SadhbhONeill, Author at Sadhbh O'Neill

Economics of climate change must be rooted in real world scenarios

This article appeared on the 18th January 2024 in the Irish Times as https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2024/01/18/economics-of-climate-change-must-be-rooted-in-real-world-scenarios/ Sometimes academics who focus (often quite competitively) on complex theories and problems miss the bigger picture. Take this joke, for instance: How do you confuse an economist? Ask them to explain the real world. When it comes to the “real world”, …

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Don’t give into ecological grief. In anger and despair lie the seeds of resistance

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 23rd January 2024 as https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/01/23/sadhbh-oneill-dont-give-into-ecological-grief-in-anger-and-despair-lie-the-seeds-of-resistance/ It is hard not to detect a sense of hopelessness among younger adults about the ecological and climate crises. These challenges are no longer hypothetical or way off into the future – they are coming to meet us in real-time on what …

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What would a roadmap for sustainable aviation look like?

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 19th December 2023 as https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/12/19/what-would-a-roadmap-to-sustainable-aviation-look-like-for-a-start-dont-make-things-worse/ After a calamitous few years for the aviation industry 2024 looks set to be a boom year for international air travel, with estimates that 9.4 billion passengers will take to the skies, breaking all previous records. Dublin airport is witnessing a resurgence of …

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Ireland should support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 23rd of November 2023. One of the challenges of tackling a global problem like climate change is that there is no world government to oversee mandatory and equitable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement does not even mention the main culprit in climate breakdown …

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We are living in an age of unprecedented greenwashing

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 14th of November 2023. It’s that time of year again when the advertising industry goes all out. Right on cue the soundtracks are building the mood for shopping. Images of snowy landscapes, open fires and the sound of train sets will assault the senses until we …

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Investment in railways has potential to help get climate targets on track

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 26th of October 2023. We don’t often associate the island of Ireland with world-beating public transport technologies. However, we can boast of some important milestones in the development of railways. The Dún Laoghaire and Kingstown railway, which opened in 1834 and later became the Great Southern …

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Is it time to establish a right to nature in the Constitution?

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 24th October 2023 The last male northern white rhinoceros died in a zoo in 2018, aged 45. With him vanished all hope of saving the species from extinction. In a desperate attempt to save the northern white, scientists have extracted eggs from the last surviving females that are …

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Limits to growth vindicated as Earth faces overshoot and collapse

This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 28th September 2023. On July 20th, 1969, Nasa’s Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon and, for the first time ever, human beings walked on a celestial body other than the Earth. Neil Armstrong’s words announcing a “giant leap for mankind” resonate today. Before the Moon …

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Emergency ethics are required for our rapidly warming planet

[This article appeared in the Irish Times on the 24th of August as https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2023/08/24/emergency-ethics-required-for-our-rapidly-warming-planet/] The dictionary definition of an emergency is an event that is sudden or unexpected that requires fast action in order to avoid harmful results. If governments had acted 30 years ago when climate science was already categorically linking the burning of …

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