Fred Logue

The Renewable Illusion: Why Fossil Fuels Keep Winning Global renewables hit records in 2024, but fossil fuel use still rises. Here’s why solar’s surge isn’t enough—and what the latest energy data really shows.

1. This is something I've been saying for 25 years, but it's hard to get many people to listen. What counts is not the new energy sources you add, but the old ones you retire. Unfortunately it's politically easier to build renewables than to shutter fossil fuels.🧵
www.forbes.com/sites/rrapie...

Paschal Donohoe on books that advise how to run our economies and save the planet The Minister for Finance on Nature Capital: The Value of the World Around Us by Partha Dasgupta and Slow Down or Die: The Economics of Degrowth by Timothée Parrique, translated by Claire Benoit

The serving Irish Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe, recently published - in the Irish Times (national broadsheet) - a review of not one, but two, related scholarly books (article is sadly paywalled, so subscriber only) ... www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

“Collapse isn’t just caused by structures, but also people. If you want to save the world then the first step is to stop destroying it. In other words: don’t be a dick. …

Scope of Birds Directive clarified by the Court of Justice Just before shutting up shop for its summer recess, the Court of Justice delivered an important judgment clarifying the scope of protection for wild bird species in the EU under the Birds Directive (D...

Check out my latest article

Scope of Birds Directive clarified by the Court of Justice

www.linkedin.com/pulse/scope-...

There Is No Housing Shortage According to GeoDirectory, the data company for AnPost, in Dublin alone there are 14,500 empty residential and commercial properties with 4,000 in the city centre.

Really good article

open.substack.com/pub/theomcdo...

That International Court of Justice decision on Climate Change is a big deal. In summary the UN requested ICJ to state obligations of States to protect climate, and legal consequences for causing harm. (1of3)

Fingal County Council declares NTA planning application invalid Council identifies series of issues with park-and-ride application

What stage are we at when an invalid planning application makes national news?

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

Again, the U.K. judiciary cover themselves in something which most assuredly isn’t glory.

"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced labour camp."

Supreme Court: Extension of time upheld for judicial review involving allegations of systemic bias on part of An Bord Pleanála The Supreme Court has upheld a decision of the Court of Appeal extending time to seek leave to judicially review a decision of An Bord Pleanála which granted permission to Eircom for the installation of a telecommunications mast in Co Kilkenny.

The Supreme Court has upheld a decision of the Court of Appeal extending time to seek leave to judicially review a decision of An Bord Pleanála which granted permission to Eircom for the installation of a telecommunications mast in Co Kilkenny.

Judge - In my opinion it was appropriate and reasonable for the Court below to in effect hold that
the public interest in certainty was, in this very exceptional case, outweighed by the very
serious allegations of systemic failure on the part of the Board.

Judgment www.courts.ie/viewer/pdf/4...

Supreme Court upholds Kilkenny couple's objection to construction of mobile phone mast Former board deputy chairman Paul Hyde had approved 15m tall mast in 2021

Unanimous Supreme Court rejects AG and ABP submissions and allows legal scrutiny by citizens to proceed. www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41...

Supreme Court upholds Kilkenny couple's objection to construction of mobile phone mast Former board deputy chairman Paul Hyde had approved 15m tall mast in 2021

A Co Kilkenny couple has won a landmark decision in the Supreme Court ensuring they can challenge an An Bord Pleanála decision to allow a mobile phone mast to be built beside their property.

www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41...

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is an amazing organisation based on an incredible ethos of cooperation and volunteerism. It singled handedly kept our musical heritage alive during the depredations of the 1950s and helped make Irish music a global phenomenon

Very proud to sponsor the over 18 Fiddle Slow Air competition in this year's Leinster Fleadh in Drogheda

Taoiseach: Commission's move on derogation 'arises' from An Taisce case The Taoiseach has said that a new direction from the European Commission on the nitrates derogation "arises" from An Taisce legal challenge.

The Taoiseach himself threatened An Taisce but they refused to stop fighting for our collective right to clean water & a healthy water environment. Well done @elainemcgoff.bsky.social 🙌

The government must now show the leadership they've denied farmers for so long
www.agriland.ie/farming-news...

Using Signal groups for activism Things are heating up. Millions of people are taking to the streets against Trump's rising authoritarianism. Communities around the US are organizing to defend against ICE raids, to protest Israeli ge...

micahflee.com/using-signal...

Using Signal groups for activism

Big decision from the Supreme Court (Woulfe J) today in Thomson v An Bord Pleanála concerning when a court can extend the time limit to bring judicial review and the interpretation of "good and sufficient reason".

@fploguellp.bsky.social for the Appellants

courts.ie/view/judgmen...

Govt told to conserve sites to retain nitrates derogation The European Commission has told the Government that in order for Ireland to retain a nitrates derogation for farmers from next year it must demonstrate efforts to conserve designated sites or species...

'The European Commission has told the Government that in order for Ireland to retain a nitrates derogation for farmers from next year it must demonstrate efforts to conserve designated sites or species under the EU's Habitats Directive'

www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

#Environmentalprotection

Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It's a political timebomb | Tim White We’ve been living in a great experiment: can finance provide basic human rights such as housing? The answer is increasingly no, says researcher and writer Tim White

"The scale of institutional ownership in certain places is staggering. In Ireland, nearly half of all units delivered since 2017 were purchased by investment funds."

A housing crisis for some, a gold rush for others

For motor injury claims that settled for less than €100,000 in H1 2024, the average compensation cost was down 23% compared to 2020, while the average total cost decreased by 13%. When including all injury claims however, the average total cost is effectively unchanged at €38,553

Headline: "Cost of settling motor insurance claims increased 23% in the first half of 2024"

Body Text:

www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

IBEC calling for *checks notes* another review of the planning system when the ink hasn't even dried on the results of the last three years of "reform"

www.kildarestreet.com/committees/?...

Is the end point of this that you will pay insurance companies premiums for policies that will never pay out?

If that's the case why don't they just come out and say it, i.e. that the insurance industry wants a situation where they just get free money.

Cracking essay re-link from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social: "Our aim should be not to use societal collapse as a tool to shape the world to our tastes, but to seek to avert societal collapse." #NotRocketScience Do read it all!

Paris is getting a whole new Metro network. And it’s huge | CNN The Grand Paris Express will add four lines, 68 stations and 200 kilometers of track to the French capital’s 120-year-old Metro system, providing vital suburban links – just not quite in time for the ...

Remember this? Paris is getting a whole new Metro network in a ring connecting suburbs. It’s HUGE. And built FAST.

“The venerable #Paris Métro is about to get its most significant upgrade in decades with the arrival of the Grand Paris Express, a new 200km system with 4 new lines & 68 new stations.”

on her tiktok account.

just before she shut down the stream she mentioned she burnt her finger from holding up her phone so long.

Helen Wilson is her name...
www.tiktok.com/@helensheali...

photo of Bob Vylan on stage at glastonbury today in front of a huge sign saying "FREE PALESTINE UNITED NATIONS HAVE CALLED IT A GENOCIDE THE BBC CALLS IT A 'CONFLICT'"

Bob Vylan, on before Kneecap, turned it up to 11. Singing such ditties as "Free Palestine" and "Death to the IDF".

A Welsh lady at the Kneecap gig racked up 1.7m views of a live stream.

Whacked on the BBC Glasto coverage to see what they were showing instead of Kneecap and caught Amy of Amyl & the Sniffers giving a pro Palestine speech...

Beeb editors playing whack-a-mole

Bob Vylan 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years Real world measurements of how much extra heat the Earth is trapping are well beyond most climate models. That’s a real problem.

“These findings suggest climate change might well accelerate in the coming years. Worse still, this worrying imbalance is emerging even as funding uncertainty in the United States threatens our ability to track the flows of heat.”
H/t @thinkorswim.bsky.social

theconversation.com/earth-is-tra...