In ecological experimentation, one of the ways to examine how systems work is to disturb the system, by, for example, adding, removing, or changing the behaviour of a particular species and looking at how the system responds. These experiments are used to see how resilient or vulnerable a system is. The fuel protests last week… Read more »

Spoiler alert! Hot Fuzz The 2007 film Hot Fuzz is set in a town which regularly wins the tidy towns competition; there is no graffiti, living statues or underage drinkers. A secret cabal, sinister hooded tidy-town zealous residents, decides what action needs to be taken – usually involving murder – ‘for the greater good’. This… Read more »

In Manchán Magans’ book “99 words for rain (and only one for sun)” he effortlessly evoked the prevailing weather system in Ireland. Rain is one of Irelands defining features and it is responsible for our description as the Emerald Isle. All this to say that we are used to rain in Ireland – but not… Read more »

With the sudden proliferation of early decorations, you may think we have entered the season of Christmas festivities however we are firmly in the season of COPs. The Biodiversity conference, COP16, took place from 14th October to 2nd November in Cali, Colombia while its better known cousin the Climate conference, COP29, will take place in… Read more »

Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its State of the Environment Report 2024 which outlines, in no uncertain terms, the degraded state of every part of our environment and tracks its downward trends since the last publication in 2020. The 2020 report came out early in the current Government’s term and was an… Read more »

Housing and transport are intrinsically linked. They influence so many facets of each other that considering one without the other is folly. Everything from where we locate homes and accommodation, the number of parking spaces, the space given over to access roads and driveways, green space in urban areas, bus routes, train capacity and where… Read more »

This time last year I penned a piece which could nearly be reproduced word for word today – “We sit in soggy Ireland and observe the utter destruction which is being unleashed in several places across the globe”. This year, similar to last year, we read about heatwaves across Europe, Americas and Asia – in Greece several… Read more »

‘Children in Gaza are being shot by snipers’ This is a sentence that should never have to be uttered or written but unfortunately these are the words of Dr Mark Perlmutter, an American doctor who volunteered at a hospital in Gaza in April and May of this year. The children of Gaza are also starving.… Read more »

Where other laws and protections have failed, there is hope that the EU Nature Restoration Law will succeed. It is the first continent-wide, comprehensive law of its kind. It aims to ensure that 20% of EU’s land and sea are protected by 2030 with all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. The scale of this ambition means that European-wide restoration work will make a significant difference to the overall health of Europe’s biodiversity.

Laudato Si’ was published 9 years ago this week. “Laudato Si’ Week” began as a way to celebrate the first anniversary of the publication – a groundbreaking appeal for environmental care as a justice and devotional issue –  and the tradition has been maintained since. This year, the event coincides with Biodiversity Week and focuses… Read more »

Last week stands out in one’s mind as significant in terms of safety and active transport. On the 24th of April, a 22-year-old student studying in Dun Laoghaire was knocked down and killed by a truck. She will be remembered as “the kindest, gentlest” daughter and “a blessing” in the life of her friends and partner. She… Read more »

A new community garden is opening in Clongowes Wood College. In time this project will yield not only a food harvest but a creative space where hands and minds can gather to create wonderful communities which thrive. In time, food may only be a by-product of the relationships and community which is formed.

Land use requires a juggling act of different needs. Offices, housing, parking, green space, retail, transport and schools all vie for the same spaces.

Introduction We are in the middle of multiple crises. The lives lost and absolute devastation caused by senseless wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as the increasing hostilities towards those seeking refuge in our country, can leave one feeling numb. When so many lives are lost, when there is so much anger and resentment,… Read more »

A little after 2am – hours after the end of the final official day (Tuesday 12th November) of COP28, delegates were told to go to bed and await a new draft text in the morning. The initial draft was roundly rejected on Monday as being too weak on action on fossil fuels. Sultan Al Jaber,… Read more »

At COP28 they rested on the 7th day and today restarts with a focus on ‘Youth, Children, Education and Skills’ alongside the continuous negotiations on the final text. COP28 has, so far, been a mixed bag with some incredibly promising agreements tempered by compromises and mixed messages. The Loss and Damage Agreement, which was rubberstamped… Read more »

What is loss and damage and why is it important? The causes and impacts of climate change are widely accepted. We know that more carbon pollution in the atmosphere, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels releasing carbon dioxide, leads to an overall increase in global temperatures. This causes a wide variety of impacts including… Read more »

Stop de Kindermoord ‘Stop de Kindermoord’, or ‘Stop the Child Murder’ was a road safety campaign in the Netherlands during the 1970s. It precipitated the widespread installation of active transport infrastructure for which the Netherlands is now famous. This campaign was led by parents who feared for the safety of their kids, and communities who… Read more »

“If we are confident in the capacity of human beings to transcend their petty interests and to think in bigger terms, we can keep hoping that COP28 will allow for a decisive acceleration of energy transition, with effective commitments subject to ongoing monitoring. This Conference can represent a change of direction, showing that everything done… Read more »

The urgency in Francis’ communication to us makes it clear that ecological action cannot wait until it feels comfortable – we do not have time to allow his message to transition slowly from head to heart to hands but we must consider how the action of our hands can help us understand the crisis both intellectually and emotionally

We are not yet feeling the worst impacts of climate change. However, this summer’s wetter than normal weather has already played havoc with the agricultural industry, reducing growth and impacting harvesting. Imagine the impact of more widespread flooding, or the compounding impact of several years of climate induced poor yields. Our reliance on a very narrow range of environmental conditions and our failure to build up our environmental resilience is incredibly risky.

It is a terrible indictment of a city’s infrastructure that I consider myself lucky to be hit by a car in the specific way I was. My incident was not recorded, and neither are many such cases (many of which have much more severe outcomes), which masks the level of danger inherent in cycling or walking through the city.  The stats that are recorded highlight the problems we have on our roads. So far this year in Ireland 22 pedestrians and one cyclist have been killed. These figures are an outrage.

In the right circumstances biodiversity and the natural environment has an incredible capacity to restore itself. In many cases we know what we need to do…

Instead of levelling the playing field, fast fashion is actually increasing inequality.

Changing the pace at which you move through a city, and removing the metal barrier which separates you from your surroundings, makes you a more engaged resident and citizen. You come to intimately know your surroundings, such as the parts of your commute that are more dangerous, where the best views are, and which areas have more green space. You spot the areas where the infrastructure is good enough to allow kids to walk and cycle to school. You also see where new homes are being built and others are boarded up. The life of an area becomes is more connected to you, than it is from when observed from behind the wheel of a car.