Category Archives: Sustainability
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
2 Comments
Why you should take to the streets with your children
Below, my article as it appeared in the Irish Times on September 20th, to coincide with the Student March for climate, which saw some 20,000 take to the streets of Dublin, with thousands more joining protests in cities and towns … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Children's Strike, Extinction Rebellion, Greta Thunberg, OPEC
1 Comment
The Story of the Decade – Media and Climate Change
Below, my piece as commissioned as one of a series of retrospective articles to mark the 10th anniversary of the Irishenvironment.com website, run by Bob Hernan. THIS TIME 10 years ago, the portents for real climate action seemed genuinely encouraging. … Continue reading
2029 – A letter from the future
We live in consequential times. “What we do over the next 10 years will determine the future of humanity for the next 10,000 years”, is how former UK chief scientific advisor Prof David King put it recently. There is no … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Psychology, Sceptics, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, heatwave, IPCC, Long Emergency, permafrost, Village Magazine
5 Comments
Rout of global biodiversity comes with a heavy price tag
Below, my article as it appeared in the summer edition of ‘Irish Wildlife’, the magazine of the Irish Wildlife Trust, an organisation well worth supporting. I gave a one-hour presentation followed by a Q&A at an IWT ‘Green Drinks’ event … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Biodiversity, EO Wilson, Irish Wildlife Trust, Luquillo
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Thirty years closer to the End of Nature
Below, my review of ‘Falter’, the new book by veteran environmental writer, Bill McKibben, as it appeared in the Irish Times in May. UNLESS you’re an economics graduate or a billionaire, chances are you may have never heard of Ayn … Continue reading
A society of altruists, governed by psychopaths
Below, the article I filed for Village magazine’s first edition of 2019, which appeared in the middle of March. The Guardian’s George Monbiot has long been the gold standard for excellence in environment and climate reporting, analysis and campaigning. Like … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Media, Psychology, Sustainability
Tagged George Monbiot, QUB
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Window on ecological annihilation closing fast
Below, my article that appeared in the Irish Times at the beginning of this month, inspired by the publication in October of the WWF’s ‘Living Planet Report‘. Even when generally inured to the drumbeat of ecological bad news, the Living … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged EO Wilson, Living Planet Report, National Biodiversity Forum, WWF
4 Comments
Running Amoc – uncertain future for Atlantic current
Below, my first article to appear in Passive House Plus magazine: IF YOU LOOK at Ireland on an atlas, one thing that is striking is just how far north the island is located. Follow the lines of latitude east across … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged AMOC, James Hansen, Kieran Hickey, Myles Allen, World Weather Attribution
1 Comment
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
3 Comments
The Big Questions that Irish broadcasters shy away from
Other than on the very odd news bulletin wearing my An Taisce hat, I very rarely appear on Irish TV talking about climate change. Much as I might like to paint this as some sinister conspiracy against me personally, the … Continue reading
Citizens’ Assembly has spoken on climate change: Ireland must listen
Below, my article as it appeared in the Irish Times on June 1st, in which I pitched strongly for the findings of the Citizens’ Assembly on climate change to be taken on board via an Oireachtas committee in the same … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged 8th Amendment, Citizens Assembly, democracy
3 Comments
RTE bog broadcast sinks into mire of low standards
Below, a piece I ran in a well-known satirical magazine in May 2018. It was subsequently picked up by the Sunday Times, who also gave the show a bit of a scalding under a piece headed: ‘RTE turfed into trouble over … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged Bord na Mona, Derek Mooney, RTE
2 Comments
Day of reckoning on global extinction crisis draws near
Below, my article as it was published in the Irish Times last month, with some referencing added back in. To borrow one of my own lines, “A solitary species has, in a heartbeat of geological time, overturned and routed half … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability
Tagged Anthropocene, extinction, Irish Times, northern rhino, WWF
7 Comments
All talk, no action: agri sector’s spin over substance
My article, which ran in the Irish Examiner in early February, is below IRISH agriculture faces enormous threats, both from direct climate change impacts and the urgent need to sharply reduce emissions, yet the sector has been remarkably slow to engage … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged agriculture, ICOS, Irish Examiner, Phil Hogan
8 Comments
