Arrived home today to find this awaiting me - thanks to @thebookshopie.bsky.social for the lovely gift, looking forward to getting stuck in to this!

Farmer growing 70% of Irish broccoli says solar farms threaten food security Plan for 140MW solar farm on 338 acres in Kildare is sited on ‘some of the most fertile and productive agricultural land in Ireland’

A more accurate headline might read: 'Broccoli farmer has his facts wrong on solar energy & land use'.

For Ireland to hit its target of 8GW of solar power would require 0.25% of farmland.

Somehow the remaining 99.75% isn't adequate to maintain food supply...?

www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

Be nice to see this in Ireland for all empty (ie not lived in) properties, and to have it exponentiate for all extra properties.
Also, if a consortium, tax distributed equally to all shareholders (rather than taxing the company, take it out of the dividends, it stock sales) #SpéirGorm #SpéirGhorm

Hey Ireland ... I know many of my acquaintance think we're relatively safe from worst effects of climate change.
Hope today's primary school geography classes have evolved beyond 1980s explanation I got of how our lovely temperate climate was largely thanks to #gulfstream #AMOC
#spéirgorm

Yup, noticed that earlier.

"We have to accept the fact that oil & gas will be here for this generation and probably the next"

Ken O'Flynn can get fucked.

It is not a fact, & it is not something we have to accept.

The fact is oil & gas needs to be phased out now & we need to accept it's not happening fast enough.

#IrishPol

This will devastate Ireland FYI and you never hear anyone in the Irish government talking about it #Spéirgorm

$30m an hour: big oil reaping huge war windfall from consumers, analysis finds Exclusive: Climate action blockers including Saudi Arabia, Russia and major fossil fuel firms set to make extra $234bn by end of 2026

There is only one winner from this mess, big oil, and they're already stinking rich.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Though that seems to suggest electricity has yet to reach us in the wilds of #WestKerry 😜

Drone shot of waves and red tide over reef, weather coast of Ireland

Drone shot of waves and red tide over reef, weather coast of Ireland

Drone shot of waves and red tide over reef, weather coast of Ireland

Photo of waves and red tide over reef, weather coast of Ireland

Any #ocean or wave experts/ #oceanographer out there who might suggest answer? We have a rocky reef just offshore here in #WestKerry. Regular breaking waves in big swell, but very unusual colour today. #invasivespecies of seaweed or
#redtide algal bloom or something else?
#SpéirGhorm

Brazil creates the South Atlantic's largest marine park | Conservation International Conservation International helped secure a million-hectare marine park, two decades in the making.

This is how it's done!

"a core reserve where fishing is banned outright, surrounded by a buffer zone that allows some artisanal fishing — designed to allow local fishing communities to retain their traditional livelihoods"

www.conservation.org/news/brazil-...

What Israel is doing to Lebanon is obscene, carpet bombing civilians, massacring people in their hundreds, total disregard for human life. Truly plumbing the depths of evil. The single greatest source of violence and instability in the region and it's not even close.

Matt Cooper: Here’s a solution, axe the carbon tax

I don't often think Matt Cooper is dead wrong, but I certainly do on his call to scrap carbon taxes, which, apart from being a terrible idea, would also hand the far-right "protestors" a massive win and embolden them for future chaos.

www.businesspost.ie/analysis-opi...

This. Would add housing, access to nutritious food to your list.
I do know lots of people who would complain about inefficiency of public ownership - in a less than ideal world, maybe just limiting profit that can be made from essential goods and services!

A map of #Ireland's railway network in 1920 on left versus today on right

The rail network to look like it did in 1920! #spéirgorm

Hole in one for Shane Lowry!!!
A little positive news for #Spéirgorm for a change #TheMasters

Came to say, mandate this in Ireland, like France did!

Ireland's continuing lack of awareness of the presence of global far-right influence/activism in Ireland literally keeps me awake at night

"around 95% of species being hauled up were not the intended target of the fishery"

The destructive power of bottom trawling has been known for a long time yet authorities still allow it in so-called 'protected areas'

oceanographicmagazine.com/news/world-f...

Some very creative accounting was needed to greenlight the Galway ring road Deeming this project climate-compliant is untenable, argues architect and transport planner Ciarán Ferrie.

Some very creative accounting was used to deem the Galway ring road compliant with Ireland's climate plans, writes architect and transport planner Ciarán Ferrie. jrnl.ie/7009217t

12.7 million battery electric vehicles were sold globally in 2025.

In 2010, the number was barely 10,000.

In China, 1 in 2 new cars sold last year was electric.

The transition is happening faster than almost anyone predicted.

This is a really important story. If Europe makes Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) with products of beef farming linked with tropical deforestation, then we're only decarbonising on paper and getting nowhere.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!
Win one of two free signed copies of Cal McCarthy's Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution - just like, repost or comment here on Bluesky ( anything at all really- I'm not picky) AND follow us. No purchase necessary, will ship to Ireland, UK and EU. #booksky #speirgorm

Tis a bit damp and wild in #WestKerry at the moment #soundon
Video taken by my other half, I was on a call, but that squall stopped me in my tracks!
#spéirghorm #WildAtlanticWay #SpéirChiarraí #Ireland

When a country like Ireland has had a big budget surplus for many years in a row... the fact that we have a housing crisis AND haven't fully transitioned to renewables for our energy grid etc. is either government incompetence or malicious intent. Other countries have done it with less. #SpeirGorm

#OTD 10 April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed, marking a step towards ending decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
#SpéirGhorm #speirgorm #IrishHistory

Good news indeed. Now, how about Ireland, one of the EU’s most nature-depleted countries?

An exit strategy for farmers nearing retirement that would also be a boon for biodiversity - what’s not to like?

10-20% of the emissions ceiling of Ireland's energy sector to be used by ONE data centre in Ennis.

Insanity.

#IrishPol

Bloody day in Lebanon puts fragile ceasefire at risk A ceasefire was declared in Washington and Tehran, but, here in Beirut, the smoke rising across the city this evening suggests it has not yet reached Lebanon.

Israel launches over 100 airstrikes on dense commercial and residential areas across Lebanon without warning during a ceasefire. 254 people killed, 1165 injured.

Not even a word of condemnation for this barbaric violence from Irish or EU leaders.

www.rte.ie/news/world/2...

My latest column: Ireland’s data centre policy will drive significantly greater fossil fuel use, contradicting multiple statutory and policy targets which require rapid reductions instead.

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...