What to expect for 2021 2020 had been billed as a ‘super year’ for climate and biodiversity issues and, in a way, it was, but not like anyone could have imagined. Major conferences on climate, oceans and a ‘new deal for nature’ were all postponed due to Covid-19. A major, but under-reported, report from July […]
The Case for Beavers in Ireland I have been agog these last few years watching in envy as beavers have popped up across Britain. Having gone extinct in the 1600’s these famously industrious rodents are now back to work at Knapdale Forest in Scotland as well as ten sites in England in which they are […]
What’s the point of industrial fishing? The prominence of Brexit in the media was eclipsed this year by the Covid-19 health emergency but it has re-emerged in recent weeks due to the failure of the EU and UK to negotiate a future trading agreement. One of the sticking points has been fishing, an area that […]
Reform of the NPWS is urgent “We desperately need new thinking, new concepts, new contexts, new teaching methods, new curricula, better communication between all the participants in nature conservation. If we had a new and vitalised education programme, half the battle would already be won.” David Cabot, then a scientist for An Foras Forbhatha (and […]
Rewilding the Park There’s a corner of the Phoenix Park, Dublin’s largest open space, that hints at wildness. It’s different from the rest of the Park in that it’s less manicured, messy looking, with unmown meadows and patches of scrubby thorn bushes. Most people walk right past it but within its tangled undergrowth there are […]
Corrosive power relations, not farmers, are killing the planet Feeding the world while bringing food systems back within nature’s limits is the challenge of the century. But farmers are mostly low wage workers and worry that greater environmental expectations will mean a further squeeze on their income. Is it possible for them to be green […]
Nature-based solutions This week saw a significant milestone in Ireland’s tortuous journey from climate laggard to climate leader with the publication of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill. It is a significant achievement for the Green Party in particular, which delivered on its promise to deliver the bill within the first 100 […]
The left is right The emergence of a ‘left-green’ conversation in Ireland seems to have gone unnoticed in the mainstream media. Its most notable figures inside the Oireachtas are Neasa Hourigan, Green Party TD for Dublin Central, Bríd Smith in People Before Profit, Alice-Mary Higgins (Ind) and Lynn Boylan of Sinn Féin. The Social Democrats, […]
Don’t ask me to be optimistic As far as apocalyptic weeks go, the one just gone has been impressive. The week started with the publication of a study showing that the rate at which ice sheets in the polar regions are melting is tracking the worst case scenarios which had been predicted in the 5th […]
Pádraic’s Blog: The Hardest Animal to Live With Bringing wolves back to Ireland has many supporters but for many it is all just a stretch too far. The conflict would be fierce and fraught, at least if current attitudes to nature are anything to go by. Can’t we just manage what we have? Why would […]
In search of the real A couple of years back I attended a conference on ‘Natural Capital’ in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Natural Capital is a way of bringing nature into national economic accounting structures in order to value what are termed ‘ecosystem services’ – i.e. the things that keep us alive like […]
Golden Plovers, sheep, peat and ‘Hurling from the Ditch’ Last week the IWT issued a press release calling for sheep to be removed from hills as an emergency measure to allow for the recovery of damaged peatlands, particularly blanket bogs. It followed the publication of a report from the National Parks and Wildlife Service which […]
