Category Archives: Irish Focus
The Arctic ice cap is melting – and with it goes our future
Below, my article, as it appears in today’s Irish Times. The piece has ‘gone viral’ via social media, with over 2,500 ‘Recommends’ on Facebook alone, and it was No. 3 in the ‘Most Read’ category of Irishtimes.com last week. Not … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Arctic, CO2, Greenland, ice, iceberg, sea-levels
9 Comments
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
Doom with a view? Trap tightens on our diminishing prospects
In the current issue of ‘Village’ magazine, editor Michael Smith has explored at length and in some depth the array of formidable challenges that humanity (and all other species on Earth) face in the years and decades ahead. It’s a … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged doomer, Michael Smith, Sustainability, Village
9 Comments
An interview with Irishenvironment.com
Robert (Bob) Hernan is the man behind Irishenvironment.com, an online resource for all things in the environment and ecology field on the island of Ireland. Bob was formerly Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau, and his professional scalps … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
2 Comments
Media throws in the towel on coverage of climate change
Below, my article, as it appeared in last Thursday’s Irish Times (and fair play to the IT for running a piece that is openly critical of its own editorial policy in this area; that’s the true mark of a serious … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Irish Times, Media, Met Eireann, RTE
9 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
Hogan’s U-turn on climate is short-sighted and damaging
Below, my article as it appears in today’s Irish Times: WILL THE real Phil Hogan please stand up? On June 16th last, responding in the Dail to questions from Sinn Fein’s Martin Ferris on whether climate change legislation was being … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Green Party, IBEC, IFA, IPCC, John Sweeney, Mary Robinson, Phil Hogan
24 Comments
Population surge difficult to halt and almost impossible to reverse
My article, as it appears in this morning’s Irish Times: Today, just like every day for the last 50 years, around half a million babies will be born. Every 16 days or so, the equivalent of the population of Ireland … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
22 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
When ‘functionally insane’ seems normal, time to worry
Every now and again I try to take a couple of hours out of life in La La Land (or was it Namaland?) to check in on the state of the real world. You know the one, it sustains all … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged climate change, human rights, IIEA, justice, Mary Robinson
7 Comments
John Tyndall – Ireland’s Greatest Climate Scientist
Science in 1861 was very different to now, and entire fields of study and concepts that are now taken for granted – quantum physics, the theory of relativity, continental drift, the big bang, DNA, the uncertainty principle, black holes, an … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged climate change, CO2, environment, global warming, History, Ireland
3 Comments
The decline and fall of the Human Empire
Below is my article, as it appears over four pages in the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine: Doomsday cults are as old as human civilisation. The Bible is a rich sourcebook for ‘End Times’ enthusiasts, who pore over Iron Age … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Economics, Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Armageddon, CO2, Peak Oil, Village
13 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
Fine Gael and climate change – what’s the story?
Fine Gael will almost certainly comprise all or most of the incoming government, therefore what they have to say about policy matters a hell of a lot more than FF, Sinn Fein or the Greens, none of whom are likely … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged climate, election, Fine Gael, policy
13 Comments
