The Climate Alarm Clock

G'wan and buy us a coffee here

2024 is officially the hottest year on record and it's only November.

Meanwhile COP 29 has started in Azerbaijan... yes another COP, another petrostate and there's billions and trillions of climate finance being discussed.

Ireland gets ready for a general election on November 29th, what do climate voters need to look at? Manifestos are coming out daily, how can we sort through them and make sense of what the parties are actually doing about climate?

Ciara, Anna and Tom discuss these stories and find some good news to finish up with too.

Actions this week

Stay up to date with COP: Sign up to The Journal Temperature Check newsletter from Lauren Boland:

Get ready for the Irish elections! 

Invite General Election candidates to sign Friends of the Earth's Climate Pledge

Support the Uplift petition demanding a standalone TV/livestream #GE2024 Leaders’ Debate on the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency

Join DCU's Centre for Climate and Society and Friends of the Earth at  election hustings on Wednesday, November 20th at 9.30am and ask the next political leaders how they plan to deliver a Government for Faster and Fairer climate action!

Donate to the upkeep of the Climate Alarm Clock by buying us a coffee

Offsetting carbon emissions seems to offer a way for individuals and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, even if they can't eliminate emissions entirely. Offsetting funds projects like reforestation, renewable energy, and clean technology development.

BUT evidence is mounting that offsetting is "junk" and being used as a marketing tool to avoid real emissions reductions, in other words, Greenwashing!

Ciara, Darragh and Anna explore the question of carbon offsets and whether they are actually worthless.

But planting trees is still worthwhile, here are some tree planting organisations to consider:

Home Tree

Tress on the Land

Reforest nation

buymeacoffee.com/theclimatealarm

Halloween is this week and there's a lot of scary news out there. The latest UN Emissions Gap Report warns that we are on course for 3 degrees of warming. There's no more time for 'hot air'.

Darragh, Ciara and Anna agree with Oxfam that the scariest monsters this Halloween are the Bloody Billionaires! No more treats for them while they trick the rest of us.

Billionaires emit more carbon pollution in 90 minutes than the average person does in a lifetime | Oxfam International

ACTIONS for this week

Recommended reading from a regular listener: If Everyone Tripped on Psychedelics, We’d Do More About Climate Change

Sign up with Friends of the Earth for a Climate Justice Day of Action: Tuesday, November 12th. On this day, FoE invite you to get out into your communities and talk to neighbours, friends, family or indeed local politicians about the most pressing climate justice issues of the day. There are many ways to participate.

Darragh is excited about the start of the Irish Garden Birds Survey

And you can have your say on our national parks in this consultation.

Ciara wants to know why air travel is so cheap and what's wrong with cheap flights anyway - we all need a bit of sunshine don't we? And we're on an island after all.

And aren't all the airlines going sustainable anyway?

We hear a lot in the Irish media about the need to raise the Dublin airport passenger cap but not so much about the impact of air travel on the environment, or about how airlines can offer such cheap fares. Which begs the question, why are the Irish press so obsessed with celebrating aviation and overlooking the climate implications of flying?

In this climate question episode, Ciara, Darragh and Anna go deep on air travel, why it's such a big source of pollution, the real costs of flying, and whether 'net zero targets' are real.

Buy us a coffee; donate and help us with the upkeep of the podcast.

Find out more:

Check out episode 15 of Hot Mess with Phillip Boucher-Hayes

Read about the Aviation tax gap | DigitalOcean

The Climate Alarm Clock is back, and we've just turned 3 years old!

Buy us a coffee to celebrate :)

Darragh, Ciara and Tom talk over the new reports from the WWF and the EPA.

The Living Planet Reprt 2024 , is a stark report released by the World Wildlife Fund, reporting on biodiversity loss all over the world.

Irelands Environmental Protection Agency has released Ireland's Shtate of the Environment Report 2024 about how the nations effort to combat the climate crisis is going, or not going as the case may be.

What can we do?

Organisations like Cuan beo, Corrib Beo, Boyne Rivers Trust! Waters of Life -  lists trusts around Ireland to check out. Channel your despondence into joining a group!

Climate Action Week! Get involved!!

Check out the wildling movie on Thursday evening.

Climate Justice Universities Union have a meeting, 21st November

Your Parks, Your Say

Samhain Festival of Food & Culture - https://foodcultureireland.ie/samhain/

festival showcases the very best of Irish food and drink, food culture and history through a weekend long series of events from food & drinks tastings and cookery demonstrations, to food safaris, farm visits, kids workshops, discussions and debates with Ireland’s foremost culinary experts

https://buymeacoffee.com/theclimatealarm

In our final episode of the summer, Anna, Ciara, Darragh and Tom discuss Ireland's latest greenhouse gas emissions report - good news, bad news or both? Professor Barry McMullen has criticised the toxic positivity about the latest emissions, is he right?

And a new report on Climate in the Mind has some interesting findings that point to the influence of misinformation.

Meanwhile, the planet has had its hottest 12 months ever.

We finish the season with a reminder of some good news and as ever some actions to take.

Actions we recommend:

Mark the date and register for climate camp on the shores of Lough Neagh August 7th to 11th 2024!

Don't forget Gaza, keep the pressure on by getting to a national demonstration [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine – Stop Arming Israel!

Email your TDs – we know they’ll be working on Budget 2025 . Tell them what you need to see this spent on. Solar panels, public transport, electric car grants – There’s a general election in the air and we need action. So annoy the hell out of your TDs and push for action !

See you all in October ! (or at climate camp before that)

Buy us a coffee and leave a comment :)

We start with good news, the Nature Restoration Law is passed in the EU, thanks to the leadership of a 'rogue' Austrian environment minister. Darragh, Anna and Ciara discuss how it happened, the role Ireland played and some of the reactions.

Then, what have the Greens done for us anyway? We chat about Eamon Ryan's resignation and legacy.

Extreme heat is killing people around the world, from the Hajj in Mecca to Greece and the US midwest, and a new study examines resilience in the face of disasters.

In good news, rewilding creates jobs in Scotland.

And we're impressed with Just Stop Oil again.

Actions:

Go out and enjoy nature!

In Dublin, check out Stoneybatter Festival, they have an EcoHub and a Bike Bop.

Listen to the new series of Hot Mess with Philip Boucher-Hayes

Have your say... Fill in the goverment issued survey on Climate conversations

Join Talamh Beo

Buy as a coffee and support the upkeep on the pod

This weeks pod is hosted by Darragh and Tom...

As the dust is settling on the election, we unpick what it all means for the planet....

We discuss some the poisoning of the Allow River in Cork and the hypocrisy of our pensions are being invested into Fossil Fuels

And Tom Spencer lends his expertise to the proposed levy on Chinese EV's

The Rethinking Growth Conference looks like it will be interesting and worth attending for any Dubliners out there

Listen to some thought provoking music from singer Peggy Seeger:

How I Long For Peace & Song of Choice

Celebrate the Summer Solstice on Friday week and reconnect with nature

and Consider joining political party????

Go on, buy us a coffee ---> https://buymeacoffee.com/theclimatealarm

We have a rant about Regina Doherty and her comments on bike lanes.

The confusion and misinformation around consumer goods and the environment is as bad as it ever was, we discuss greenwashing.

Anna's favourite band Coldplay are doing their bit for the planet, or are they?

And the deposit return scheme starts to show real success

If you're listening ahead of your vote today , check out https://www.whichcandidate.ie/ to help you decide

IBikeBop for the next group cycle around Dublin. Check out their Facebook and/or Twitter

If you're interested in in attending the Rethinking Growth Conference on 25th and 26th June in Trinity, Dublin. go to https://rethinking-growth.ie/

LIsten to our previous episodes with psycologist Eoin Galavan on the psychology of climate change here and here

Lisa Fingleton's Voices from the Field is a great piece looking positively at what the future of agriculture could look like

It's pride month, ally yourself with the community and have a read about the disproportionate effect of climate change on the LGBT community here

Coffee...?

The EPA has published Ireland's Greenhouse Gas Emissions projections and surprise surprise, we are not going to hit our targets. Darragh, Ciara and Anna dig into the details and the political reactions. What does this mean for the upcoming elections? Some of the opposition parties insist the government should be doing more, while Eamon Ryan accuses them of doing nothing. Who's right and does it matter?

While we're arguing about it, the climate is heating up around the world. India and Pakistan see record heat and Bangladesh is reeling from a record breaking storm.

But there are some (sort of) good news stories too... the EU is using less fossil fuels, renewable energy is growing in the US and the US public are in favour of suing big oil.

Actions for this week:

Get election ready. Check out your European election candidates on the Journal. See which candidates you agree with most based on the issues. The Friends of the Earth election toolkit has all the info you need.

Sign up to the Temperature check newsletter from Lauren Boland and the Journal.

Watch Birdsong on the RTE Player, it's inspiring!