"Whatever happens next month at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, humanity has almost certainly already crossed the climate Rubicon".

— John Gibbons John Gibbons John Michael Gibbons was the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in Major League Baseball from 2004 to 2008... , 2009

John Gibbons is an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 environmental

Environmental movement

The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....

 campaigner and the founder of the climatechange.ie website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

. He also co-founded the healthcare publishing and communications specialists MedMedia Group.

Journalism

For two years Gibbons contributed a weekly column to The Irish Times

The Irish Times

The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...

, analysing aspects of climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 and sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

. The newspaper dropped the column in February 2010, although it continued to publish articles by Gibbons. His work has also appeared in the Sunday Tribune

Sunday Tribune

The Sunday Tribune was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tabloid. Former editors include Conor Brady, Vincent Browne,...

.

Criticisms of Irish response to environmental problems

Citing evidence that global media coverage of climate change in 2010 fell to levels not seen since 2005, Gibbons argues that there is a similar trend in the Ireland. He accuses Irish newspapers and Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 (RTÉ) of "giving too much coverage to 'anti-science' climate change deniers and failing to convey the gravity of the threat, making readers and viewers apathetic". In particular he has been critical of the stance taken on the issue of global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

 by broadcaster Pat Kenny

Pat Kenny

Patrick "Pat" Kenny is an Irish broadcaster and former disc jockey and continuity announcer. He is employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann and is their highest paid presenter. He presents Today with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday morning between 10:00 and midday...

.

Gibbons has argued that global economic recovery will be constrained by energy shortages, and he points out that the Irish economy, with its relatively high per capita use of energy, is particularly vulnerable to "peak oil

Peak oil

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, projected reserves and the combined production rate of a field...

", the anticipated decline in global oil production.

External links

• Climatechange.ie Website
• thinkorswim Climatechange.ie blog