of illegally … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Biodiversity, climate change, Dimas, Easter Island, EU, forestry, habitat loss, Maya, species loss, Sustainability, timber, WWF
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Sleepwalking across the climate ‘Red Line’
As of three years ago the Earth was already committed to rise of global mean temperatures by 2.4°C. This is the shocking conclusion of a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This is … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged albedo, Arctic, Biodiversity, climate change, deglaciation, EU, glaciers, IPCC, Northwest Passage, WWF
2 Comments
Whatever you do, do nothing
And so the G-8 Summit draws to a close in Japan. This Group of Eight major nations somehow manages to exclude from membership both India and China, which between them account for more than a third of humanity, as well … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus
Tagged Bali, Bush, climate change, G-8, Japan, John Gibbons, Kyoto, Oxfam
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Only treehuggers need apply?
Once upon a time, the phrase ‘green’ implied wide-eyed extremism. You know the types, living in the trees in the Glen of the Downs or rolling in the mud at some bizarre eco hug-in festival in deepest rural Roscommon. Yes, … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged DDT, Gaia, green, Irish Times, John Gibbons, organic, science, Sustainability, UCC, William Reville
10 Comments
Weaning ourselves off the fetish of growth
A cynic, according to Oscar Wilde, is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. He could have easily been talking about economists. It’s hard to open a newspaper or turn on the radio these … Continue reading
Water shortages add to list of critical pressures
With oil prices steaming towards $130 a barrel, CO2 emissions climbing relentlessly, food shortages and major commodity price hikes hitting the world’s poor, “the last thing anyone needs is another crisis”, according to the current issue of Business Week. But … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Australia, biosphere, China, CO2, shortage, water
4 Comments
Food shortages come home to roost
It’s been said that a recession is when your neighbour loses his job; a depression is when it’s your job that goes. This comes to mind as reports have been pouring in over the last while about soaring food prices … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged , China, climate change, food crisis, hunger, poverty, Wal-Mart
6 Comments
Watch out, Gaia’s about…
At 88, James Lovelock is for many people the Grandfather of the modern ecology movement. He today is admired and despised by people in the general ‘green’ movement in about equal measure. Apart from a highly successful career as a … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged , climate change, Gaia, global warming, James Lovelock, overpopulation
2 Comments
Forty shades of brown?
Climate change is set to change the very face of Ireland in the coming decades. This is the conclusion of a study published to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day. The study is called ‘Changing Shades Of Green – The environmental … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
9 Comments
The most dangerous man in Europe?
Gordon Brown gets it. Kevin Rudd gets it. John McCain gets it. Bertie Ahern (sort of) gets it. For goodness sake, even George W Bush is beginning to get it. It, of course, is the realisation sweeping the world that … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged climate, climate hoax, CO2, global warming, Keeling Curve, Vaclav Klaus
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Ssssh, don’t mention the ‘E’ word
There’s an episode of the 1970s comedy, Fawlty Towers, in which German visitors come to stay in the hotel. Basil Fawlty goes to great lengths to avoid any references to World War 2 (it was then barely 30 years after … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Basil Fawlty, climate change, collapse, extinction, Sustainability
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