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The Verdant Yank
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Leo's Dilemma - Budget 2019 and the carbon tax debacleI’ve watched this week’s climate media frenzy in Ireland from a distance as I work in Brussels for the week. Between the dramatic urgency of the IPCC’s Special Report to keep additional warming under 1.5C to Denis Naughten’s resignation as the country's first Minister for Climate Action, it’s been a weird time to be away. But none of that news was quite as disturbing than our Taioseach's last minute scrapping of a modest carbon tax from Budget 2019. Here's my take on the debacle...
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Good-Bye, Gasoline BluesOn February 8th, Ireland’s parliament voted to end future off-shore oil and gas exploration in Irish waters through the Climate Emergency Measures Bill. For Valentine’s Day, I could think of no better topic to discuss with Newstalk’s Ivan Yates on our new “Down To Earth” radio slot than Ireland’s exciting systematic break up from fossil fuels! Listen to our podcast here or read my 'Verdant Yank' blog for more of my own opinions on saying good-bye to off-shore oil and gas exploration in Ireland.
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Fly Me To The MoonI found out recently that Newstalk Presenter, Ivan Yates, doesn’t fly, so exploring my own issues around aviation and environment seemed like an appropriate topic for our first chat as part of our exciting new weekly ‘Down To Earth’ slot on ‘The Hard Shoulder’.
Listen to our ten-minute chat here or read it about in much more detail in my Verdant Yank blog. |
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Breaking up is hard to doOne of my goals in recent years has been to end my over-dependency on fossil fuels before I turn 40. We’ve had a particularly toxic relationship since I got my first car over two decades ago.
When my 2008 Nissan Micra died spectacularly last November, I knew I couldn’t in good conscience fall into bed with another Internal Combustion Engine, but I felt unprepared for the radical commitment of becoming an electric vehicle (EV) owner... This week on 'The Verdant Yank', I chronicle my first dates with a few EVs and the challenge of breaking up with fossil fuels. |
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Globalization's Uncomfortable New TruthOn September 9th, I was invited to speak at Sinn Fein’s annual summer school on the topic of globalization. In this new crazy world of geopolitics, this talk brought me way out of my comfort zone as I found myself conflicted about the role of globalization in climate action. Find out more about globalization's uncomfortable new truth in this week's Verdant Yank!
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Plastic ParadiseFollowing an interview on East Coast FM about the 38 million pieces of plastic waste discovered on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific this month, I'm blogging about this Plastic Paradise and Ireland's own problems and potential solutions to plastic waste in this week's Verdant Yank.
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Dance (and blog) like nobody's watching!'The Verdant Yank' blog celebrated its one year anniversary on St. Patrick's Day. I took a moment away from the festivities to reflect on the highlights of the year and where blogging has taken me so far with special thanks to readers who have kept me "fighting the good fight"!
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What it really means to miss New OrleansI spent ten of my formative years in The Big Easy -New Orleans, Louisiana or NOLA as we lovingly refer to it. On a recent visit back, I realized just how unique a city it is and came to terms with its susceptibility to our changing climate. Read an environmentalist's view growing up below the sea in this week's Verdant Yank.
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Cobain's 50th birthday shows how far we've strayed from nirvanaNirvana's Kurt Cobain would have turned fifty years old today. In my early teens at the height of his fame, I reveled in the rebelliousness of Cobain's anti-establishment ethos. Two decades later, I can’t help but wonder what he would think of the world now and if his words still hold inspiration today.
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Divestment, by any other name, would smell as sweetAs Ireland becomes the first country in the world to divest state assets form fossil fuels, I look back on how far we've come since I joined the call for Ireland to "break up with fossil fuels" two years ago and how my skepticism of the divestment movement was proven wrong!
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The dystopian world of CETA and new respect for Ireland's SenateI've always assumed Ireland's Senate (Seanad Eireann) was the place where good ideas went to die, but the Seanad's unfortunate lack of influence on government policy makes their recent motion on the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) all the more remarkable. Championed by Senator Alice Mary Higgins, the Seanad has found a way to potentially make global impact within a system that gives them very little power. Read more about CETA and the Seanad's success in the Verdant Yank.
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Environment Ireland: A vision (and reality) of fossil free Ireland in 2050Last week, I addressed the post COP21 climate challenge for the annual Environment Ireland conference hosted by EPA. I was asked to speak on “a vision for a fossil free society by 2050” -essentially a repeat of my TEDxUCD talk, but it’s been nine months since that talk and we’ve had COP21, our own climate legislation and a new government in the meantime. It was time for an update with a much needed reality check on where we are in achieving that vision. Listen to my #EnvironmentIreland16 talk on Sound Cloud or read this transcript to see where we stand.
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Everything I ever needed to know I learned at Electric Picnic: Waste TruthsWhile most people go to Electric Picnic to hear music, I went to learn about waste as part of Friends of the Earth Ireland's Green Messenger volunteers. Find out the hard truths about festival waste and where there's room to improve in my latest blog.
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Regret + Optimism = 2100This week, I was invited to participate in the Dublin event for Visions 2100 - A book by John O'Brien launched at COP21 last year, which contains 80 vision statements from global influencers such as Mary Robinson, Bill McKibben, and Christina Figueres. Find out why using our imaginations to develop a 2100 vision is so important for all of us and how I developed my own in this week's 'Verdant Yank' blog.
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"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"The annual pilgrimage to my beloved Bloom in the Park garden festival in Dublin's Phoenix Park gave me a chance to catch up with my friend Prof. Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin to talk bees, neonicotinoids, glyphosate and what we can do to help protect Ireland's pollinators. That chat inspired my own July 4th OpEd in the agri-business section of Irish Examiner on RoundUp, resulting in an extended blog post to defy critics of that piece with real scientific evidence. Put that in your Monsanto pipe and smoke it...
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On Trump: The climate can't be fixed by a comicThe Irish managed to scare Donald Trump off from a planned visit to the "land of a thousand welcomes" this week. As an Irish-American with a stake in the U.S. elections, I'm writing about what 'President Trump' would mean for the rest of the world and the climate.
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Stop The DrillFriends of the Earth from 27 European Countries visited the Stop The Drill Protest in Carrigfergus, Northern Ireland in April 2016 to support their fight to stop drilling in Woodburn Forest. Watch my 3 minute vlog from the trip.
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TTIP: The Good, The Bad & The UglyI could think of no better way to kick off my new ‘Verdant Yank’ blog on St. Patrick's Day than by exploring the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with an open Irish-American mind. Read on to find out if all the fuss over TTIP is justified.
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General Election 2016 SpecialIt’s the final week of General Election 2016 (#GE16) and at this stage, most of us can’t wait for it to be over. I'm wondering what kind of battles we might face in the next government with respect to climate. To save you the pain and suffering of reading 665 pages to figure out where the political parties really stand on climate action, I've read all their manifestos and am ready to give you the low down.
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