Category Archives: Irish Focus
Microbeads – tiny pollutants with a fearsome impact
Below, my article, as it appears in the Sept/October 2015 edition of Village magazine: THERE ARE some products, notably tobacco, that are only tolerated by dint of having been around for a very long time. These days, no one in … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Irish Water, microbeads, PCB, water pollution
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Challenging Ireland’s climate contrarian-in-chief
Back in May 2014, UCD meteorologist, Prof Ray Bates penned a heartfelt plea for continued inaction on climate change, under the lurid headline: “Warning of over-alarmist stance on climate risk“. It was a weak, poorly argued exercise in that most … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, COP21, IPCC, Irish Times, John Sweeney, NASA, Ray Bates
2 Comments
A Climate Bill that’s built to fail?
The confirmation earlier today that retired ESRI economist, Prof John FitzGerald has been given the plum job of chairing the Expert Advisory Council on Climate Change has hardly been greeted with universal applause. The first question is what exactly qualifies … Continue reading
Guardian seeks to rouse media from its climate torpor
Below is my article as it appears in the current edition of Village magazine: THERE is nothing new about newspapers striking poses over climate change. On December 7th, 2009, some 55 major newspapers from all over the world (including the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Copenhagen, Guardian, Media
5 Comments
An economic analysis that just doesn’t add up
I was pleased to spot economist Prof John FitzGerald among the audience at the recent EPA lecture in the Mansion House, Dublin, presented by Prof Myles Allen. As it transpires, FitzGerald was doing some field work for an opinion article … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics
14 Comments
Come back, Liz McManus – your country needs you!
In case you haven’t heard, our current Minister for the Environment is a Labour party TD called Alan Kelly. He is the man who brought us the no-lobbyist-left-behind Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015, a piece of draft … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Alan Kelly, Alex White, Climate Bill, Eamon Ryan, IFA, Liz McManus
11 Comments
Milking the (climate) system, Irish-style
Below, article as it appears in the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine. (I co-authored this piece with Paul Price). “IT IS DIFFICULT to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”. Novelist Upton … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
38 Comments
What next for the apes who went to space?
I have no idea where I was on the night of July 20-21, 1969, being far too young to grasp the historic events that were unfolding, as Apollo 11 became the first spacecraft to land humans on a world other … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Apollo 11, Climate deniers, comet, George Lee, Rosetta, RTE
6 Comments
Another Fine (Gael) mess on climate change
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has in the last week or so taken political recklessness and cynicism to new lows. History may judge that he did more than any other politician of his generation to destroy the future of Irish agriculture. In … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
18 Comments
Clowns to left, jokers to the Right, stuck in middle with George
This may not be a news flash to most people, but science is hard. Really, really hard. Just how tough was brought home when I recently attended an international congress on multiple sclerosis (MS). The event brought together some 8,000 … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
5 Comments
If we tolerate this, then our children will be next
I’ve spent more than a decade first researching and then writing almost exclusively on a range of ‘environmental’ topics, with a special focus on climate change. I joined Twitter in 2010 using the @think_or_swim moniker, determined to use it as … Continue reading
Posted in Irish Focus, Media
3 Comments
A monkey trap of our own construction
In parts of Asia, indigenous populations have developed an extremely simple yet ingenious way of catching the otherwise elusive wild monkeys. The trap involves a hollow object such as a gourd, which is securely staked to the ground, with a … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
5 Comments
The meteorologist and the scourge of climate ‘over-alarmism’
Back in March, there was quite a kerfuffle when RTE PrimeTime tried to set up a ‘debate’ about the reality of climate change by initially loading a panel 3:1 in favour of the 3% ‘skeptical’ position that rejects or downplays … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, alarmism, climate denial, Harvest 2020, IPCC
11 Comments
When will accuracy trump ‘balance’ in media climate coverage?
Is the media now the largest remaining impediment rather than aid to an effective public and political response to climate change? If so, how exactly did this come about, and is there anything that can be done to reverse this? … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
43 Comments
A Prime lesson in how not to cover climate change
On Tuesday of last week, PrimeTime did something extremely unusual – at least for RTE. It had a programme on climate change. Well, ok, that’s not strictly true; the one-hour show actually carried three items, so climate change was wedged … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged GWPF, Media, Primetime, RTE
21 Comments
