Hannah Daly

If Ireland's emissions are "too small to matter" then I might as well evade my taxes and eat doughnuts for lunch. Read my latest column about the laziest excuse in the climate debate: www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

The brains of living beings are not just meat computers. I find the proposal by tech bros that AI could be conscious repugnant. Those who believe this have clearly fallen for their creation too hard. This is a great scientific explainer. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

“War, what is it good for”? So went the 1960s song. The answer, of course, is that it’s good for business. Hell, it’s great.

🚨 Half of all new cars registered in Ireland in September were fully electric (49.3%)! Car sales here are concentrated in January and July, so a single month is misleading, but I pulled out the BEV sales share for July-September sales for the past years: 2024 - 14% 2025 - 22% 2025 - 35% 📈↗️👆‼️

Ireland imports 80% of its wheat. Not great food security. Concentration on livestock farming elbowed Irish wheat out. Imported wheat and flour add considerably to the cost of living crisis. But new crop science opens the door to Irish grown wheat. Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/listen/clip/...

"Today's AIs already have the necessary hacking skills & powers of persuasion to be turned against human interests in seriously harmful ways." "This suggests pacing advances: not training or deploying AIs without a strong safety case that convinces independent experts...AIs that are safe by design."

The best explanation I've read on AI misalignment, and how it could be a structural issue that can't be patched.

I am cancelling a class for my BSc Sustainability students next week to take part in a strike action. What readings should I assign them on the theme of collective action?

Here's the liquid gas industry framing its product as a "just transition". This would be sidesplittingly funny if it was not apparent that this message is getting through to politicians.

Genuinely great to see solar, heat pump and retrofit grants targeting vulnerable homes. It's also good to see the boiler scrappage scheme come immediately rather than in January. I'm sure a lot of people retrofitting right now, and the companies, are relieved they will qualify.

Our new article on his decades of corporate capture made US universities vulnerable to current attacks.

"Current [El Nino] forecasts suggest that the 2026 event could push global mean surface temperatures in 2027 to almost 1.8°C above pre-industrial levels" 😱 Good rundown of El Nino impacts via @zekehausfather.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

While all attention is on AI and its impact on our brains, energy grids and economy, and whether it will literally kill all of us, is any leader taking climate change seriously any more? AMOC collapse would be *absolutely devastating* and is only one of profound impacts climate change brings.

Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

I wonder if the kind of large-scale grassroots pushback against data centres, the kind that has been tipping election results, will emerge in Ireland?

Glaciers in the Himalayas are rapidly retreating under climate change, leading to widespread formation and expansion of glacial lakes and increasing the risk of glacial lake outburst floods. To date, more than 388 GLOF events have been documented in the region 😰 Source ⬇️

I'm just going to rob this €100 out of your wallet. Why are you complaining - it's only 0.1% of your annual income?

This was such a great paper to work on, with a great team, so I was delighted when we got the news yesterday that is has been selected as standout open access Irish research paper for 2025 @ioppublishing.bsky.social As @colmduff.bsky.social makes clear in his article below, methane is methane.

In the name of competitiveness and defence, the EU is going backwards on climate action. €800 billion has been committed to prepare for war by 2030, far outstripping anything that is being invested in climate resilience and a green transition. This is madness. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

The Government commissioned a €100k report by KMPG not to inform policy but to 'provide the evidence base that supports the position that we should continue to further develop our data centre landscape post 2030.' That is reckless and negligent. www.thejournal.ie/data-centre-...

Hugely excited to welcome our first students to the new BSc Sustainability this September. In my column today, I set out my case for this new kind of interdisciplinary degree. www.irishtimes.com/environment/...