March 20th, 2020 Ecologists are blue in the face telling people that all life depends upon biodiversity and that we depend upon the natural world for food, clothing and building materials and so on. Yet this self-evident dependence has to-date been far from evident to many. The sixth mass extinction Read more…
March 20th, 2020 “Who has the right to decide that the supreme value is a world without insects even though it would be a sterile world not graced by the curving wing of a bird in flight?” So wrote Rachel Carson in her world-changing book Silent Spring in 1962. Carson Read more…
March 18th, 2020 The Doonbeg golf resort owned by US President Donald Trump has been refused permission by An Bord Pleanála to build a controversial rock wall along the coast over environmental concerns. Trump International Golf Links Ireland Enterprises Limited (TIGL) applied to install two coastal defence structures 1km Read more…
March 9th, 2020 Thousands of European scientists have declared that the European Commission’s proposals for the next round of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) must be drastically improved to reverse environmental damage and restore biodiversity. Over 3,600 scientists from across the bloc, including 58 from Ireland, have signed an open Read more…
March 4th, 2020 South Dublin County Council has begun remedial works in a bid to restore a small but prominent wetland area in Tallaght that was destroyed following a Council mix-up last September. Last September, the Council came under fire after silt dredged from the lake in Sean Walsh Memorial Read more…
March 4th, 2020 Laois County Council has requested further information on a proposed new quarry close to Abbeyleix Bog that environmentalists argue will impact the nature site in the heritage town. In January, Booth Precast Products Ltd applied for planning permission for a new sand and gravel quarry on 8.5 Read more…
February 28th, 2020 A grandmother charged with illegally felling conifers in a Coillte forest beside her home in west Cork was convicted of stealing timber worth €500 at the Cork Circuit Criminal Court this afternoon. Sionad Jones of Maughnaclea, Kealkil was found guilty of a charge related to the dishonest Read more…
February 28th, 2020 Last May, TCD and UCD were found cutting trees and hedges on their campuses during the closed period designed to protect nesting birds and other wildlife. Environmental lawyer Dr Andrew Jackson explains why we should all respect the closed period from 1 March to 31 August, and Read more…
February 14th, 2020 Eighty-two feet long, the skeleton of a Wexford blue whale named Hope has supplanted ‘Dippy’, the much loved Diplodocus, as the main attraction at Hintz Hall in the National History Museum in London. “Look at the whale!” exclaim the children pointing upward, their small bodies further miniaturised Read more…
February 6th, 2020 As we enter the final days of the election cycle, we are asking where the parties stand on climate and biodiversity. Next up, we delve into the Social Democrat’s manifesto, starting with its well-thought out biodiversity policy. Biodiversity The Social Democrats have outlined a very comprehensive biodiversity Read more…
