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Colm O'Brien

@colmobrien.bsky.social
423 followers 249 following 675 posts

Ethical treatment of the Earth and it's life forms. Returning the plants and animals to my land that vanished hundreds of years ago. And who doesn't love dystopian/ sci-fi movies, rothair, trance ceol agus board games. Live long and prosper!

PostsRepliesMedia
Colm O'Brien @colmobrien.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
theconversation.com/denmark-is-a...
theconversation.com
Denmark is a cycling nation, but our research shows rates are declining – here’s why
Denmark built the bike lanes – but people are still getting in cars.
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
As Britain swelters through another heatwave, few people will have heard that ministers have quietly dropped plans for solar carports. Cars cooler in summer. Shelter from the rain in winter. Clean electricity all year round. A missed opportunity?
eastangliabylines.co.uk
As Britain bakes, ministers quietly park plans for solar carports
Ministers have quietly shelved plans that could have transformed Britain's biggest car parks into shaded power stations
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Oilibhear O Mordha @olliemoore.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This government is galloping backwards away from doing even the EU average of activities on Palestine. Tours cancelled,visas cancelled, botched OTB, and on and on and on
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Colm O'Brien @colmobrien.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
youtube.com/shorts/FDvTW... SUVs and pickups are more common now on Irish roads. They are more deadly for pedestrians. Time to regulate them.
youtube.com
The Rise of Deadly Trucks and SUVs
YouTube video by The New York Times
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Lynn O'K @lynnok.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Again???? Can we just stop polluting our rivers and killing our fish.
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Colm O'Brien @colmobrien.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
‘I can’t work in the farce of climate change cruise tourism anymore’: why Antarctic guides quit their dream jobs share.google/cIiDs9TLqPlt...
share.google
‘I can’t work in the farce of climate change cruise tourism anymore’: why Antarctic guides quit their dream jobs
The moral struggles of guiding tourists through a pristine landscape.
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Ola Løkken Nordrum @olaln.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
14 articles about ice cream. Only 4 mentioned net zero. Back from my Substack hiatus with a deep dive into how Irish media covered the June 2026 heatwave.
open.substack.com
Irish Media’s Climate Blind Spot During Heatwaves
My analysis of the main Irish news outlets shows that 54% of the June 2026 heatwave coverage failed to mention climate change.
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Lynn O'K @lynnok.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
When people give out about protecting the fresh water pearl mussel and it blocking development-I always think, what you're being asked to protect is clean water for you to swim or fish in, and your drinking water. Clean water sighing be the most basic thing we demand of our government.
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Colm O'Brien @colmobrien.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
www.euronews.com/2026/07/16/i...
euronews.com
The map predicting agricultural decline from climate change
A CSIC team in Barcelona has developed CADI, a platform that forecasts, on a 10‑kilometre grid, how much farmland will lose productivity to climate change by 2100; Spain’s interior fares worse than th...
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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 17/07/2026
Israeli attacks kill at least five Palestinians in Gaza despite ‘ceasefire’ aje.news/medyvg
Israeli attacks kill at least five Palestinians in Gaza despite ‘ceasefire’
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Ireland against Fascism @irlagainstfascism.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Murdered by a double tap way back in 2014. 1️⃣ On this day in 2014, the ‘israeli’ occupation forces bombed and killed four young boys who were playing football at a beach in Gaza. The boys: Ismail Mohammed Bakr (9), Zakaria Ahed Bakr (10), Ahed Atef Bakr (10), Mohamed Ramez Bakr (11), were all
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Ella McSweeney @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
What ospreys ask of us is simple: clean, fish-rich waters. Whether they succeed here will depend on whether the fish do too. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
irishtimes.com
What ospreys ask of us is simple: clean, fish-rich waters
Imposing bird of prey can make Ireland home if plankton thrive
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A reminder that, on one day in the last election, FF, FG and SF all visited the IFA and told them that they would work to shelter Agriculture from climate protecting laws.
IFA invited to Make-A-Wish
FF, FG and SF all trouped in to the IFA to promise them, in turn, that Farmers were their Bestest Boys and Girls and that it was the Mean Green Party who had forced climate mitigation targets on them at all.
"Mary Lou McDonald said her party. would push for more payments for farmers and criticised the Carbon Tax, calling it
"thoughtless and lazy".
The Agriculture sector was responsible for 34% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland this year. This made it the largest source of Ireland's emissions.Simon Harris said "When parties, including my own, publish our manifestos, a lot of the projects in those manifestos are funding off the back of tax receipts paid by the agri-food sector in Ireland."
In Q1 of 2024, the CSO says that Agriculture was only the 10th largest source of GDP, contributing a total of 1.28% of the top 10 sources of domestic product. Revenue's figures show Agriculture contributed 0.75% (three quarters of one percent) of all tax revenue in 2023."Fianna Fáil committed to retaining the derogation on the Nitrates Directive, if it is returned to government."
The EPA reported in August 2024 that nitrogen concentrations in Irish waters had not improved between 2020-2023. It said
"Agriculture has been identified by the EPA as the most prevalent significant pressure on water quality, impacting over 1,000 waterbodies or approximately 60% of all waterbodies that are 'At Risk".
The head of the IFA, in response, complained that farming didn't get enough supports from the State.
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RTÉ News @news.rte.ie · 08/07/2026
The Football Association of Ireland will this evening host an Extraordinary General Meeting at Aviva Stadium to vote on a motion regarding the Republic of Ireland's upcoming Nations League fixtures with Israel
rte.ie
FAI EGM to vote on Israel fixtures at Aviva this evening
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) will this evening host an Extraordinary General Meeting at Aviva Stadium to vote on a motion regarding the Republic of Ireland's upcoming Nations League fixtu...
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Lynn O'K @lynnok.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I've just emailed my local SF TD Mairead Farrel about this. Think what that money that goes to greyhounds could do for children's sporting and activities. Say no to gambling. Say no to hare coursing and greyhound racing. Put the €19 million annually into rural sporting facilities for children!!
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 07/07/2026
Trump is a rapist. Most of the people he's appointed to his cabinet and nominated to the Supreme Court face credible accusations of sexual harassment. He, his VP, and his sons are actively defending Andrew Tate from prosecution for sex trafficking and rape. Just some things I think about sometimes.
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Elaine McGoff @elainemcgoff.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Yesterday @antaisce.bsky.social and @FIE launched a legal challenge to the new judicial review cost caps. These new caps mean, if a member of the public or eNGO wins their case, they will still have to pay tens of thousands to correct the mistake by the State. www.antaisce.org/News/environ...
antaisce.org
Environmental groups launch legal challenge against new regulations that severely restrict access to justice
Together, An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment initiated a court challenge to new regulations that put a cap on the costs litigants in environmental legal cases can recover if they win their...
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Stephanie Rains 🪼 @acidrains.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Suggestion for Doonbeg if he really does come here in September #speirgorm
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Pádraic Fogarty @whittledaway.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
County councils nearly all turning a blind eye to illegal peat mining. Only one, Longford, making any attempt to apply the law despite the practice being widespread. www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
irishtimes.com
Illegal peat extraction in 44 bogs countrywide, but action taken by only one council
Environment watchdog defends implementation of law as TDs claim families being driven out of business
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TODERIAN UrbanWORKS Inc. (TUW) @toderianuw.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.”
politico.eu
Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
The capital city is Finnish’ed with car-related fatalities.
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evo1963.bsky.social @evo1963.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Incredibly unsurprising. Labour is nothing but the party of the status quo.
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Ella McSweeney @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
“Restoration without pollution control is not a policy, it’s a gesture, and an incoherent one at that. It spends public money cleaning up what private and public polluters are permitted to dirty, in a publicly-funded loop without end.” By me for @irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
irishtimes.com
Ireland punishes tax evaders. Pollution should be just as risky
Nature absorbs the impact of polluters because the political will isn’t there to make the consequences serious enough to stop them
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
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Elaine McGoff @elainemcgoff.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Lady's Island lake is the end result of decades of agricultural nitrogen water pollution. The only way we can turn the agricultural nitrogen pollution problem around is if those in power admit that their measures aren't working. It's time to actually listen to the evidence, not the spin.
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Elaine McGoff @elainemcgoff.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
If I read one more reference to 'gold plating' of EU law in Ireland....Can anyone show me the evidence? Should we look to the over half our rivers and lakes polluted? The trend which is getting worse? The 25% of our most pristine waterbodies now lost? A 🧵 www.irishtimes.com/ireland/hous...
irishtimes.com
Top Government adviser calls for action to roll back ‘gold-plated’ environmental law
Laws exempting key projects from national climate goals should be followed by moves to curtail environmental screening, says taskforce chief
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Dale Ryder @kryton3298.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Analyst News New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has doubled down on his comments comparing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to “monsters” that “move dark money,” and support the "status quo" in Israel, which includes the killing of children in Gaza.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Blatant lobbying, not for the sake of our country, but for the fossil fuel industry, in which almost all the ultrarich - including, in all likelihood, the proprietors of these newspapers - are heavily invested. These people are not and never will be your friends. www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-...
carbonbrief.org
Analysis: UK newspapers have already printed 63 editorials in 2026 backing North Sea drilling  - Carbon Brief
UK newspapers have already published 63 editorials this year calling for more oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
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Lynn O'K @lynnok.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
@micheal-martin.bsky.social the Irish hare is a protected animal. It should not be hunted, caught and then chased by greyhounds. It is only done by a tiny minority of people. It is not what the vast majority of people in rural Ireland want. Please don't vote against this bill.
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Lynn O'K @lynnok.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Why are FFG so keen to continue to support a practice that has almost no support amongst the electorate. The whole rural Ireland shtick is nonsense. I don't get the why of this!!!
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Jewish Voice for Peace @jvp.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
JVP commends the American Academy of Religion for its “Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza." The resolution condemns the Israeli regime’s policies of genocide and scholasticide in Palestine, defined by the UN as the “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.”
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 29/06/2026
This is a great example of what's called "pluralistic ignorance" -- the phenomenon whereby most people share a particular view, but they *don't think other people share it*. In this case: most people are concerned about climate change but think others aren't.
sherwood.news
Over 50% of Americans say climate change is a serious threat; only 10% think their compatriots feel the same
That perception gap on the issue is among the highest in the world, per a new Gallup poll....
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Dublin Commuters @dublincommuters.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Meanwhile multiple phases of BusConnects, all four Luas extensions and various Dart+ projects go unfunded 🙄 Always money for cars and roads… never any for solutions to Irelands congestion problems
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dan @amerkincynic.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It's officially the hottest June day ever. We know who is to blame. Fossil fuel firms. The billionaire media. Weak politicians. We know what we must do. Rapid decarbonisation & adaptation for a healthier, wealthier country safe for future generations.
June temperature record broken as 35.7c recorded
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Philip Boucher-Hayes @philipb-h.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I made a feature length documentary film, and it’s in the official selection for The Galway Film Fleadh. It’d be great if I don’t end up in the cinema on my own. #Climate #SpeirGorm www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/project/glob...
galwayfilmfleadh.com
Global Warning - Galway Film Fleadh
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Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.eurosky.social · 24/06/2026
Beyond words. The world must take action for Palestine Israel must face the harshest, fullest, most severe sanctions Israel is committing genocide of Palestinians in plain sight Targetting babies and children Israel's prolonged torture and murder of 5-year-old #HindRajab was clearly documented.
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Abbey @abbeyarletto.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.
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Pádraic Fogarty @whittledaway.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
So far, our transition to a ‘a climate resilient, biodiversity rich and climate neutral economy’ feels less like a journey and more like the TV series ‘Lost’. No one is really sure what’s happening or if anything is happening at all. www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ou...
irishexaminer.com
Pádraic Fogarty: Taking a very long time to ‘bring everyone with us’
Government seems to be taking a very long time as it ‘brings everyone along’ in addressing the challenges of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss
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Helen Shaw - Athena Media @athenamediaie.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
How much hotter can Europe get? A lot hotter, for a lot longer, with extremes then on either side. Time to call climate crisis a shared emergency and accelerate phasing out fossil fuels and reducing GHGs ? Or will we continue to park it - delay, deflect and deny? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/c...
nytimes.com
As Europe Warms, Scientists Ask: How Much Hotter Could Summers Get?
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Some good news: church grounds and graveyards across Ireland are becoming havens for birds, bees and bats as part of a biodiversity project inspired by Pope Francis. www.rte.ie/news/regiona...
rte.ie
Biodiversity project inspired by Pope Francis soars
Church grounds and graveyards across Ireland are becoming havens for birds, bees and bats as part of a biodiversity project inspired by Pope Francis.
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Fish farms • Consume vast amounts of industrially-trawled wild fish, wasting 75% • Turn rich seabeds below into deadzones • Give parasites & diseases to wild fish • Are horrific for farmed fish • Produce toxic, chemical-laden food • Are eyesores in beauty spots • Harm tourism & fishing jobs ENOUGH
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 22/06/2026
honestly i welcome the data center lobby just openly saying climate goals needed to be trashed so the tech industry can build ai — intense heat waves, record forest fires, worsening natural disasters be damned
politico.eu
Europe must choose between AI and climate goals, data center lobby says
Tech sector says only carbon-emitting gas plants are reliable enough today to power the EU’s AI goals.
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
This is only the beginning. The climate crisis is here. So why are politicians and most of the media still acting as though this can wait? It can't. We can still avoid some of the worst impacts - but only if we find the courage to act. metro.co.uk/2026/06/22/g...
metro.co.uk
Greta Thunberg warns 40°C heatwave about to hit UK 'is only the beginning'
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Colm O'Brien @colmobrien.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
youtube.com/post/UgkxQwu...
youtube.com
Post from Gianmarco Soresi - YouTube
UPCOMING SHOWS: June 29 Raleigh, NC (late show added): https://www.goodnightscomedy.com/events/126763 July 1-3 Wilmington, NC: https://deadcrowcomedy-com.sea...
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Trees for Life @treesforlife.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
The longest day and shortest night of the year, it’s the summer #solstice ☀️ To mark #Midsummer, people traditionally celebrated with dancing, bonfires and merrymaking. In Celtic #mythology, the Oak King ruled during this time of the year, and oak was seen as a symbol of strength and endurance. 🌳
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Global Abortion Rights News @globalabortionnews.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Removal of the 3-day wait for an abortion is the most significant change to Ireland’s abortion laws since 2018. It was one of the recommendations made by an independent review of the legislation in 2023. The report also recommended more clarity on the issue of fatal fetal abnormality.
independent.ie
The three-day wait to access an abortion will be removed – but what did a review of abortion laws also recommend?
The removal of the three-day wait for a woman seeking a termination of pregnancy would be the most significant change to Ireland’s abortion laws since 2018.
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Colm O'Brien @colmobrien.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
showyourstripes.info/c/europe/ire...
showyourstripes.info
Show Your Stripes
Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 20/06/2026
Today is #ShowYourStripes day! The warming stripes, created by @edhawkins.org, show how the place where you live has changed over time. Find yours at showyourstripes.info. Download them, share them, and use them to start a conversation today!
The warming stripes for Toronto, Ontario from 1873 to 2025.An image showing the letters "start a climate conversation" on a black background outlined in global warming stripes.
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Paul van der Marck en 🇫🇷 @paulvandermarck.eurosky.social · 19/06/2026
Monday in France… #canicule #heatwave. The second heatwave of this year BEFORE the formal start of summer… #stopflying4fun. We live 50km north of Toulouse.
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Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
France will be at the epicenter of the most significant heat anomaly on the planet over the next few days. The sheer extent of the country that could experience temperatures above 40°C is nothing short of astonishing.
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