Monday Musings – An Irish “Overstory”
I know that our gardens are full of alien species: trees, shrubs and flowering plants. Nor is fauna exempt: think grey squirrels, mink and coypu. Continue reading Monday Musings – An Irish “Overstory”
Tag: Environmental Action
Promoting Creativity #WATWB
creative thinking can ensure that human scale solutions will be found to the problems that scare us Continue reading Promoting Creativity #WATWB
Stark naked in Tesco
Rebecca Bryn writes excellent historical fiction. Like me she also has opinions which she doesn’t mind sharing. Unlike me she has a natural wit that shines through her writing even when it is opinionated. And, surely, few would disagree with the views she is expressing here. Source: Stark naked in Tesco Continue reading Stark naked in Tesco
What’s the Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change?
Re-blogged from The Climate Reality Project. Climate Change is one of my long term concerns and I have not written much about it lately. So I thought I’d share this with you. You can call it global warming or climate change, but it’s the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. The Internet is full of references to global warming. But we don’t use the term “global warming” much here at Climate Reality. Instead, we prefer to use “climate change.”Why? Global warming and climate change – while closely related and sometimes used interchangeably – technically refer to two different things: “Global … Continue reading What’s the Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change?
The Proper Response to Famine
How should we respond to disasters? Natural events – earthquakes, floods, forest fires – usually evoke an outpouring of sympathy accompanied by the dispatch of all manner of aid. Engineers, medics, machinery and food are flown in to the disaster area to ensure that victims receive succour. Appeals raise millions of dollars to support such efforts. Is our response to famine different? Should it be? Are we more inclined to seek the cause of the catastrophe before making a commitment to assist? How deeply ingrained in our knowledge of Judao/Christian history is the story of how Joseph taught his Egyptian … Continue reading The Proper Response to Famine
Brexit Delusions
I’m reading about John Clare, the nineteenth century English poet. He spent the last years of his life in a mental institution, suffering from delusions. One of these being that his unattainable, and by then long dead, first love would come to him. Earlier he had been courted by some of the better educated members of the aristocracy who were quick to drop him as soon as his mental health problems became apparent. I see parallels in the way the delusions of ordinary English folk are being fostered by the better educated members of the’ leave’ camp in this referendum … Continue reading Brexit Delusions
Voting in Laois?
Protecting the environment is about a lot more than climate change. It’s about all the other damage we are doing to the planet we call home. Like plastic that finds its way from the seas into the human food chain; … Continue reading Voting in Laois?
No Dumb Blond: Interview with an Environmental Campaigner
I first became aware of Theresa several years ago when I came across her website dedicated to sustainable development. Some time later I received a telephone call from her after the County Arts Office had given her my name as a contact for the Laois Writers’ Group. Theresa became a regular attender at the group’s meetings, where she shared with us her poems and other writings in which she expressed her concerns about the environment, and about what she sees as widespread economic injustice, exacerbated as it was by the political response to the banking collapse. As time passed it … Continue reading No Dumb Blond: Interview with an Environmental Campaigner
Environmental Damage: Solution or Acceptance?
The problem with Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything, is that it is long on defining the problem but vague on solutions. Klein cites various books and articles claiming it is possible to switch 100% of energy production from fossil fuels to renewables in a relatively short time frame (20 to 40 years). I’ve looked at some of those articles and, whilst the solutions they offer are technically possible, their practicality is questionable. Jacobson and Delucchi, for example, in their 2009 Scientific American article, claim the 100% could be achieved world wide by 2030. This plan requires, among other things, the … Continue reading Environmental Damage: Solution or Acceptance?
Channeling Naomi
Yesterday I posted links to my review of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything on Goodreads. Also yesterday I wrote this fiction piece set in a possible future when some of the possibilities she discusses have come to pass. The piece also uses a sentence provided as a prompt by the leader of the writing group to which I belong. You’ll find it near the end. See what you think. The memory of those carefree days could always be relied upon to do it. The years when her every need was catered for – or so it seemed, looking back. The … Continue reading Channeling Naomi
Frank Parker's author site 