Right from the get-go, I have to admit that Planet of the Humans, a documentary about the environmental movement produced by Michael Moore, is unfair, very unfair. And unkind, too, very unkind, to Al Gore. Alas. But as the Sierra Club might have said, you can’t produce clean, green biomass energy without levelling forests. Planet of […]
For weeks now, with the coronavirus crisis ongoing, many countries have implemented travel bans, and airlines around the world have found themselves grounded in unprecedented numbers. While this is obviously a disaster for the economy, it does present a unique opportunity: could this be scientists’ chance to prove or disprove man-made climate change? To answer […]
A fascinating yarn this morning out of Harvard: Two decades ago Dolly the Sheep changed the way we look at science. Now, using similar technology, scientists at the world-renowned Harvard University have successfully modified the genes of an American Bison calf so that it breathes in CO2, and excretes Oxygen through its lungs, in a […]
Since the western world re-set its priorities following the Covid-19 outbreak, one of the most noticeable consequences was that the measures taken to stem the disease’s advance had some really interesting, positive, unanticipated, collateral consequences for the environment. It might have seemed that the climate agenda had been shelved in the face of a more […]
“Coronavirus shutdowns are horribly disruptive for most normal people. But maybe we should be getting used to it. After all, it’s everything the climate lobby has been demanding for years.” BEN SCALLAN comments.”
In an interview, Sir David Attenborough says the Corona virus is not the worst danger we face, but the state of the environment: ‘Even the worst outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic are nothing on the scale of what is eventually feared will be the catastrophic implications of climate change’ (Joe Shute, “‘This will be serious, […]
Richard Bruton, Minister for Communications, has announced changes to the €40 million Sound & Vision scheme which will see broadcasters who focus on climate change awareness being financially rewarded. Minister Bruton, as reported by the Irish Times, has said that “Climate disruption will be a focus of this year’s scheme. It is the defining issue […]
There are two main aspects to the climate change phenomenon. The first is the political movement variously represented by Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion and factions of the Green and left parties. The second is how governments exploit the fear of a threatened global catastrophe to impose new taxes and other restrictions on their citizens. […]
You might not have noticed, but this was supposed to be the Climate election. It was all decided relatively far in advance of the thing, with most of the narratives pre-scripted. Young voters, emboldened and inspired by Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion, and Saoirse McHugh, were supposed to rise up and push Ireland to the international […]
Climate researchers now admit that the worst case scenario for carbon emissions is no longer plausible, with a key climate model used until recently overestimating the the amount of coal the world would burn.
Climate scientists generally believe that man-made impacts on global climate can only be practically detected in climate records since around 1950, as our CO2 emissions were comparatively very small before then. Figure 1 below shows this very clearly with over 86% of total estimated CO2 emissions since around 1950. Whenever the media report on climate […]
Because of our proportional election system, Ireland is nearly always governed by a coalition between at least two political parties. The last majority, one party Government was elected in 1977, when Jack Lynch promised everything short of Nirvana to win the election, and then fell from power shortly thereafter when it became apparent that he […]