Category Archives: Pollution
Bringing airborne plastic pollution down to earth
What goes up, must eventually come down again, and so it is with helium balloons, a pernicious form of pollution that rarely receives the critical attention it warrants. One happy side-effect of writing the below piece for the Irish Examiner … Continue reading
Ozone recovery offers sliver of optimism on climate action
Good news stories on the climate beat are few and far between, and offer occasional relief from the quickening drumbeat of bad news on the climate and biodiversity front. I didn’t have to be asked twice to file this piece … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Pollution, Sustainability
Tagged Montreal Protocol, ozone, WMO
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Big trouble as world’s tiny empires crumble
As recently as 30, even 20 years ago, when at night across Ireland, by the time you reached your destination, the front of your car would be caked in hundreds, even thousands, of dead insects. Commonly known as ‘bug splat’ … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Pollution
Tagged Dave Goulson, glyphosate, Insects, neonicotinoids, Oliver Milman
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The library of our living planet is burning down
Shortly before the COP26 climate conference began, another global conference, this one on biodiversity, known as COP15, took place in Kunming, China. My piece around the global biodiversity crunch ran in the Business Post in late October. THE NATURAL WORLD is … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Pollution, Sustainability
Tagged Biodiversity, IPBES, IUCN, Kunming, Living Planet Report, Malcolm Noonan, NWPS
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Climate hoofprint of ruminant agriculture under spotlight
The Farming Independent sought two contrasting views on the merits or otherwise of continued expansion of Ireland’s dairy herd, so I contributed the below, wearing my hat as a volunteer member of An Taisce’s climate committee. This article was published … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture, Irish Focus, Pollution
Tagged Dairy emissions, methane, Teagasc
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Investors running for cover as allure of fossil fuels fades
The below piece was published in the Business Post in late February. By my usual standards, this probably ranks as quite optimistic, in pitching the argument that fossil fuel, the world’s most dangerous industry, is in the process of losing … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Energy, Global Warming, Pollution
Tagged Biden, BlackRock, Business Post, divestment, fossil fuels
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SUV fad puts us into fast lane towards climate breakdown
I’ll admit to having never been a big fan of SUVs. It’s fine if you’re one of a tiny handful of people who actually need a 4×4 in your trade, but there seems little reason for regular folk to be … Continue reading
Coronavirus an appetiser for what climate breakdown has in store
The piece below ran on Thejournal.ie in early May, and to my surprise, made quite an impact, with over 83,000 views, 142 online comments and thousands of tweets and reposts on social media. Thejournal.ie is now very much part of … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Pollution, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Coronavirus, Green Party, IPCC, pandemic, Paris Agreement, WMO
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Meat & dairy sector turns to chemical industry PR playbook
Below, my article as published on the investigative website, Desmog UK on October 4th. Ireland’s meat and dairy industries have been feeling the heat, both from a public turning increasingly towards vegetarian and vegan options as concern over the environmental … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Pollution, Sustainability
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Creed gets creamed over dodgy dairy data
Going right back to late last year, a concerted campaign has been led by folks in the Department of Agriculture to create ‘alternative facts’ about emissions emanating from our rapidly expanding dairy herd. A new phrase – decoupling – was … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Irish Focus, Media, Pollution, Sustainability
Tagged Dairy emissions, DeSmog UK, Michael Creed
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LNG at Shannon: selling our future down the river
Below, my article as it appeared on DeSmog.uk on May 15th. ENVIRONMENTAL groups have united in opposing a massive new terminal that would receive fracked gas from the US in a protected area on Ireland’s west coast. They fear … Continue reading
World awakens slowly to unfolding plastics catastrophe
Below, my article as published in the April 2018 edition of Village magazine. I’ve been writing for years about the pervasive and ever-expanding threats posed by plastic wastes, but have found few takers in the mainstream media; given the staggering … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Pollution
Tagged David Attenborough, Newstalk, plastic, Repak
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