Barry McMullin

Update on petition for a dedicated #IE #GE2024 Leaders' Debate on the Climate & Biodiversity emergency: www.postcarbonireland.org/GE2024/

Data centre developers talk about reusing waste heat because they want their projects approved, not because they actually want to reuse waste heat (also see: the reason fossil fuel companies talk about CCS). bsky.app/profile/keta...

This is another amazing example of an industry screaming blue murder when actually held using regulation to its obviously hollow techno-solutionist pleading. www.wired.com/story/europe...

lol woops I did a Halloween handle and lost my verified tick.....worth it imo

"Do we let the stupidest, worst people among us lead us into the ecofascism of border walls, drone warfare, and exterminationism? [Or do we change the story and change the future?]" #SignMeUp

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/10/27/t...

One of the most skilful online writers can be read just about every day for free, and will reliably jog you awake with plain gems like this one: "When they tell us 'there is no alternative,' what they mean is 'stop trying to think of alternatives.'"

How much of the world’s proven coal, oil and gas (i.e. already found, pays to extract at today’s prices) can still be burned for a 66% chance of holding 2 °C? About 30%. The other 70%, 2,040 billion tonnes of CO₂, are stranded assets. Burn it all and CO₂ alone means roughly 2.7 °C Purple = added

"The report found Israeli authorities and forces had continued to 'commit genocidal acts' even after the so-called ceasefire in Gaza, 'with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people'." No surprise that this got hardly any mainstream coverage. #GazaGenocide www.nine.com.au/world-news/m...

[Another zinger critique of Ireland's agri-industrial-complex from @swimsure.bsky.social - do read!] climate-change-and-ireland.ghost.io/when-the-fac...

FOX News attempts to convince its viewers Democratic Socialism is bad www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform...

1/1 Europe needs an emergency brake on the climate crisis. Researchers estimate over 50,000 heat-related deaths in European cities this summer, two-thirds linked to human-caused warming. Yet governments want to brake EU legislation.

The lessons from Brazil and Serbia? Don't concede one inch of ground to the far right. Don't appease. Don't triangulate. Don't grovel. Don't say they have "legitimate concerns". Mobilise your base, and fight them with all the democratic means at your disposal.

Masterclass here from the Irish data centre “industry” on how to make even more enemies & alienate potential supporters with weird, pointless nonsense like this. www.thejournal.ie/sally-rooney...

screenshot from here: www.currentaffairs.org/news/liberal...

Hahahahahaha gas. I want them to keep going with this. how much water does Sally Rooney drink? How much electricity does her fridge use? How much disinformation does she spread and how many data privacy laws does she breach?

"What, according to Jim O’Callaghan, is supposed to happen when a child expresses discomfort about hugging an older relative? Their parents should make them do it anyway?" Here's a Surrealing in the Years Bank Holiday Special. The commenters absolutely love this one, I'm sure you can imagine.

"...we cannot be confident that temperature decline after #overshoot is achievable within the timescales expected today. Only rapid near-term emission reductions are effective in reducing climate risks."

It's very simple - every single one of them does not believe in the bodily autonomy of others, especially women and children. Martin et al had to be dragged kicking and screaming into repealing the eighth (Chambers is a strong opponent of the right to choose, as is Toibin).

Victory for Lula, who has already reduced Amazon deforestation by 70% since 2022, means there is now a chance of ending deforestation of the rainforest entirely I’m weeping with joy for Brazil, for the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, and for life on Earth 🇧🇷🌳🌎 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Kansas Dem Sen. nominee Adam Hamilton on trans rights: “I don’t think we should take a small group of people and bully them, pick on them, and hurt them. I understand one thing really clearly when it comes to transgender people, and that is Jesus told me I was to love my neighbor as I love myself”

It’s literally that simple …

"“Palestine Action are the only organisation – or the most effective organisation – in the UK that that has had some success in stopping arms going to a genocide. I’m very sure that I will be on the right side of history." www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...

Well this is eleventy-million kinds of Fucked Up. @latimes.com (who once contracted with me as a freelance reviewer and whom I struggled to get paid by) asserts that *merely reading its website* constitutes a permanent waiver of your right to sue it under *any circumstances*.

More shocking displays by Bolsonaro supporters in the last 24 hours: voters wearing T-shirts that say “long live fascism,” doing a Nazi salute when entering the polls, and a white man walking a Black man on a chain at a pro-Bolsonaro gathering in Rio de Janeiro.

At COP17 in Durban, the then Obama administration negotiator Todd Stern famously remarked "If equity’s in, we're out." It's a belief that underlies mitigation words said by rich country coalitions at climate talks. Because in practice, equitable action means the wealthiest emitters are in trouble

14/ So: governments don't have the luxury of waiting. Iceland has already named #AMOC collapse a national security threat. Other governments should consider following suit. @ajaykgambhir.bsky.social & I made that case back in May:

Grok fact-checks its master 👇🏽 👀

'As a court reporter, I cover child sexual abuse cases on a daily basis. I can categorically state that children who are given the tools to exercise autonomy over their own bodies from a young age are much better equipped to recognise abuse and report it before it escalates.' - Isabel Hayes

The Minister for Justice’s intervention with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s consent campaign video on hugging risks creating “a pervasive chilling effect and self-censorship” within society. www.thejournal.ie/consent-hugg...

Something something bike shed www.connachttribune.ie/news/galway-...

This, from the hugely experienced Irish courts reporter, Isabel Hayes, on the Minister for Justice’s performative outrage over an ad about children and consent, is worth reading.

"The report, led by @kevinclimate.bsky.social from the @tyndallcentre.bsky.social, found that wealthy countries such as the #UK, #US and #Australia had until 2034 *to stop all oil and gas production* to give the world a 50% chance of preventing devastating climate breakdown"

The Court publicly sought EU help as far back as May 2025. The EU has not moved.

“A commonly deployed tactic is to cherry-pick anecdotes that generate visceral emotional resonance in media echo chambers. …anecdotes often deliberately amplify culture wars on issues such as climate, vaccines, diversity, race and gender studies.” www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/its-...

Place the gruntles of the disgruntled against the right of children to *decide if they want to be touched just now* and this isn’t even a debate. The children’s right to bodily autonomy tower over the transient wants of the disgruntled would be hugger. It’s not even a fine balance.

They're not "complicating" efforts... they're direct policy choices that are explicitly contradicting those efforts.

“The country now has the third lowest share of renewable energy in the European Union… Growing traffic, increasing flights & data centre expansion are all complicating efforts to move away from the carbon-polluting fuels.” www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

To be clear, "we" [i.e., IE Govt] are not actually engaged in any serious good faith *attempt* to end our fossil fuel dependency in any meaningful time frame. Always watch what "we" do, not what "we" say.

Ending Ireland's dependence on gas and oil is proving painfully slow www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Worth remembering that Ireland had a referendum where we put the rights of the child into the constitution despite those who campaigned against such rights. Also this attack on DRCC sends such a poor public message to teenagers (the actual video shows one teenager who likes hugs & one who doesn't)

Developing new gas fields is pragmatic. Atmospheric physics however, is an uncompromising idealist. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...