Writer | Podcasts | Environment
The problem with “sustainable lifestyle” bloggers is that they’re liars. That does not mean that they are always lying on purpose or that a sustainable or minimalist lifestyle is not a good thing to have but ultimately, they’re selling you something, an ideal, and like much you will be sold in your life – …
Continue reading "Sustainable Lifestyle Bloggers Lie But it’s OK"
One of the strongest memories of my childhood was my family visiting the eco-warriors who lived in the trees in Glen of the Downs woods beside the N11. We had recently moved to Bray, the M50 did not exist and the N11 was a lane narrower then it is today. Whole families of people had …
Continue reading "Has Ireland’s environmental activism lost its teeth?"
Ireland occasionally trips over its relationship with its own heritage. In the same week that Donald Trump declared March, Irish-American Heritage Month, to the discomfort of many, Irish minister for 'Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs', Heather Humphreys proposed a bill being known as the 'Heritage Bill' which contains provisions thought to actively harm the Irish …
Technology and nature are often portrayed as opposing forces. We are told to "log off" and go outside. The manner in which digital and other medias can extend a love of wildlife and the outdoors to those not raised with it is often overlooked outside of an academic context but there are ways in which the …
The idea that a rapidly growing population would inevitably result in economic and resource crisis has been part of the popular imagination since Rev. Thomas Malthus published his essay Principle of Population in 1798. Malthus has been largely disproven but the idea that population is the greatest threat remained influential and was seen repeated in …
Continue reading "Is population growth the biggest threat to sustainable development?"
Environmental justice is not a new idea but it is one gaining ground in mainstream media and consciousness. Environmental justice refers to a number of connected ideas. Access and ownership of natural resources. Equitable burden sharing from environmental damage. Writing from an Irish prospective it's impossible to ignore the influence the Irish Water campaign has …
Continue reading "Water: the heart of Environmental Justice"
A lot of people discuss and focus on individual action in reaction to political or social problems rather than wider changes. I mentioned this in my Marxism and Mental Health video. Most of the time this is to distract people’s attention from a lack of action on the part of those with the most power. …
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