Category Archives: Irish Focus
A Climate Bill Post-Mortem
Now that the Climate Change Response Bill 2010 has officially been consigned to the scrap heap, it is a good time to take stock of how the public debate around the Bill played out. As has already been discussed on … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged abatement, farming, IBEC, ICMSA, IEA, IFA, Oil, SEAI, Teagasc, Voiceireland.org
11 Comments
Mary Robinson – Reshaping the debate on climate change
For those of you who missed it in November, Mary Robinson’s lecture ‘Reshaping the debate on climate change’ is available to watch on YouTube now: John has covered this lecture in a previous post, which I have taken the liberty … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
11 Comments
Denial and self-interested delusion on Climate Bill
The prolific US author, Upton Sinclair was a shrewd observer of human nature, as evidenced in his classic retort to vested interests: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Climate Bill, Danny McCoy, farming, Gavin Harte, IBEC, IFA
14 Comments
Baby, it’s cold outside
News comes through this morning via John Gormley and Ciaran Cuffe that the Climate Change Response Bill has at last been published. A public consultation period on the Bill is to run until January 28th next, with a view to … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Arctic, Ciaran Cuffe, Climate Bill, John Gormley, John Sweeney, Kieran Hiickey, Potsdam Institute, snow
8 Comments
Carbon budget – yes, but Climate Bill remains elusive
Oisin Coghlan of FOE tweeted earlier today from Dail Eireann: “Carbon Budget. 4 Green TDs and all 3 senators in chamber/gallery. Phil Hogan for FG. 0 FF, 0 Lab, nobody else yet. Oh, and no journalists.” Yes, climate change may … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
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The not-so-strange paradox of global warming’s northern freeze
My article, below, as it appears in today’s Irish Times: OPINION: The thaw is on (apparently); can this year’s two extreme cold snaps be linked to wider climate change? AS 2010 draws to a close, globally it will enter the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged anomaly, Arctic, freeze, Greenland, jet stream
4 Comments
Septic tanks: another nettle in the long grass
It’s now more than a year since the European Court of Justice condemned Ireland for its dysfunctional approach to waste water treatment at some 500,000 premises across the State. While work is underway to address the judgment, it will now … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged EU law, septic tanks, Village Magazine, waste water treatment
2 Comments
Is the chilling truth that we’re to blame for the big freeze?
The Irish Independent this morning has a useful full-page piece by Ed Power in its ‘Weekend Review’ section on the extreme cold spell. He canvassed three perspectives, and I find myself, not for the first time, somewhat at odds with … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Arctic, freeze, Irish Independent, meteorology, Ray Bates
12 Comments
Greetings from 1930: a book extract
You might have thought that the last decade, and back in the 1980s, were the first occasions that banking in Ireland lost the run of itself, throwing our collective future in jeopardy. Not so. Or that the decade to 2008 was … Continue reading
As Cancun begins, deep pessimism abounds
Frank McDonald has a timely overview of state of near-paralysis that has engulfed global efforts to arrest climate change in today’s Irish Times (including a good plug for ThinkOrSwim), though I might quibble with the statement: “many scientists now say … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Antarctic, Cancun, CO2, Frank McDonald, Greenland
5 Comments
Calling the media to account for climate change coverage
Based on measurements for the first ten months of this year, 2010 is now reckoned to be tied with the scorching 1998 as the two hottest years globally since reliable record-keeping began in 1850. This of course is on top … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics, Sustainability
11 Comments
Restructure debt, and phase out compound interest thats what our environmental and financial crises tell us
Agree or disagree with him, Morgan Kelly’s analysis in the Irish Times last week is a must read. Closing Ireland’s €20 billion deficit by €6 billion in 2011 spending is all fine and well, but it won’t do enough to stave off … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged carbon dioxide emissions, climate change, debt, economic growth, GDP, restructuring
6 Comments
Out of his depth in Deepwater thinking…
According to a tweet from John Gormley in the last couple of hours, a climate change bill will finally make its way to the Cabinet next Tuesday (16th). Much credit here is due to Labour’s Liz McManus, rapporteur on the … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Conor Lenihan, deepwater horizon, Eamon Ryan, Oil, renewables
12 Comments
Science trumps journalism
Article below appears in the current edition of ‘Village’ magazine. It is a response of sorts to an unusually poor contribution in a previous edition by a journalism lecturer in an article purporting to offer critical insights into the interplay … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
16 Comments
A new champion for climate justice
Below is the interview as published over two pages in the main section of yesterday’s Sunday Tribune: Mary Robinson doesn’t scare easily. In the course of more than four decades in public life, it’s easy to forget that she has … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sceptics, Sustainability
11 Comments
