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Everyone has heard of the climate crisis. Increasingly, governments, individuals, corporations, communities and NGOs are addressing this issue by aiming to increase their sustainability and cut their carbon footprint (although we can’t forget about other greenhouse gases, such as methane!) However, the biodiversity crisis gets much less attention despite being just as serious. Biodiversity is a measure of the variety of life on earth, everything from birds, mammals and reptil

It was widely discussed how many people rediscovered nature in the first lockdown and experienced the mental and physical health benefits that spending time in the environment brings. Observations (and later jokes) about how ‘nature was healing’ flooded the internet, but the pandemic hasn’t been the break from human intervention that many people thought it would be. Instead, a crash in revenues from ecotourism has meant that in many regions in the world, conservation initiati

In recent years we, as a collective, have witnessed the ever-growing emergency of the climate crisis from Antarctica’s melting ice caps to Australia’s bushfires and, evidently, the earth is in dire need of radical change before we reach the point of no return. This is just one issue that we are facing today. On the other side of the coin, we are able to notice the fast-approaching recession which is building itself as a partial result of the ongoing pandemic we are facing. Th

For most people, when climate change is mentioned, their thoughts immediately go towards paper straws, reusable coffee cups, and Greta Thunberg. But in recent years, mainstream understanding surrounding climate change has undergone great changes. Deeper understanding of the implications of climate change has become more accessible, and subsequently our patterns of living and consumption have changed; albeit slowly. In academic circles climate change is often viewed in terms o

I think we can all remember the period of the crisis where the world fawned over the widespread footage and images of nature’s revival in the absence of humanity. We all revelled in an idea of what the planet could look like were it given a chance to breathe from the ever-surging human population - in fact, some suggested the idea of an annual lockdown to ‘let nature breathe.’ Much the same with many phases that receive scant attention on social media before quickly falling o

2020 has proved two points to us. One is that in the face of a global threat, ever-present and all-consuming, people all over the world really can come together and make sacrifices in order to stop it before it tears through the entire population. (For three months, maximum.) The second point is the scale of our ability to ignore global threats as soon as they aren’t immediately at our door. The pandemic hasn’t gone away, just shifted to countries that rich Western countries

It shouldn’t have taken a pandemic to realise this, but we really need nature. I have always sought solace with nature as an escape from essays and news. But now, more than ever, I have found watching nature has been a welcome distraction from the constant pandemic updates and the stresses and confines of lockdown. But I know that I am very fortunate to have a decent mature garden. I have been able to watch birds fledge their nests, butterflies and bees appear at the flowers

I sat watching the exit polls from General Election 2020 on a rainy night in Dublin on the 8th of February. I had spent the previous weeks campaigning night and day, getting up at crazy hours to canvas all over Ireland and loved every minute of it. I had, however, unfortunately watched Fine Gael's poll numbers slide beaten down by an unprecedented Sinn Fein surge. So when the exit poll predicted 22% for Sinn Féin (SF) Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG) in a three-way tie I

As a young Green activist, I will be voting no for the proposed Programme for Government in the South, as I do not believe it ensures a fair future for the environmental movement and the young people that so desperately rely on it. I joined the Green Party in Northern Ireland when I was 17, because for me it was the only party that represented my values of social justice and sustainability. I do not believe that these values are represented in the Programme for Government. Fo

I have tried to remain alert to the fact that the people, events, and forces described … carry in them the seeds of other, perhaps less terrible futures. C Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable. T Schelling, Pearl Harbour: Warning and Decision During the more normal of times, the world was always awash with commentators, newspaper columnists, bloggers et al providing their take

Are you happy with the way we do politics here? Do you feel well represented by our current political establishment? I’m frustrated at both of our biggest parties. The fact that they can’t sit down and get to work has hurt all sorts of people, from the survivors of historical institutional abuse who are dying waiting for compensation, to communities in Fermanagh who need all the support they can get to protect their home from the imminent return of the frackers. The disappoin