Category Archives: Psychology
If they work hard, if they behave
Here’s a piece I chipped in to Village magazine during the summer on the hopes and fears that prospective new parents must navigate when considering taking on the awesome responsibility of bringing a new life into our climate-wracked, overheating world. … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Morgan Stanley, NOAA, Village Magazine, WMO
Leave a comment
To hold on, sometimes you have to simply let go
When facing seemingly impossible odds, we are sometimes capable of rising to the challenge, no matter how unpromising the situation, as I explored in this piece in the Irish Examiner at the end of June. On the other hand, value … Continue reading
When all hope is lost, keep fighting
On the one hand, it’s simply impossible to overstate just how dire the climate and biodiversity emergency really is, and in truth, most people either have no idea, or else are in absolute denial. So, is it already Game Over? … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Psychology
Tagged Antonio Guterres, Cassandra, doomer, Greta Thunberg, IPCC, Michael Mann
Leave a comment
There’s no vaccine for the greenhouse effect
The future is an Undiscovered Country. Things are done differently there. For those who follow the science of the climate and ecological crisis, it’s also an overwhelmingly scary place. Climate fiction, or cli-fi, is our best available vehicle with which … Continue reading
Step by step towards a lower carbon future
Here’s a piece that ran in the Irish Daily Star in the first week of January, my 10-point guide for those dipping a toe in the water of climate action in 2023. It’s not intended to be either definitive or … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged An Taisce, BirdWatch Ireland, Irish Wildlife Trust
1 Comment
Is a social tipping point on climate within sight?
It is often said that nothing seems to happen for decades, then decades can happen within a matter of months or even weeks. Despite the overall pessimism, there is growing evidence that we are approaching societal inflection points that may … Continue reading
Sorting scientific fact from fiction on climate
Seeking out and clinging to reassuring myths as an antidote to the often frightening realities around the climate emergency is a surprisingly common reaction among the public, and even persists amid the all-too-obvious signs of climate breakdown happening in real … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology
Tagged climate denial, Irish Examiner, myths
Leave a comment
The future is green, Soylent Green
Back in the early 1970s, even the year 2000 seemed an infinity away; for many, it conjured images of a glittering high-tech future. For others, a grim dystopia. The latter view definitely inspired the only film of that era to … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged consumerism, Paul Hawken, Victor Lebow, Village Magazine
1 Comment
Austerity or catastrophe: options grow ever narrower
Our chronic dependence on an invented system of growth-based capitalism that is destabilising the global climate system and laying waste to the natural world looks increasingly like a Faustian bargain, and metaphorical Mephistopheles is now knocking at the door looking for … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Business Post, climate denial, extinction, Exxon Mobil
2 Comments
Putting our bodies on the line to save everything
I contributed the below piece to the Business Post in mid-June looking at the extraordinary phenomenon of climate scientists taking to the streets and risking professional ridicule, arrest and more in order to ring the alarm bells on the ever-deepening climate … Continue reading
Turf wars signal betrayal on climate action
The bizarre and pointless recent ‘turf wars’ are a throwback to an Ireland many of us thought was gone forever. The scramble by politicians to outdo one another in capitulating to a handful of industrial turf cutters and their noisy … Continue reading
Things are Looking Up as climate crunch hits funny bone
It will come as no surprise to regular ToS readers to learn that the biggest ‘story’ of the 21st century, or perhaps 66 million years of Earth history, is the rapidly unfolding climate emergency and simultaneous global mass extinction event, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Baba Brinkman, Business Post, Don't Look Up, Joe Duffy, Netflix
3 Comments
Confronting consumerism for a safer future
Among the many challenges we face this decade is how to achieve radical decarbonisation in a way that does not entirely alienate the public. This is no mean challenge. After all, we are all bombarded with constant advertising and promotional … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Psychology
Tagged Climate Action Plan, consumerism, COP26, Kantar, RTE
1 Comment
We are Generation Incineration
This piece ran in the Business Post magazine in late August, as more and more media outlets rallied to engage with the climate emergency and its vast implications for all life on Earth, humans included. AT EXACTLY 1.18am, on June … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged Business Post, consumerism, Great Acceleration, Robert Pirsig, Thatcher
4 Comments
When scientific facts and corporate fiction collide
The article below ran in the Business Post in late January. Just days after the inauguration of a new US president, it seemed like an opportune time to explain to a wider audience how the blitz of malignant lies aimed at … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sceptics
Tagged Business Post, climate denial, Climategate, Exxon Mobil, Michael Mann
1 Comment
