Category Archives: Sustainability

Species Extinction, loss of biodiversity

Things are Looking Up as climate crunch hits funny bone

Posted on December 26, 2021 by John Gibbons

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 , , , , | 3 Comments

The library of our living planet is burning down

Posted on November 5, 2021 by John Gibbons

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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

No time to lose as climate clock approaches midnight

Posted on October 25, 2021 by John Gibbons

This article was published in the Irish Times in late October, just days before the start of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. AHEAD OF the upcoming UN’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, many countries are now revising their nationally … Continue reading →

Posted in Arctic, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

We are Generation Incineration

Posted on August 30, 2021 by John Gibbons

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 , , , , | 4 Comments

The heat is on: climate emergency deepens

Posted on July 2, 2021 by John Gibbons

After the savage heatwaves that swept the northern hemisphere in June and continuing into July, I was asked by TheJournal.ie to contribute a piece putting these ominous events into context. Here’s what I wrote: “WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE this historic event”. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Media, Sustainability | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Dangerous myth of infinite economic growth exposed

Posted on June 30, 2021 by John Gibbons

Regular ThinkOrSwim readers will know that your correspondent is not a noted fan of mainstream economics, or most of its practitioners, for that matter. They have, in my view, done untold damage in impeding societal and political understanding of and … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

A safer future for all means a better future for most

Posted on May 25, 2021 by John Gibbons

This article appeared in the Irish Times in early May, based around an intriguing paper published in the journal ‘Global Environmental Change’, titled “Providing decent living with minimum energy: A global scenario”. As the abstract begins: “It is increasingly clear … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Global food system hurts people, crushes nature

Posted on February 14, 2021 by John Gibbons

It’s hard to keep being shocked or even surprised at the litany of reports on the dire condition of our biosphere, but the recent Chatham House study on biodiversity is still an eye-opener. Politicians often claim their job is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Global Warming, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Close, but no cigar: Climate Bill comes up short

Posted on October 30, 2020 by John Gibbons

My report on expert reaction to the eagerly awaited Climate Bill was published for a British audience on DeSmog UK in mid-October. A DRAFT climate change bill designed to put Ireland on a path to net zero emissions has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Green in name, but not in nature

Posted on October 12, 2020 by John Gibbons

Despite huge ongoing investment of both political capital and marketing euros in selling the message that Irish agriculture is green, climate-friendly and sustainable, it still keeps on running into the knotty problem that this simply isn’t the case. Recent comments … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A race between climatic and political tipping points

Posted on October 1, 2020 by John Gibbons

Some weeks back, in the course of researching an article on ecological grief, I reached out to US author, David Wallace-Wells for comment, and this led to a wide-ranging discussion that ran to over 90 minutes. I had filed a … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Media, Sustainability | Tagged | 1 Comment

Eco-plenary indulgences won’t save our souls or environment

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Jeremy Hughes

The below is a guest post from an occasion ToS contributor and concerned citizen who uses the pseudonym ‘Jeremy Hughes’. He takes a wry look at the new trend towards establishing tiny pockets of biodiversity while the bigger picture is one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Under Trump, Republican war on science escalates

Posted on September 20, 2020 by John Gibbons

The below comment piece ran in the Business Post in mid-September, tallying the all-out war the Trump regime has waged not just on client science but on decades of cross-party consensus on basic environmental protection. US elections almost always feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Good grief: grappling with eco distress

Posted on September 7, 2020 by John Gibbons

The feature piece below appeared in this week’s Business Post Magazine, under the heading ‘Distress signals from Earth: the new condition of ‘eco-grief’. This is a subject that has long been close to my heart and no doubt for most … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Psychology, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Can the farmer and the environmentalist really be friends?

Posted on September 1, 2020 by John Gibbons

The piece below ran in the Farming Independent in early September. It started out life as a rebuttal of a recent piece by a Findo columnist and dairy farmer, which did a lot of indignant huffing and puffing about an An … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability | Tagged | 1 Comment