We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
EXTINCTION REBELLION IRELAND held a ‘slow cycle’ through Dublin City today, marking Earth Day and calling for the government action on biodiversity loss.
Demonstrators gathered at the Garden of Remembrance this morning and made their way to Stephen’s Green where speeches were held. There were representatives from XR, as well as non-governmental organisations, environmental groups and members of the public.
Along the way, XR said that demonstrators let off a number of colourful smoke bombs and music was played.
The demonstration marked Earth Day, an annual event held each year since 1970 to raise awareness and support environmental protection. Demonstrators called for measures to protect Ireland’s biodiversity and plant and animal life.
In particular there were calls for the Government to implement the recommendations of the the recent Citizen’s Assembly report into biodiversity loss in Ireland, published earlier this month.
Over 150 recommendations for action were put forward in the report. These include:
Commenting today, Leslie Marce of XRI said that the protection of biodiversity was “the future of humanity”.
“Unless urgently stopped, the destruction of ecosystems due to climate change, pollution and land use changes will lead to severe consequences, including on human health, but also on food and water supply,” she said.
Just Stop Oil
Separately, an Irish member of controversial anti-fossil fuel group Just Stop Oil has defended the group’s actions.
The group has garnered a lot of attention and caused controversy in recent months for a series of direct actions. These included pouring soup over a Vincent van Gogh painting, scaling bridges and bringing traffic in London to a standstill.
This week, two protestors were arrested after they disrupted the World Snooker Championship on Monday, with one throwing orange powder on the table at the Crucible Theatre. Yesterday a different two protestors were jailed for scaling a bridge in England on the Dartford Crossing last year.
Speaking on Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin on RTÉ Radio One, Amy Rose Friel O’Donnell said she has been involved in a number of actions with the group, including disrupting sections of the M25 motorway in England, causing them to be shut down last November.
Friel O’Donnell said she was due to appear in court over this action. Questioned whether she was worried about the effect her actions may have on her future and whether they were worth it, she said:
“It’s not really a question of a price worth paying.
“I have made a very clear decision in my head that there’s only really two directions this is going to go.
Either we win this fight against the climate crisis. Amazing I am proud of what I done, I regret nothing. Or we lose this fight and we are dead. And I will lose everything I will and I will lose my home.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Wow amazing turnout . Must be about 20 of them !
@Michael OKelly: Yeah look at those LOSERS, staging a non-violent and minimally disruptive protest against actions harming our natural habitats. On EARTH DAY of all days! We should point and laugh at those weirdos, am I right?
@Rob Hunt: well at least they did it in a maner that did not put anyone else at risk, at least that we know of. Unlike the lads that got jail yesterday in the UK….
@Michael OKelly: Like a People Before Profit march!
@Rob Hunt: they make me want to burn tyres
Have people got nothing better to on a rainy Saturday?
@siobhan mulcahy: it’s kind of important.
Are they going to glue themselves to the handle bars of their bicycles?
It’s a hugely important subject and judging by the comments, a lot of folks are completely ignorant about it.
@Fergal McDonagh: Ignore the comments and ignore the votes.
you must have noticed that the moment The Journal removed the option using Twitter of FB logins, the comments and votes on almost every single topic flipped completely in the other directions.
Upvotes on obvious troll-comments are staggering at times.
@Wolfgang Bonow: Ikr. Imagine the labour involved in setting up multiple accounts and pumping your own likes and at no point thinking “Hold on a minute…I’m a grown up!”. It baffles me
@Wolfgang Bonow: Apparently according to someone’s opinion that’s allegedly alleged. If the trolls copy paste the address into a new incognito mode window, close it out, rinse and repeat. They can pump the likes all day. I presume it’s about the cookies. Hope the Journal fixes it!
@Fergal McDonagh: Personally, I have zero respect for Extinction Rebellion. Never have. I have zero time for anything they do. They are not good people, in my opinion.
That is completely different to being ignorant of the subject. I recently protested plenty about the destruction of a habitat in my own garden… sadly, I wasn’t listened to. As such, the home of the bank vole I adored has been destroyed, and I haven’t seen him in ages. All because my mother wanted a wall to sit on.
Chances are he has just moved to his second home, but I can’t see him there.
Overall though, we have a large garden that promotes plenty of diversity in a small area.
Anything about Niall Collins?
@shuttleJohn: Shhhhhh! MSM isn’t allowed mention that story.
@The Bolt: off to the playground with ya
@Nigel Hayden: Can’t go to the playground any more Nige. Niall Collins bought it.
@shuttleJohn: Now now!!
As long as they don’t break the red lights, cycle on the footpath or go up the wrong way on one-way Street all should be fine.
@Pat Man: I am not sure the irony of a slow cycle thru Dublin delaying traffic is not lost on them / if anything resembles a daily occurance in Dublin it’s slugging thru congested city slowed down by increasing number of idiots on bikes and scooters / the scale of rule breaking by cyclists ignoring red lights mounting paths crossing pedestrianised bridges and a general disregard for everyone else except themselves is beyond a joke / I drive thru the city every day and the number of near misses / road rage / deliveroo cyclists dressed in all black with no lights on bikes in dark is genuinely out of control / but let’s not address the daily problems let’s protest and annoy the public who have f all say over how corporations pollute the planet / nonsense
Most experts reckon the population of the planet was approx 1 billion around the time of the Roman Empire
In 1950 the U.N. declared the world was now home to 2bn.
In 1960 it was declared at 3 BN.
Late last year it was declared at 8bn.
Apparently – as XR & other campaigners NEVER mention this fact – this is of no relevance whatsoever to the destruction of habitats and wildlife on the planet.
Everything is the fault of the big bad west – where populations are either stagnant or falling
Yup – all makes perfect sense to me
@Gerry Kelly: well yes it’s the big bad West that are by far the biggest consumers in the world and have destroyed most of their own biodiversity. Look at ireland for e.g., zero wilderness and one of the most denatured places on the planet.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Ireland uis far from it and the coments like that make your argument easily defeated.
A large part of the problem is the hsysterical post and comments.
@Gerry Kelly: Population increase is a small part of the story. The United States are 5% of the World’s population, but the country consumes 24% of the World’s energy. A ratio of 5:1.
https://public.wsu.edu/~mreed/380American%20Consumption.htm
The greatest problem isn’t population increase, which is forecast to peak at 10 billion by 2050, an increase of 30%, but industrialisation and increased consumption.
The key to civilization’s survival is allowing developing nations to develop (increased affluence lowers birth rates) while reducing reliance on polluting and wasteful fossil fuel base energy generation.
Dope peddlers in the city centre. What’s new?
Who cares.
A cycle holding traffic who éver would have though possible
Hysterics
The auld lad next door says what does a handful of wee Dubs know about hedge grows, swamps, and bogs etc???
@Ned: yes of course, if you don’t live in a one off house on an N road somewhere what could you possibly know about nature
Good article in the Sun newspaper today expose sey their leader
Those extremists with the last iPhones and trendy clothes are nothing but extremists.
They are pointless.
See sun newspaper today.
The tag is ‘Earth Day’ but nobody feels ashamed that the same people pushing climate change modelling and conclusions can’t literally tell you what causes the Sun to appear and disappear over the horizon every 24-hour day.
” It is a fact not generally known that, owing to the difference between solar and sidereal time, the Earth rotates upon its axis once more often than there are [24-hour] days in the year” NASA /Harvard
The idea that the planet doesn’t turn once every 24 hours has a knock-on effect as they assign the wrong rotation velocity to the Earth’s Equator at 1,674.4 km/h whereas its actual velocity is 1,669.8 km/h consistent with the 24-hour and Latitude/Longitude systems. With the latter value, the planet turns its 40,075 km circumference in 24 hours.
There are a lot of things that are close to extinction and human reasoning, intelligence and perceptive faculties may be among them. Explaining why society ended up with a zombie subculture takes an effort and it is not helped every time the roots of a timekeeping misadventure are explained in tandem with the disruptive scientific method.
Remember unless it’s people dragging their kids out in front of traffic to protest against asylum seekers, the journal commenters do not condone any kind of (mildly in this case) disruptive protests
We are seeing more and more niece groups stage protests and grab the headlines.
The exremeists on all sides are wrong.
It also means the general public grow bored of the subject and ignore it.
@Carrickview: if our future climate models are inaccurate, they either…
1. Underestimate warming and we do to little, thus warning continues unabated and this destroyes the environment along with civilization
2. Or they overestimate warming and we do too much, the environment isn’t trashed and we survive but we spend some money we didn’t need to.
Given the we don’t know that the future holds for us, but one scenario is far worse than the other, is logical that we spend some money to ensure the continuation of civilization.
This is like house or car insurance, we don’t know if your house will burn down, or don’t know of we will be involved in a car crash, but since these possibilities are so costle, we know it’s best to assume they might happen and pay for insurance, so that if a disaster happens we can endure.
The irony of these people with placards proclaiming to protect biodiversity whilst having ripped down branches to tie to their bicycles.
Insufferable brainwashed fantasists…
The earth has existed for billions of years. I believe it will exist for billions more if we are not on it.
So, while I accept climate change, I really couldn’t care less.
This is important journalism. Thank you to the journal and Cormac for reporting about the most urgent and pressing problem of our times, and this invitation to demand action.
Not even cyclists wanted to join this :D
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say