Tag Archives: IPCC
Climate emergency ‘widespread, rapid and intensifying’
I was asked by TheJournal.ie to write a reaction piece to mark the release of the first part of the IPCC’s new climate report in early August. I also recorded an Explainer Podcast with TheJournal.ie later in August. JUST HOW … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus
Tagged heatwave, IPCC, TheJournal.ie, wildfires
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Feeling the heat, then seeing the light
The story of RTÉ’s Damascene conversion on climate coverage has continued to gather pace. Below is a piece I wrote for the Business Post in early August explaining the background and context. AS THE STATE broadcaster, RTÉ occupies a special … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged IPCC, Jon Williams, Primetime, RTE
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The heat is on: climate emergency deepens
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
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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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
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A tale told by an idiot, full of sound & fury, signifying nothing
In many respects, 2018 has been another thoroughly dispiriting year on the climate and environment beat. The publication in October of the IPCC’s SR1.5 report extinguished any remote hope that the pace and severity of climate breakdown might be less … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged Gavin Schmidt, Greta Thunberg, IPCC, Irish Times, Peter Thorne, Ray Bates
7 Comments
Long day’s journey into 1.5º
Let’s get this out of the way first. On climate change, things are worse, a lot worse, than most people have been led to believe. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial would require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, … Continue reading
Right here, right now. Climate change impacts get real
Below, the original version of my article, which ran in the Irish Times last week, including some links: THE US National Weather Service is not noted for making alarmist pronouncements. So, when it earlier this week described Hurricane Harvey as “unprecedented … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Conor Murphy, Donegal, EPA, flooding, Harvey, IPCC, Kieran Hickey, OPW
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Choosing to fail: Prof Kevin Anderson interviewed
Prof Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester and deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, is one of the world’s best known and most influential – and outspoken – climate specialists. … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Energy, Global Warming, Sceptics
Tagged IPCC, Kevin Anderson, Tyndall
13 Comments
Challenging Ireland’s climate contrarian-in-chief
Back in May 2014, UCD meteorologist, Prof Ray Bates penned a heartfelt plea for continued inaction on climate change, under the lurid headline: ‘Warning of over-alarmist’ stance on climate risk’. It was a weak, poorly argued exercise in that most … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, COP21, IPCC, Irish Times, John Sweeney, NASA, Ray Bates
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The meteorologist and the scourge of climate ‘over-alarmism’
Back in March, there was quite a kerfuffle when RTE PrimeTime tried to set up a ‘debate’ about the reality of climate change by initially loading a panel 3:1 in favour of the 3% ‘skeptical’ position that rejects or downplays … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sceptics
Tagged agriculture, alarmism, climate denial, Harvest 2020, IPCC
11 Comments
Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers: A crosscutting international instrument for advancing sustainability
The current global ecological situation is perilous to humankind. Accumulated releases of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are causing climate change and eco-toxic releases are significantly impacting the environment and human health. Global eco-systems and resources are in decline. There is a … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged carbon, climate, CO2, ecological sustainability, emissions, environment, global warming, green economy, IPCC, material flows, pollution, PRTRs, Sustainability
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Hogan’s U-turn on climate is short-sighted and damaging
Below, my article as it appears in today’s Irish Times: WILL THE real Phil Hogan please stand up? On June 16th last, responding in the Dáil to questions from Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris on whether climate change legislation was being … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged Green Party, IBEC, IFA, IPCC, John Sweeney, Mary Robinson, Phil Hogan
24 Comments
A little something for the weekend…
While smoking out climate change deniers can offer a little light relief, it’s important not to lose sight of what exactly is on the line here. For this, I am grateful to Joe Romm over at ThinkProgress for the following … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, Hadley Centre, IPCC, methane, MIT, permafrost
8 Comments
Media focus on climate disappears even faster than glaciers
Global media coverage of climate change in 2010 fell to levels not seen since 2005, after spiking in late 2009 in the lead-in to the disastrous UN climate talks in Copenhagen and the theft and selective release of fragments of … Continue reading
