Environment

#TheReset-We cannot build back better if we don’t put our environment at the heart of it.

Soapbox on September 10, 2020, 8:00 am35 Comments | Readers 573

Ian Humphreys is the Chief Executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. The Reset is an apt description for the type of change that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented to us over the past six months. Our lives have been changed and priorities re-evaluated as we grapple with an uncertain future. For the environment sector, we have long argued (perhaps too meekly) for a new way of doing things. Our lifestyle of increasing carbon emissions and ignoring the consequences of waste …

Climate breakdown: The time to act is now…

Queen’s Policy Engagement on November 6, 2019, 3:19 pmLeave a comment | Readers 778

Images of intense storms, heavy flooding and devastating droughts increasingly feature in mainstream and social media. Extreme weather events are indicative of large-scale, long-term shifts in our planet’s average temperatures and weather patterns associated with climate change. We humans affect the earth’s temperature and climate by adding vast amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal), cutting down rainforests and farming livestock. In 2019, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2, the most …

Will our protections for threatened species fall off a cliff edge come Brexit?

Soapbox on May 1, 2018, 4:43 pmLeave a comment | Readers 537

Christopher McAteer, Nature Matters NI The potential effects of Brexit on Northern Ireland are so overwhelmingly varied – and often alarming – that it may seem a touch masochistic to consider yet more concerns. But if worries over tariffs, the fledgling economy, and a hard border aren’t enough for you, then the cliff edge facing our environment might be just up your street. A whopping 80% of the UK’s environmental laws originate from the EU, which will now have to …

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena…”

Pete Baker on December 23, 2017, 2:09 pm7 Comments | Readers 705

Here’s a, much needed, short instructive video on perspective from Science at Nasa. Pete Baker

Local Environmental & Planning Governance Under Scrutiny (Somewhat)

Peter Doran on November 28, 2017, 2:43 pm15 Comments | Readers 1253

On the heels of another damning report on failures relating to compliance with environmental and planning rules, Northern Ireland will be subject to international scrutiny December under the aegis of the authoritative United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Aarhus Convention. The Convention – named after the Danish city where it was adopted in 1998 – grants citizens rights and imposes on Parties (including the UK) and public authorities obligations regarding access to information and public participation and access to environmental …

Environmental Governance Failure in Northern Ireland: High Time to Turn Over a New Leaf

Peter Doran on September 20, 2017, 9:02 pm10 Comments | Readers 1123

By Ciara Brennan, Ray Purdy and Peter Hjerp Recent scandals including the RHI debacle and the discovery of illegal dumping on a massive scale (most notably at the Mobuoy Road ‘super-dump’) have catapulted Northern Ireland’s environmental governance failures into the public eye. The divergence from what can be considered ‘good’ environmental governance is clear and the environmental, economic and socio-political consequences of these failures cannot be overestimated. Protecting the environment is not a one-way cost and there has been very little …

An EPIC View of the 2017 Solar Eclipse

Pete Baker on August 22, 2017, 9:01 pmLeave a comment | Readers 420

Wondrous images, from a million miles out in space, from NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) of the shadow of the moon crossing over North America on Aug. 21, 2017. EPIC is aboard NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), photographing the full sunlit side of Earth every day. [Image credit: NASA EPIC Team. Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katy Mersmann] Pete Baker

Changes foreshadowed in the integrated energy and agriculture markets, leaving Stormont behind

Brian Walker on July 26, 2017, 11:20 am10 Comments | Readers 688

The local vacuum of practical debate over Brexit continues, while real events move on.. I confess I hadn’t heard of “the Celtic interconnector “ before coming across it in a story in the Financial Times. The EU commission made this announcement at the end of June. A project to build an interconnector linking for the first time the French and Irish electricity systems will today be awarded a €4 million grant from the European Commission… At 4 million euros, it …

Seven years of Solar Dynamics

Pete Baker on February 12, 2017, 7:26 pm1 Comment | Readers 224

It seems like only yesterday that I was noting First Light on Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory [SDO], and the early hours of this morning for ‘three years in three minutes‘ and ‘SDO Year 4‘. In fact the SDO was launched on 11 Feb 2010, with First Light in April of that year. [Seven long years… – Ed] Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre have produced a short [3 min 22 sec] video marking the solar sunspot cycle during that time. [Credit: NASA’s …

Read more…Seven years of Solar Dynamics

A bit of perspective…

Pete Baker on January 7, 2017, 5:08 pm4 Comments | Readers 530

…with this stunning composite image of the Earth and its moon, courtesy of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona] From the associated text This composite image of Earth and its moon, as seen from Mars, combines the best Earth image with the best moon image from four sets of images acquired on Nov. 20, 2016, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Each …

Soapbox: Arlene Foster Was Never a Suitable First Minister

Soapbox on December 23, 2016, 10:00 am41 Comments | Readers 7486

The exclusion motion on Arlene Foster focussed on the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scandal. I would argue, however, that Mrs Foster has a track record beyond RHI that shows she was never suitable to be our First Minister. The potential £250m clean-up costs highlighted in 2013 by the Mills Report into illegal waste dumping in Northern Ireland I believe can be traced back to Arlene Foster’s decision when Environment Minister, not to create an independent Environmental Protection Agency (iEPA). In …

Genuine power sharing with Sinn Fein would have averted the RHI mini-crisis

Brian Walker on December 18, 2016, 2:13 pm16 Comments | Readers 2180

Did the BBC snatch or stage Jonathan Bell’s prayer before his confessional trial before Nolan? Either way it resembled nothing more than a man having his head laid on the block and making peace with his Maker before execution (and I don’t mean Nolan). While the mawkishness of the prayerful moment recalls the early Paisley playing the martyr before or after some act of provocation, Bell’s evoking of the DUP’s spiritual origins is unlikely to save him. He is now …

Old-fashioned confession might have served DUP better than this RHI runaround…

Mick Fealty on December 16, 2016, 3:27 pm32 Comments | Readers 2763

An Evening with the Borgias was how one Facebook friend put it. Well, perhaps not quite that bad but since DUP on DUP action is such an uncommon sight on NI television, last night’s Nolan Special was revealing in parts. One of the things it revealed is that former Minster Bell has been Stephen Nolan’s ‘Deep Throat’ for some of this story. Most of his revelations centre around his own brief tenure in the department at the core of the …

No one who understood the public interest in RHI would have backed down so softly on cost reductions

Mick Fealty on December 12, 2016, 2:36 pm20 Comments | Readers 1548

It’s clear that First Minister Arlene Foster has some serious questions to answer about an overrun of £400 million on one Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) scheme. Ironically it is just a little over a year since Peter Robinson said he would not give “rogue Sinn Féin or renegade SDLP ministers” a chance to take “decisions that will harm the community in Northern Ireland”. What else is such a large (and un-subsidisable) hole in the public finances other than large-scale harm to the NI community? And …

Wake up Stormont! The Peace Walls programme needs the back up of a major programme of borrow- to-invest in housing

Brian Walker on October 13, 2016, 11:18 am4 Comments | Readers 359

Turning away from Brexit to the home front, congrats to the Guardian for promoting a theme developed there by Professor Paddy Gray, an academic on the Built Environment, an austere title for a school of research which hosts a great deal of imaginative and practical work on developing society. Gray argues that the slow and careful task of bring down peace walls requires a change in favour of greater incentives for voluntary mixed development. In some places, this is a …

The strategically important A6 or the immortalised landscape of south Co Derry?

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2016, 12:47 pm78 Comments | Readers 1797

Now, I don’t have a strong view on this issue. But the latest proposal for to build a four-lane dual carriageway, linking the main Derry to Belfast road at Toome with the M2, will cut close to Lough Beg and Mossbawn near the late poet’s former home. Arguably the link between Derry and Belfast, left hanging in the area for nearly 40 years, is one of Northern Ireland’s most strategically important roads in terms of linking Northern Ireland’s two largest …

Message for the divided politicians. Read the long list. This is what really matters over Brexit.

Brian Walker on September 3, 2016, 6:53 pm161 Comments | Readers 2320

Divisions in the Executive and the Assembly contributed to the lack of scenario planning for the referendum outcome and are inhibiting the development of a clear Brexit strategy. These are among the conclusions in a comprehensive briefing paper prepared for the Centre for Peace Building and Democracy ( chair Lord Alderdice) by Queen’s academics Professor David Phinnemore and Dr. Lee McGowan, entitled Establishing the Best Outcome for Northern Ireland. ‘Notoriously, similar strictures apply to Whitehall and Westminster, But party divisions …

Mercury in motion

Pete Baker on May 10, 2016, 4:23 pm9 Comments | Readers 242

If you missed yesterday’s rare Mercury transit across the Sun – the last was in 2006, the next in 2019 – then where were you! [Busy… – Ed] But even if you were paying attention you’re unlikely to have had as wondrous a view as that of Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. They’ve helpfully released a stunning time-lapse video compressing the entire 7 hour spectacle into a digestible couple of minutes. I recommend switching to full screen mode and cranking up the volume. Enjoy! [Video …

Another view…

Pete Baker on May 4, 2016, 10:33 pm1 Comment | Readers 372

Vote… don’t vote… In the meantime, here’s another in an occasional series of wondrous views from the International Space Station, via the Nasa Crew Earth Observations videos – Sunglint over the Ocean. [Video courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center] This video was taken by the Expedition 47 crew on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken on March 25, 2016 from 11:45:02 to 11:57:17 GMT on a pass over …

Soapbox: If you go down to the woods today… you’re in for a very big surprise

Soapbox on April 5, 2016, 9:05 am18 Comments | Readers 1725

James Orr is director of Friends of the Earth in Northern Ireland. In his account of what’s been happening in an East Antrim wood belonging to Northern Ireland Water, he argues that recent planning reforms have led to a water company getting involved in oil exploration on its own land. Woodburn, near Carrickfergus. The clue is in the name. In this local haven, there is a wood growing and a burn flowing. Woodburn is designated in the local plan as a …