Biodiversity

A call to climate action

What needs to happen to save ourselves, our species and planet? Eight climate-conscious individuals offer their take

Climate policies point to ‘catastrophic rise’ in global temperature, says UN report

Rich countries told they must close ‘emissions gap’ before the key 1.5 degree target is lost

A robust science vision must ensure climate and biodiversity research tops national agenda

Thinking in a Climate Emergency: Artificial Intelligence provides immense opportunity for Ireland, if we can address its voracious requirement for power

Cop summits must address biodiversity and climate crises in an integrated way

Alignment of biodiversity and climate finance would enable win-win solutions to be more easily implemented

Global carbon emissions from forest fires have increased 60% in past 20 years, study finds

Increases in extent and severity of forest wildfires most notable across vast areas of the northern hemisphere and undermines their critical role in storing carbon

‘It tasted good’: Inuk hunter eats brent goose being tracked by Irish schoolchildren

TV series hopes to help build a battalion of young ‘goose detectives’ monitoring flight paths from Ireland to Arctic - and back

Deposit return scheme leads to ‘massive reduction’ in plastic bottles and drinks containers found on shores by Coastwatch

Environmental group seeking citizen scientists to complete 2024 survey, especially in northwest and Northern Ireland

We have a problem with squirrels in our garden. What can we do to keep them at bay?

Fionnuala Fallon: As charming as their arboreal acrobatics might be to watch, grey squirrels can be a real problem in Irish gardens

Co-ordinated action on biodiversity loss can help reduce risk of ‘ecosystem collapse’, climate council says

Greater focus needed on biodiversity conservation and restoration in the fight against climate change

Can Lough Neagh be saved by challenge-oriented prize funding?

The North’s Department of Environment has awarded £450,000 to five bidders to tackle algal blooms

Ecosystem collapse is no longer in the realm of science fiction. It is upon us

From the reduction of forest cover from a high of 80% to its current 1-2% to the near total removal of seabed habitats, ecosystem collapse is evident throughout Ireland and beyond

Irish climate to become ‘unrecognisable’ if action on emissions is delayed

Ireland has almost no pristine rivers left and is producing ‘more waste than ever’, State of Environment report finds

The Irish Times view on the Irish environment: a deepening crisis

The poor state of the physical environment could undermine food security and erode wild spaces

Restoring the Wicklow hills: ‘It’s like the Sahara at times up there with peat moving around like sand dunes in the desert’

Degradation of upland habitats has led to reduced grazing potential, decline of vegetation and the loss of iconic birds such as the curlew and skylarks

Nature-based solutions to climate change are all around us

Our planet is experiencing rapid climate changes because nature is unable to keep pace with human activity

Ireland could slash emissions by embracing circular economy - study

Country lagging behind in green construction when it could help meet housing demand, FII tells Oireachtas group

First planetary health check issues Earth red alert

Six out of nine boundaries continue to be breached, soon to be followed by dangerous levels of ocean acidification

‘Witness trees’ to track Irish climate change over coming decades

TCD researchers to also pinpoint which species best clean air and eliminate smog

Female sperm whales becoming more frequent off the coast of Ireland

Study examined available historical and contemporary data from whaling, stranding, and sighting records between 1910 and 2023

Two of State’s largest landowners sign co-operation deal on restoring nature

Coillte and National Parks and Wildlife Service agree framework to co-operate on conservation

Cork farmer uprooted 250 trees in case of ‘environmental terrorism’

Daniel Finn (70s) pleads guilty to offences contrary to the Wildlife Act after ‘extensive’ and ‘reckless’ clearance for farming

There have only been seven Irish records of this huge moth, the last in 1997

Éanna Ní Lamhna on the oleander moth, a fine feather and a fish that could bite a finger off

What are we to deduce from a couple of gay penguins going through highs and lows of life together?

It is wrong to expect animals to show us how to live, no matter how cute they are

Farmed salmon enter largest wild fishery in west of Ireland after Killary Harbour escape

Escapees ‘pose a significant risk to wild Atlantic salmon populations’ returning to spawn, says fisheries agency

A wealth of late-blooming plants are bright stars of the autumn garden

What the daisy family, Asteraceae, have in common is daisy-shaped flowers and ability to feed bees, butterflies, hoverflies and many other pollinating insects

Decline of Irish insects reflects inconsistent approach to protecting endangered species

While pollinators have captured the public imagination, other groups such as ants, aquatic flies and beetles are overlooked

Building houses can be compatible with the creation of new habitats for wildlife

Ella McSweeney: London and Amsterdam offer good examples, and Bray developers could factor in new research showing the extraordinary array of species in the town

Keep turbines away from endangered terns on island off north Dublin coast, environmentalists warn

Environmental group lodges objection to large wind farm proposed for Irish Sea off north Dublin

Deep sea mining below the oceans

Q&A with Olive Heffernan; ‘We’re looking at taking this practice which is notoriously destructive, and allowing it encroach on one of our most fragile ecosystems’

Inside an Englishwoman’s campaign to bring back Ireland’s missing ‘big old trees’

Imogen Rabone came from a farm in Herefordshire in England, and during her years in Dublin felt an urgency to find a way to help people include trees in the landscape

The businessman restoring a blanket bog in one of the most remote parts of Ireland

‘You could over-complicate it,’ Joe Devine says. ‘This is about reversing the drainage of a bog, and seeing what benefits are going to emerge’

Will 200-year-old maps help inform decisions on crucial habitat restoration and future land use?

New digital archive of first ordnance survey maps of island of Ireland coincides with completion of first detailed national land cover map

‘I am a hunter but I am a conservationist’: Meet the Roscommon gun-club members protecting endangered bird species

Many bird species have thrived since Ballydangan Bog was re-wetted and the drains removed

Kill or confine? Italy and Romania wrestle with bear attacks response

Wildlife activists oppose culling of animals despite rise in aggressive incidents

Butterflies in free fall: ‘It’s really alarming because it shows that something significant is happening in the wider countryside’

Even the most common butterfly in Ireland ‘has declined in numbers by 83% since 2008’, says a leading expert

Irish wildflowers: Growing your own mini-meadow isn’t always easy but the results are magical

A home for native wildflowers isn’t always easy to cultivate, but careful planning makes for fun and magical results

The case for ecological collaboration between two Korean states

Free from human interference, the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea has become a haven for endangered species

Capitalism is killing the planet – but curtailing it is the discussion nobody wants to have

If life on our one and only planet is to be pulled back from the brink, the time for voluntary ecological measures from businesses has surely passed

The cows are smaller, hardier and more efficient: Inside a ‘climate-neutral’ Irish dairy farm

FarmZeroC wants its approach to be deployed across thousands of farms

Ireland performing poorly by international standards on environment, climate and biodiversity

Well-being framework designed to use measures other than economic to gauge Ireland’s progress

Insects are essential for life but they need to be protected

Thinking in a Climate Emergency: For purely self-interested reasons, we should care about insects; they are intimately involved in all our food chains

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