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THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY IS IRELAND'S LEADING BODY OF EXPERTS IN THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann champions research. We identify and recognise Ireland’s world class researchers. We support scholarship and promote awareness of how science and the humanities enrich our lives and benefit society. We believe that good research needs to be promoted, sustained and communicated. The Academy is run by a Council of its members. Membership is by election and considered the highest academic honour in Ireland.

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Climate and society in Ireland

Can a long-term perspective on human adaptations to climate change inform Ireland’s response to the crisis we face today? Climate and Society in Ireland is a collection of essays, commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy, that provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining syntheses of existing knowledge with new insights and approaches, contributors explore the varied environmental, climatic and social changes that occurred in Ireland from early prehistory to the early 21st century. The essays in the volume engage with a diversity of pertinent themes, including the impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland; weather-related food scarcities during medieval times that led to violence and plague outbreaks; changing representations of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820; and how Ireland is now on the threshold of taking the radical steps necessary to shed its ‘climate laggard’ status and embark on the road to a post-carbon society. With contributions by Máire Ní Annracháin, Katharina Becker, David M. Brown, Lucy Collins, Lisa Coyle McClung, Bruce M.S. Campbell, Rosie Everett, Benjamin Gearey, Raymond Gillespie, Seren Griffiths, James Kelly, Francis Ludlow, Meriel McClatchie, Conor Murphy, Simon Noone, Aaron Potito, Gill Plunkett, Phil Stastney, Graeme T. Swindles, John Sweeney, Graeme Warren.

This book is also available on JSTOR. For more information, institutions can visit  Books at JSTOR  or contact  [email protected] .

You can buy the e-book  here .

Read the  blog series  based on the volume and listen to the  four-part podcast series where contributors to the book discuss the long view of climate change.

"The authors and editors of these essays have produced an excellent compilation volume. The variety of the themes is only surpassed by the amount of research and data comparison that has been achieved in many of the chapters. I highly recommend the book and I really enjoyed dipping in and out of the variety of material it contains". Peter Coxon,  The Holocene  Vol. 32 (7), pp. 745-746.

About the authors

James kelly.

James Kelly, MRIA, is Cregan Professor of History, and head of the School of History and Geography at Dublin City University. He was previously head of the History Department at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. He has written extensively on eighteenth-century Irish history. His publications include Prelude to Unions: Anglo-Irish politics in the 1780s (Cork University Press, 1992); That damn's thing called Honour: Duelling in Ireland, 1570-1860 (Cork University Press, 1995); Henry Flood: patriots and politics in eighteenth-century Ireland (University f Notre Dame Press, 1998); Poynings’ law and the making of Law in Ireland, 1660-1800 (Irish Legal History Society, 2007); Sir Richard Musgrave, 1746-1818,ultra-Protestant  ideologue (Four Courts Press, 2009); Poynings' Law and the making of law in Ireland, 1660-1800 (Dublin, 2006) and Proceedings of the Irish House of Lords, 1771-1800 (3 vols, Dublin, 2008). Clubs and societies in eighteenth century Ireland (edited with M.J. Powell) (Four Courts Press, 2010); Sport in Ireland 1600-1840 (Four Courts Press, 2014), and The proclamations of Ireland, 1660-1820 (5 vols, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2014). He is currently president of the Irish Economic and Social History Society, and a member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. He has served as co-editor of Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy , section C since 2008.

Tomás Ó Carragáin

Dr Ó Carragáin is a graduate of UCC and the University of York and joined the staff of the Archaeology Department, UCC, in 2002. His research is focused on the archaeology of early medieval Ireland and its European context (c. AD 400-1200). Among other subjects, he has published widely on the archaeology of Christianisation, archaeological approaches to ritual practice including pilgrimage, early medieval architecture and sculpture, the archaeology of territories and boundaries and the relationship between material culture and social memory. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London (FSA).

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Ireland's Environment Overview

Ireland’s environment is, for the most part, very good and stands up well to comparison with any other country in Europe or in the wider world. This is due in no small way to an accident of geography and an accident of history.

Geography places Ireland at mid-latitude, not too close to the heat of the equator or to the cold arctic and its position on the north-western edge of the continent ensures a constant supply of clean unpolluted air and plenty of rain from the Atlantic Ocean.

History decreed that Ireland missed the industrial revolution of the 19th century and, so, missed out on the polluting industries of that period. Up to the middle of the 20th century Ireland’s economy was based on grassland agriculture which was not very intensive and placed little pressures on the Irish environment. �

Much has changed in Ireland in the past 50 years, and the pressures on the environment have grown, but overall the essentials for life of clean air, clean water and productive soil are abundant on this island.

The different environmental sectors of air, water, land etc are discussed in more detail in this article.

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Working Notes 94: Exploring a Just Wage

Greening ireland’s second century: how environmental policy has emerged as central to irish life.

Posted on January 21, 2022 by JCFJ - Environment  

Kevin Hargaden and Ciara Murphy

Dr Kevin Hargaden and Dr Ciara Murphy both work at the at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, where Kevin serves as the Director and Social Theologian and Ciara is the Environmental Policy Advocate. Their forthcoming book is entitled The Parish as Oasis and will be published by Messenger Publications in summer 2022.

Introduction: The Environmental Policy Shaped Hole in Irish History

This essay is quite unlike the other pieces in this issue of Working Notes . While vast tomes can be written about housing or penal policy in Ireland or the relationship between the Church and State, little explicit material presents itself as “environmental policy” in the first decades after independence.

While it would be an exaggeration to suggest that there was no environmental policy in Ireland for these years, it would be accurate to ponder whether we would have any significant legislation or programmes were it not for membership of the European Economic Community in 1973. The newly independent State did inherit some laws that can be classified, retrospectively, as environmental. The British Fisheries Act of 1891 specifically addressed the regulation of the North Sea fishing fields but applied in general to Irish waters and to all salmon farming. In the same year, the Turbary (Ireland) Act established access rights to cutting turf from peatlands, particularly when procured by the Land Commission.

These pieces of legislation are notable for how they are clearly concerned with property and trade. It is arguably an act of creative reimagining that would read them as proto-environmental. Green activists today often lay the charge that capitalism trains us to view creation through an instrumentalised lens, such that space and the creatures within it are objects to be utilised for our profit. Pope Francis refers to this in Laudato Si’ as a “techno-economic mindset.” [1] For Francis, authentic environmentalism is identified by its reliance on “bonds of affection” to perceive our world accurately. [2] Viewing our environment not as a profit opportunity awaiting exploitation but as a Creation inviting us to learn how to love other creatures, other humans, ourselves, and even God, is not some mystical mumbo-jumbo, but a sustainable stance from which to strive for real climate and biodiversity care. [3]

This is not a vision which we will easily find in early Irish interventions on environmental matters.

While it may seem to be admirably progressive that as early as 1936, the young State passed a law outlawing whaling, the parliamentary debates do not dwell on the dignity of these magnificent mammals but on the risk whale oil may pose to the Irish butter industry. [4]

The centrality of agriculture to the economic viability of the Irish State could not be overstated. The first Minister for Agriculture, Patrick Hogan, described the economic policy of the nascent State as one of “helping the farmer who helped himself and letting the rest go to the devil.” [5] By 1926, agriculture accounted for 32 per cent of GDP and 54 per cent of workers were employed on farms or in the food processing industry. [6]

This, then, is the context in which we might consider environmental policy at the founding of the State and in subsequent decades. While prison had been a lived reality for those who made up the first Dáil and the task of improving housing was a priority for generations, an awareness of the environment apart from its economic value is hard to locate.

Ireland is famous for its verdant scenery. Photo: iStock 1169360307

In this essay we will sketch the overdue emergence of environmental policy in Ireland. By environment, we mean engagements with biodiversity, environmental standards, and more recently, climate mitigation. While there is rich potential to consider the important distinctions between legislation and its implementation, for the sake of brevity they are largely conflated in this piece. We will conclude by arguing that while environmental policy – unlike housing policy, penal policy, or the relationship between church and State – does not feature a storied legacy from Ireland’s first century, but it will surely be a decisive factor in Ireland’s second century.

A Green Dawn: The Emergence of Irish Environmental Policy

Even when the State began to acknowledge the environment in explicit terms, it remained the case that this value was framed in economic terms, just like now broader than simply agriculture. Thus, An Foras Forbartha – established in the 1960s to encourage strategic development of infrastructure – wrote in 1969 of the “heritage” on hand across the country which was “being steadily whittled away.” But the reason this is lamentable is not because of the damage to the landscape or the harm to biodiversity, but because of its potential “for purposes of education and recreation … in the development of tourism and the pursuit of historical and scientific research.” [7]

Even if still rooted to an economistic understanding, the mid-century policy shift attributed to TK Whitaker and Seán Lemass did see the development of more concretely environmental legislation. The Maritime Jurisdiction Act passed in 1959 was intended to conserve the diversity and populations within the sea. The Common Agricultural Policy was established in 1962 and while it did not initially apply to Ireland, it was influential within national thinking. While still framed in terms of increasing raw yields [8] its existence was significant in broadening Irish discourse and social imagination beyond its borders and its traditional historical preoccupations.

And perhaps decisively, the role of local activist groups and the early forms of environmental NGOs must be considered. [9] Liam Leonard’s survey of those early campaigns captures their geographic and topical diversity. Whether it was the Georgian Society fighting to preserve the built integrity of Dublin’s environment, the opposition to nuclear power at Carnsore Point, the concerted campaigns against uranium mining in Donegal, or countless other local initiatives, theorised environmentalism almost seems to have arrived in Ireland as a by-product of a more visceral localism. [10] This grassroots-led arrangement can be all too easily overlooked by policy analysts as a variety of NIMBYism or as dislocated, disconnected singular, minor efforts. [11] But such participatory movements are socially vibrant, diverse, and effective. [12] They are, according to some prominent thinkers, the most likely source for “reconstructing our democracies” under the twin pressures of wealth inequality and political populism. [13]

Poster for anti-nuclear protests at Carnsore Point. Rights: By permission, INNATE Ireland.

There are cultural perspectives at play here that do not directly relate to policy and yet surely shaped it. For example, acknowledging that Ireland’s transition into Modernity was atypical, as the society urbanised, the urban areas were depopulated of non-human animals in a fashion that certainly informed growing understandings of “nature”, which too often persist as an idea whose meaning is contrasted against modern (urban) civilization. [14] The intellectual ground for “environmentalism” was, in part, cleared by a trend towards urban and suburban settlement that could imagine “nature” as apart from us, a process that Hilary Tovey long ago described as a part of a broader “cultural modernisation”. [15]

These factors – internal political shifts, activist movements, cultural changes, and wider global forces – together contribute to the emergence of an environmental policy consciousness in Irish politics, but the decisive shift surely came in 1973.

Continental Drift: The Significance of European Accession

After a decisive referendum in favour of membership of what was then known as the European Economic Community, [16] Ireland became a member of both the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The attraction of both schemes was obvious for an economy still largely dependent on food production since it offered an income floor below which those in agriculture and fishing could not fall.

While earlier versions of CAP prioritised intensification over environmental sustainability, generating “adverse impacts on biodiversity” and on greenhouse gas emissions, the process of finding a compromise agricultural policy between the members of the European project was also a process of realising the central role that agriculture had in biodiversity protection and climate breakdown mitigation. [17] In line with the Rio Earth Summit, CAP has been repeatedly reformed in the hope of striking a balance between guaranteeing food availability within the Union while achieving sustainability.

The newest iteration of CAP, signed in December 2021, has continued in the progression away from subsidising production with increased concentration on eco-schemes. A new delivery model is a major point of difference, with each member State having increased flexibility in how they want to spend their money. Regional differences are anticipated and accepted, as long as nations can demonstrate that they are increasingly ambitious in terms of climate, biodiversity, and environmental pollution. This flexibility recognises that the one-size-fits-all model cannot work across the entire EU, where different issues call for targeted, localised action.

If done well this new CAP could put agriculture on a much needed alternative ecological path. [18]

While the Treaty of Rome of 1957 (which established what became the EU) did not mention any environmental concerns, a growing realisation that such matters warranted integrated responses grew through the 1960s. The first European action programme was adopted in 1973, the same year Ireland became a member and six more have followed. [19] It is not an exaggeration to say that Irish environmental legislation and policy cannot be understood apart from these European initiatives.

Ireland established a formal Environmental Protection Agency (1992) before the European Union (1993), but for the large part, the suite of environmental legislation that has now been developed and the accompanying implementation policies are extensively shaped by EU Directives and examples from other member States. [20] An example of the EU Habitats Directive of 1992 which mandated the preservation of rare, threatened, or endemic species or habitats. Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) are protected by this Direction, as well as a network of protected sites, referred to as the “Natura 2000” sites. In Ireland, this includes our bogs. When the Irish Government passed the Wildlife Amendment Acts in 2002, it designated particularly important habitats as “Natural Heritage Areas” (NHA) and under this legislation, 75 raised bogs and 73 blanket bogs have been given legal protection.

Expressions of this debt to the European context are often explicit. For example, in the Seanad debate on the Fisheries (Amendment) Acts of 2003 we find, John Browne, the Minister of State for the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources explain:

The EU is anxious to secure complete ratification of the agreement by the EU and all 15 member states en bloc as early as possible so as to signal its commitment to sustainable fishing on the high seas and elsewhere. It has requested Ireland to make the necessary arrangements to progress the legislation and other measures required to enable it to ratify the agreement. [21]

It is also important to recognise the role that the EU plays in regulation of environmental legislation and policy implementation. It is conceivable that a State could pass the most finely calibrated laws and then proceed to ignore them, but the day-to-day oversight of the EU, along with the activity of the EPA, removes that possibility. [22]

A potted history of Irish environmental law

Click here to view a fullsize version of this image

Ireland now has a mature array of environmental protections covering pollution (for example, the Waste Management Acts (which were in response to the EU’s Waste Framework Directive), biodiversity protection (for example, Wildlife Amendment Act 2000), and mitigation of the climate breakdown (for example, Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021). As a rule, the State engages in public consultations which foster democratic dialogue on environmental matters. Even before the development of carbon budgets, State departments proceeded in their business with some environmental awareness. [23] While imperfect and contentious, the planning process is understood as an environmental concern, not purely an economic activity. [24]

Care of our common home is a uniquely global concern – emissions in Mumbai shape the climate reality for people in Mullingar.

And through membership of the European Union, Ireland was a signatory of international agreements. After the Rio Summit formally established environmental concerns on the global stage, the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 and active from 2005 committed Ireland to complying with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This brought binding obligations to measure and report on emissions and to seek to reduce them in the interests of human safety. Subsequent years brought incremental changes in global policies, but the Paris Agreement of 2015 enshrined a commitment to limit global warming to 2 ° Celsius.

It is important to note the dramatic shift in environmental consciousness that has occurred in the almost fifty years since Ireland joined the European project. But all the advances cannot obscure the reality that Ireland remains a “climate laggard.” [25] The Emerald Isle has a long way to go before it can claim to be properly green.

The Contemporary Moment of Hope, Even Expectation

Evidence of a positive move to a more holistic, less economistic vision for the natural environment is starting to emerge. There is a slow, albeit incomplete, shift in vision of State bodies from a purely resource-utilising perspective towards a greater understanding of the intrinsic and non-economic value of nature.

Fridays for Future Protestors outside Dáil Éireann. Photo: Used by permission of Siobhán McNamara and Gonzaga College.

State bodies, such as Bord na Móna and Coillte, which were initially established to maximise profit and create employment, are now responding to public as well as political and legislative pressure to pivot to more ecological functions. Coillte Nature [26] is a not-for-profit branch of Coillte which manages land for biodiversity and recreation not solely for timber production. Several projects, which started in 2020, are converting plantations in the Dublin mountains into biodiverse forests, restoring wetlands and bogs in the west of the country, and working to remove invasive species which will allow forests to naturally regenerate.

Bord na Móna now functions as a “climate solutions company” [27] with operations in wind generation, recycling, and peatland rehabilitation. It is almost unrecognisable from the company which up until very recently focused almost entirely on mining peat for horticulture and power generation. This undeniable shift from extraction and peat-fuelled electricity generation was accelerated by legal action taken by Friends of the Irish Environment. [28] This necessary shift has not come without criticism. The sudden pivot has resulted in huge changes in the economic landscape of the midlands, where Just Transition approaches have been sporadic, leaving communities wondering if the well worded plans will ever have substance. [29]

The ambitions to shift from laggard to… well, not-last, is also in full view in the Climate Action Plan 2021, published in November 2021, as well as the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. These policies and legislation collectively aim to bring down our emissions by 51% by 2030, with the deadline of being net-zero by 2050. While this ambition is far beyond anything we had before in Ireland it unfortunately does not match what our fair-share contribution would be.

Notable in its wide ranging vision, the Climate Action Plan reflects the fact that climate breakdown cannot be separated from any other aspect of our lives. How we live, travel, relax, eat, and how we share our economy are all covered to some extent in this document. [30] While not perfect, with lingering hints of the cost-benefit analysis which dominated the 2019 version, we see in this iteration the progression towards a more holistic understanding of the climate and biodiversity crisis.

In this pivotal document we also see social justice issues, which have emerged over the past few years, being somewhat addressed. The carbon tax, an important tool in the climate action kit, is still listed as a key policy commitment. However, measures are outlined to alleviate the potential impact on those suffering from fuel poverty. Throughout the document complementary measures which further reduce this pressure are identified, including free and low cost retrofitting in low-income homes, retrofitting social homes, and improvements in urban and rural public transport. These measures could have been further expanded to include more widely subsidised public transport, reducing the cost for those who need it as well as more supports for those living with fuel poverty whilst in rented accommodation.

A salutary aspect of this plan is the commitment to deepening engagement of the public in a climate dialogue. Some previous attempts at engagement were exemplary, such as the Citizens Assembly from 2016 to 2018, highlighted globally as a process that should be replicated. Others have been relatively limited, such as the public consultation process proceeding the publication of the Climate Action Plan, which garnered criticism from NGOs on the limited scope for meaningful engagement. [31] But the ambition to develop these conversations while encouraging communities and citizens to partake in action should be celebrated. Climate and biodiversity action will be politically contentious. Ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard is essential to avoid technocratic creep or electoral disconnection.

The Republic of Ireland has a sophisticated environmental legislative and policy culture. It has a Green Party in government and other minority parties are striving to brand themselves as even more fundamentally committed to environmental care. It has ambitions to become a global leader in environmental care. But arguably the most significant factor in the dynamic change in this arena remains grassroots activism. Whether through “official environmentalism” represented by the broad coalition that makes up Stop Climate Chaos, [32] or citizenry science projects, [33] or countless local initiatives, [34] the energy for Irish environmentalism remains extra-legislative, more properly in the realm of active democracy. This is both a positive for environmentalism, guarding it against the temptation to view the intersecting crises we are experiencing as technical problems to be solved by experts, and positive for Irish democracy. It also remains essential for seeing the fine ambitious words found in the State’s legislation and policy programmes enacted in reality.

Conclusion: Towards a Greener Second Century

It is not the case that the Irish State only awoke to environmental concerns in the 1970s. Legislation, policy, parliamentary debates, and most importantly, the ordinary practices of citizens testified to a commitment to the care of our common home. Detailed discussions can be found in the parliamentary records that testify to the awareness of representatives and their electorate of the need to responsibly care for creation. [35] Yet it is only relatively recently that this general concern for nature began to express itself with specificity as explicit environmental legislation and policy.

In this sense, environmental policy is different from other spheres such as housing and penal policy because it was hidden inside (or even entirely swamped by) economic concerns for decades. In this essay we have argued that the decisive pivot came with membership of the European Economic Community in 1973 and that in the decades sense it has been integration with our European neighbours that has been most influential in our own care for our common home.

The present moment is marked with striking expectations that the priorities of the State will increasingly focus on these questions, which barely blipped on the radar a century ago. Purported electoral “Green waves” may have not yet arrived, but as teenagers continue on their (at the time of writing) 156 th week of consecutive protests outside of Dáil Éireann, it would be a foolish analyst who would doubt that climate and biodiversity concerns will be central in Ireland’s second century. When we look back on environmental policy in the hundred years since the founding of the State, we almost have to imagine it, finding it so well camouflaged behind trade legislation or cultural commitments. But in the decades to come we will increasingly find those and other areas of our common life reorganised around the mitigation of the climate and biodiversity crisis. [36]

[1] Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ (Vatican City: Vatican, 2015), §188, §198.

[2] pope francis, §11., [3] john berkman, “must we love non-human animals,” new blackfriars 102, no. 1099 (2021): 335., [4] daniel mcmenamin, td, “public business: second stage of the whale fisheries bill, 1936” (8th dáil, dáil éireann, february 3, 1937), https://www.oireachtas.ie/ga/debates/debate/dail/1937-02-03/36highlight%5b0%5d=obliged&highlight%5b1%5d=law&highlight%5b2%5d=law., [5] jonathan haughton, “historical background,” in the economy of ireland , ed. john o’hagan and carol newman, 11th edition (dublin: gill & macmillan, 2011), 26., [6] haughton, 26., [7] quoted in padraic fogarty, whittled away: ireland’s vanishing nature (cork: collins press, 2017), kindle loc. 63., [8] henrik zobbe, “the economic and historical foundation of the common agricultural policy in europe,” working paper 2001/12: (copenhagen: royal veterinary and agricultural university, september 2001), 2., [9] charles r. shipan, “independence and the irish environmental protection agency: a comparative assessment,” working paper (the policy institute: trinity college dublin, 2006), 2, https://www.tcd.ie/policy-institute/assets/pdf/piwp08_shipan.pdf., [10] liam leonard, the environmental movement in ireland (berlin: springer, 2008), 213., [11] mark garavan, “resisting the costs of ‘development’: local environmental activism in ireland,” environmental politics 16, no. 5 (november 2007): 845., [12] see the forthcoming: ciara murphy, “dialogue as foundational the role faith-based groups play in the environmental movement in ireland” in paolo conversi and jacquineau azetsop (eds.) the foundations of integral ecology (rome: gbpress, 2022)., [13] charles taylor, patrizia nanz, and madeleine beaubien taylor, reconstructing democracy: how citizens are building from the ground up (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2020), 9., [14] juliana adelman and francis ludlow, “the past, present and future of environmental history in ireland,” proceedings of the royal irish academy: archaeology, culture, history, literature 114c (2014): 386–87. see also, though focusing on an earlier period: juliana adelman, civilised by beasts: animals and urban change in nineteenth-century dublin (manchester: manchester university press, 2020)., [15] hilary tovey, “environmentalism in ireland: two versions of development and modernity,” international sociology 8, no. 4 (december 1993): 414., [16] with a 70 per cent turnout, 83 per cent of people voted in favour in a referendum on may 10, 1972., [17] jana poláková et al., addressing biodiversity and habitat preservation through measures applied under the common agricultural policy (london: institute for european environmental policy, 2011), 30., [18] harriet bradley, “cap – the real test is about to come,” institute for european environmental policy (blog), december 3, 2021, https://ieep.eu/news/cap-the-real-test-is-about-to-comeutm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=ieep_eu., [19] david langlet and said mahmoudi, eu environmental law and policy (oxford: oxford university press, 2016), 27., [20] alison fanagan et al., “a guide to environment law in ireland” (dublin: a&l goodbody, 2013), 2., [21] john browne, td, “fisheries (amendment) bill, 2002: second stage.” (parliamentary debate, seanad éireann (22nd seanad), dublin, november 21, 2002), https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/2002-11-21/6., [22] jack horgan-jones, “ireland faces losing thousands of tonnes from fish quotas after eu investigation,” irish times , february 15, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/ireland-faces-losing-thousands-of-tonnes-from-fish-quotas-after-eu-investigation-1.4485289., [23] so, for example, the body charged with attracting foreign direct investment, the ida, had an incentive scheme targeting environmentally aware commercial concerns and the department of education sought to embed the concept of “sustainability” into the core of their educational plan: industrial development authority, “go green offer” (ida, dublin); department of education and skills, “education for sustainability: the national strategy on education for sustainable development in ireland” (dublin: department of education and skills, 2018)., [24] yet it must not be forgotten that individual planning decisions all too often consistently appear to treat environmental questions as mere box-ticking exercises: pat mcgrath, “plans for galway city ring road given green light,” rte.ie , december 7, 2021, sec. news, https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2021/1207/1265402-galway-road-project/., [25] niall sargent, “taoiseach tells eu he is not proud of ireland role as europe’s climate ‘laggard,’” green news ireland , january 18, 2018, https://greennews.ie/taoiseach-tells-eu-not-proud-ireland-climate-laggard-role/., [26] coillte ireland, “about coillte nature,” coillte, may 2020, https://www.coillte.ie/coillte-nature/coilltenature/., [27] bord na móna, “who are we – overview,” bord na mona, may 2021, https://www.bordnamona.ie/who-we-are/overview/., [28] friends of the irish environment, “peat,” may 2021, https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/peat., [29] sam starkey, “update on just transition in the midlands published,” green news ireland, july 9, 2021, https://greennews.ie/update-to-just-transition-programme-published/., [30] government of ireland, “climate action plan 2021 – securing our future” (dublin: department of environment, climate, and communications, 2021)., [31] deirdre duff, “have your say on climate action,” friends of the earth ireland (blog), may 13, 2021, https://www.foe.ie/blog/2021/05/13/have-your-say-on-climate-action-submit-to-the-governments-climate-consultation-using-our-handy-guide/., [32] stop climate chaos, “about stop climate chaos coalition,” stop climate chaos, september 30, 2017, https://www.stopclimatechaos.ie/about/., [33] national biodiversity data centre, “recording system – ireland’s citizen science portal,” 2021, https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/., [34] for example: the acre project which works in a cross-community fashion in areas of socio-economic disadvantage in the portadown area: dialogue for diversity, “the acre project,” 2020, https://www.dialoguefordiversity.org/content/22/the-acre-project/., [35] for example, in a 1929 debate on a bill to protect wild birds, a senator commented with touching moral clarity about one of the mechanisms that was to be regulated, concerned clearly and primarily for the good of fellow creatures without reference to their economic utility: “anybody who has not seen the effects cannot know the cruelty caused by the use of birdlime in the taking of these birds. it is not to the bird that is caught that there is cruelty, as it is treated and the birdlime is carefully removed; it is to the bird that gets away with this stuff on its poor feet. it alights somewhere, gets away again and then gets stuck, so that the result is death from starvation.” samuel lombard brown, “wild birds protection bill, 1929—second stage.” (text, 1928 seanad éireann, dublin, november 27, 1929), ireland, https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1929-11-27/13., [36] an exploratory example of what that might look like has already been developed by the jcfj: keith adams et al., “do we really feel fine: towards an irish green new deal,” working notes 34, no. 87 (october 2020): 24–48..

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Working Notes is a journal published by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. The journal focuses on social, economic and theological analysis of Irish society. It has been produced since 1987.

Climate Change in the Irish Mind

Research on the attitudes, behaviours, policy preferences and beliefs of the Irish public to climate change

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Latest release:

Climate Change in the Irish Mind Wave 2, Report 1

Project Overview

The EPA’s ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’ (CCIM) project is conducted in partnership with Yale University’s ‘Programme on Climate Change Communications’ (YPCCC).    The CCIM project serves as the national hub for understanding: 

• Public climate change knowledge 
• Policy preferences
• The underlying psychological and cultural factors that influence the public 

The CCIM is carried out as a nationally representative survey every two years. Data on the Irish population is collected via telephone interviews. It is the only large representative climate attitude survey of its type in Ireland. 

The aims and objectives of the Climate Change in the Irish Mind study are as follows:

• To establish national-level baselines on attitudes and behaviours to climate change. 
• To identify segments of the Irish population based on responses to climate change issues. 
• To estimate Irish climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy support and behaviour at national, regional, and local levels. 
• To support the development of a communications strategy to distribute the research findings. 

  There are two main types of reports from CCIM and an interactive climate opinions map.

• Main CCIM reports: Provide an overview of information for policymakers and researchers on attitudes and behaviours. 
• Segmentation reports: Divide the population into distinct climate change audiences. Each with individual ways of understanding and reacting to the topic of climate change. 
• Climate opinion maps: To allow for easy exploration of CCIM data on a national, regional and county scale.

The outcomes of the CCIM project can be explored by clicking the links below. Each project has associated infographics and supporting information included: 

Climate Change in the Irish Mind Wave 2 (2023-2024 )

Climate Change in the Irish Mind Wave 2, Report 1 : Provides an overview on the public’s  climate change attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in the second wave of the Climate Change in the Irish Mind study. 

Climate Change in the Irish Mind Wave 1 (2021-2022) 

• ' Climate Change in the Irish Mind: Wave 1, Report 1 ’ (2021): Provides an overview on the public’s  climate change attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. 
• ' Climate Change’s Four Irelands: Wave 1, Report 2 ' (2022): Divides the population into distinct climate change audiences with distinct ways of understanding and reacting to the topic of climate change. 

Climate Change in the Irish Mind Insight Reports (Wave 1) 

Climate Change in the Irish Mind Insight Reports are brief supplementary reports that provide additional insights into the CCIM headline findings. 

• Support for Climate Policies : This insight report explores regional support and opposition to climate action policies
• Climate Risk Perceptions : This insight report focuses on climate risk perceptions along demographic lines
• Worry about Climate Change impacts : This insight report explores patterns in worry about the impact  of local environmental hazards
• Intention Action Dynamic : This insight report explores the relationships between political and consumer intentions and behaviours in relation to climate change

Interactive Climate Opinion maps 

• An interactive mapping tool : Uses the most current Climate Change in the Irish Mind study data. This allows for exploration of the public’s climate change attitudes, beliefs and behaviours on a national, regional, and county level. 

Wave 1 open data set

Climate Change in the Irish Mind open data: The first wave of the CCIM dataset is now publicly available for download. To find out more please visit the link.

Linking the Irish Environment

The island of Ireland is a single biogeographic unit with shared landscapes, water sources, flora and fauna. We are in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis on the island and both jurisdictions face similar challenges in addressing these crises. Protecting this common environment is dependent on coherent policy-making, high standards and regulations and enforcement on both sides of the border. Increasing cross border cooperation and policy-making provides a real opportunity to improve the environment on an all-island basis. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Brexit) threatens this cooperation and shared standards and thus presents a significant risk to the all-island environmental integrity of the island of Ireland.

The Irish Environmental Network (IEN) and Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) have been working together for a number of years to understand and highlight these risks and to identify policy and practical solutions to shared environmental challenges. As part of this work we commissioned a report ‘Linking the Irish Environment’  to examine how best to enable the environment sector across the island to cooperate and engage on an all-island and cross-border basis to deal with these shared challenges, risks, and opportunities. The research team was as follows: Dr. Ciara Brennan (Environmental Justice Network Ireland), Dr. Finbarr Brereton (UCD), Dr. Mary Dobbs (MU), Dr. Viviane Gravey (QUB), Hannah Gould (UCD), Alison Hough BL (TUS) and Dr. Lisa Whitten (QUB).

This report builds on the 2019 report written by Alison Hough, ‘Brexit, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and the Environment: Issues arising and possible solutions’ and commission by IEN and NIEL. It examines the state of play regarding the current environmental regulatory and governance arrangements on the island, including the Protocol, the TCA, Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, international agreements and the level and experience of practical cooperation on the environment across the island. It also includes a series of recommendations and advocacy priorities to advance citizens’ and NGO engagement in all-island environmental issues.

The report was launched at a special seminar event in Belfast to mark and discuss 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement/Belfast Agreement and the challenges and solutions to protecting the all-island environment. Expert panellists and speakers on the day included the research authors and the following:

Special Guest Speaker: Stewart Maginnis, Deputy Director General at IUCN, International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Panellists:

• Dr. Jeanne Moore, Senior Policy Analyst National Economic and Social Council
• Mark Hanniffy, Joint Secretary to the North South Ministerial Council (Department of Foreign Affairs)
• Malcolm Beatty OBE, Northern Ireland Board Member for the Office of Environmental Protection
• Dave Foster, Director of Natural Environment Policy · Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (NI)
• Karen Ciesielski Irish Environmental Network CEO
• Peter Day, Director of Engagement, Northern Ireland Community Relations Council
• Dr. Anthony Soares, Director, Centre for Cross Border Studies
• Declan McGarrigle, Director of PEACEPLUS Development, Special EU. Programmes Body

Since the launch of the report in June 2023, a number of significant developments have taken place at a political and legislative level which are relevant for north/south cooperation on the environment. These include the restoration of Stormont and a major legislative development at UK level, the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 . This update provides a high level overview of the relevant developments and their potential impact on north/south cooperation.

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• Irish Essay on Environment Problems and Solutions Ireland

Irish Essay on Environment Problems and Solutions

The students of Ireland find some of the topics quite complex, while essay writing and environmental problems are two such topics. Writing a perfect essay on the environment is not an easy task for the students, due to which taking help from the sample essay is relatively helpful. Environmental problems are one such crucial issue that has changed the lives of many people on the planet.

It can take various forms, and the students of Ireland can describe it in their college essays. As an example, the students can talk about waste management, the extinction of animal species, and many more. At the same time, whatever the students choose as a topic for writing an essay on environmental problems and their solutions, it is better to evaluate their effects on people.

The students of Ireland must consider the practical factors that can increase the risks of environmental issues as well as the aspects. In addition to that, the structure of the essay enhances the performance of the students when they analyse their work. It is beneficial for the students to research the efficient topic of environmental problems and solutions so that they can present an effective essay in front of their college professors.

Research plays an active role when the students of Ireland are working on environmental problems and solutions. However, the students need to prepare an impressive essay that reflects the actual problems based on the environment. Along with it, the essay prepared by the students should highlight the solutions necessary for the maintenance of the environment.

Hire an Irish Assignment Writer to Write your Essay, Thesis & Other Academic Papers

Describe reflective causes or effects of environmental problems

When the students are working on the environmental problems and solutions essay, it is necessary to show how environmental issues have changed the face of the planet. Along with it, the students need to mention the effects that are harming the lives of people living on earth. Some of the factors on which the students need to work while preparing for the environment essay include:

• The importance of trees in reducing the burden of carbon dioxide gas by cleaning the air The students can put their interest in reflecting on the need for trees in today’s time, which can have a substantial impact on the minds of the readers.
• Health issues arising due to the rapid increase in air pollution. The students must mention the growing incidents of cancer and other serious health issues that can occur due to environmental problems.
• The students can try to explain how an increase in environmental pollution contributes to the damage to people’s lives. By reflecting on the negative sides of environmental problems, the students can work on the solutions which can help stop the problems.
• Along with the negative sides of the industrial revolution, the students need to capture the positive sides as well. An essay is perfect when it contains facts as well as examples. The readers can get reliable information when the students show some informative content through the environmental essay.

Offer reflective solutions to arising environmental problems in essay

If the students want to produce an effective environmental essay that can keep the readers engaged, then they need to think of the extreme environmental issues and their solutions as well. The topics on environmental problems will only engage the readers if the students provide them with standard-quality solutions.

Some of the critical solutions that are helpful for the students to involve while writing an environmental essay include health and industrial threats. The students need to include how resource depletion can affect the health of people. Providing essential solutions is helping to make readers interested. The students must emphasise the need to solve the problems of the environment efficiently.

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Excellent environmental problems and solution essay sample Ireland

Title: Extent and effects of the rapid increase in environmental pollution The environment consists of every crucial thing necessary for existing on the planet. The remarkable growth of industrial progress has a negative impact on the environmental condition of the planet. Every human needs to contribute to the preservation of the natural environment. The rapid increase in pollution is affecting harmony. Along with it, environmental pollution is responsible for the spread of various health diseases which is dangerous for community. It has become the need to focus on factors through which environmental pollution gets controlled. Environmental problems should get tackled with the united efforts of the global community.

Take perfect assistance to submit an essay on environmental problems and solutions

The students can hire the team at IrelandAssignmentHelp.com at affordable prices. There is nothing to worry about about the hiring charges for the leading writing company. Along with it, the students can ask for any course essay writing help, like a thesis, dissertation, research paper , essay writing paper, and many more. The students can get their environmental problems essays written by hiring an expert team of Irish writers. Trained Irish writers have high knowledge of each academic subject that the students learn in their colleges. Moreover, the team of professional writers understands the importance of submitting an original essay. That is why the main motive of Expert Writers is to focus on the standard quality of the work they are producing.

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• Jan 28, 2023

Mastering Irish Essay Phrases for Leaving Cert Success - Tips and Tricks for Achieving Success

Updated: Sep 28, 2023

Introduction

Irish essay writing can be challenging for Leaving Certificate students, but mastering a few key phrases can make a big difference in your grade. In this blog post, we will cover some of the most commonly used Irish essay phrases that can help you to improve your writing and achieve success in your exams.

"Introductory Phrases"

• Tá sé seo i gceist: This is the topic at hand

• Tá sé tábhachtach a thabhairt faoi deara: It is important to note

• Is é an chaoi a ndéanann mé: The way I would go about

• Tá sé ábhar dúshlánach: It is a challenging subject

• Déanfaidh mé iarracht: I will attempt

"Transitional Phrases"

• Mar sin féin: Nevertheless

• Ar an gcaoi chéanna: In the same way

• Is é an fhírinne: The truth is

• I gcomparáid le: In comparison to

• Dá réir sin: Therefore

"Concluding Phrases"

• D'fhéadfadh sé a bheith: It could be argued

• Is é mo dhearbhú: My conclusion is

• Ar deireadh: In conclusion

• Tá sé éasca a fháil amach: It is easy to see

What are some common Irish essay phrases that are useful for Leaving Cert students to know?

Some common Irish essay phrases that are useful for Leaving Cert students to know include "ar an gcéad dul síos" (to begin with), "mar shampla" (for example), and "chun an pointe seo" (up to this point).

How can using Irish essay phrases in a Leaving Cert essay help to improve a student's grade?

Using Irish essay phrases in a Leaving Cert essay can help to improve a student's grade by demonstrating their proficiency in the Irish language and their ability to effectively express themselves in it. Additionally, it can also showcase a student's understanding of Irish culture and history which is an important component of the Leaving Cert Irish exam.

By incorporating these commonly used Irish essay phrases into your writing, you can improve the structure and fluency of your essays. Practice using these phrases in your own writing and you will find that your essays will become more polished and effective. Remember to also focus on other important writing skills such as organization, clarity, and strong arguments. With hard work and dedication, you can achieve success in your Leaving Certificate exams.

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ESG Newsletter: The good and the bad in the latest Irish energy figures

The ESG newsletter at the Business Post is your source for the news that matters in environmental, social and governance, all told from an Irish perspective

• Daniel Murray

Get Daniel Murray’s ESG newsletter to your inbox each Wednesday to read the ESG stories that matter to Irish business.

EDITOR'S NOTE

There’s good and bad news contained in the latest Irish energy figures for 2023.

The good news first. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI) interim 2023 energy balance report for the country showed that energy emissions reduced by 7.3 per cent last year, reaching their lowest level in 30 years.

These impressive ...

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Guest Essay

I’m a Young Conservative, and I Want My Party to Lead the Fight Against Climate Change

By Benji Backer

Mr. Backer is the founder and executive chairman of the American Conservation Coalition.

Conservatives were once America’s environmental champions. Not that long ago, Republican presidents were carrying out the Clean Air and Water Acts, creating the Environmental Protection Agency, expanding the National Park System and even initiating the country’s most authoritative report on climate change, the National Climate Assessment.

But times have changed.

Many of today’s Republican leaders stoke fear and anger by mocking the most divisive climate activists while claiming that every environmental solution is a radical one. If they’re not doing that, Republicans can often be found on the sidelines and disengaged from the issue completely.

Instead of continuing the environmental legacy they were once known for, they have ceded the fight against climate change to Democrats, putting themselves on the wrong side of history. Not a single Republican voted in 2022 for the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that is funneling hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds to red states and blue states alike for climate mitigation and resilience projects. And it has cost them: A recent working paper from the University of Colorado, Boulder, found that opinion on climate change was one of the strongest predictors of whom independents voted for in 2020, probably giving President Biden enough of an edge to tip the election in his favor. In other words, Donald Trump’s denial of climate change probably cost him the White House.

The Democratic Party has also alienated voters with calls for an immediate transition from fossil fuels and with the Green New Deal’s top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. For someone like me who grew up surrounded by farmland, the Democratic messaging on climate has felt elitist, condescending and out of touch with a large portion of America’s needs. When Gov. Gavin Newsom of California essentially forces people in his state to purchase electric vehicles by ordering that new gasoline-powered cars be banned within 15 years or Mr. Biden suggests that coal workers “ learn how to program, ” it can feel as though people’s day-to-day realities are completely cast aside.

The fact of the matter is this: We cannot address climate change or solve any other environmental issue without the buy-in and leadership of conservative America. And there are clear opportunities for climate action that conservatives can champion without sacrificing core values, from sustainable agriculture to nuclear energy and the onshoring of clean energy production.

In my visits to communities from Texas oil country to the South Side of Chicago to cattle ranches in Wyoming, I’ve seen how it’s possible to bridge the divide. Conservatives might have disengaged from the issues over the past several decades, but voters often tell me they’re ready to jump back into the conversation. After all, as farmers, ranchers, foresters or just people who enjoy hunting and fishing, many conservatives have a stake in the health of their environment.

What they’re eager for are solutions that work for them.

In Orangeville, Utah, I recently met with coal workers looking for new ways to utilize coal instead of burning it. This small community, surrounded by one of Utah’s beautiful mountain ranges, expressed genuine pride in exploring options to improve its local air quality and the global climate. People also knew their example could help other coal-reliant communities dealing with the same economic hardships. Showing voters these kinds of examples is far more effective than telling them to “learn to program.”

Liberals often point out that the Republican Party’s ties to the fossil fuel industry have prevented a shift toward climate action, and while it’s true the industry has a history of obstructing climate policy and supporting many Republican elected officials, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Conservative politicians tell me they just don’t want their constituents to have their oil and gas jobs ripped from them. But now that many fossil fuel companies are pursuing climate action faster than the Republican Party, it’s clear there may be a way to keep those jobs while reducing emissions.

I’m hopeful that the party can do more to lead on these issues. Over the past seven years, I’ve met with over 100 Republican federal lawmakers who want to fight climate change. Many still refrain from saying it out loud (fearing their base will turn against them), but some have begun to speak out publicly. The Conservative Climate Caucus is now one of the largest in the House, with nearly 100 members. Republicans also helped pass the Growing Climate Solutions Act , a 2021 law that incentivizes farmers, ranchers and foresters to reduce their emissions with tax credits through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

As a member of Gen Z, I believe it’s time for my generation to mobilize around climate solutions that bring both sides to the table — and demand our leaders do the same. Liberals must stop denigrating and abandoning key communities they need to solve the problem, and conservatives must stop denying the problem and take ownership of climate solutions. If the Republican Party wants to expand its coalition, it will need to recruit young voters with a far more pragmatic message.

This environmental movement will look slightly different from what the Democrats have built. We firmly believe fossil fuels must be part of our transition to cleaner energy sources for years to come. So our movement will aim to improve the environmental impact of all energy sources, not just wind and solar. We’ll also focus on ecosystem restoration and other conservation measures that lower emissions. And we’ll call on policymakers to prioritize permitting reform, reducing government overreach and making it easier to build clean energy projects in the United States more quickly.

We share the effects of climate change and environmental degradation equally across political parties. But until conservatives join in this conversation, much of the country’s ideas, needs and contributions will be missing from the dialogue.

Benji Backer is the founder and executive chairman of the American Conservation Coalition and the author of “The Conservative Environmentalist.”

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Extramural By Mali Velasco

Bacteria and material made from corn kernels can clean up PCBs in aquatic environments

Researchers funded by NIEHS demonstrated a new method to clean up aquatic ecosystems using biochar — the carbon-rich byproduct of burning plant matter — and bacteria. Their cost-effective strategy has the potential to destroy polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a group of harmful chemicals that persist in sediments.

Current strategies to remove PCBs from the environment, such as excavating sediments from the bottom of aquatic ecosystems, are costly and can result in water contamination. Remediation strategies that use bacteria to break down pollutants show promise, but bacteria are unable to fully degrade PCBs in the environment. To address this challenge, the team investigated whether adding biochar to solutions with bacteria and PCBs could enhance the performance of a type of PCB-degrading bacteria called Paraburkholderia xenovorans.

The scientists tested different types of biochar, including three natural biochars — made from burning corn kernels, bamboo, and wood — and activated carbon, which is commonly used in water treatment. Next, they measured the effects of each biochar on bacterial growth, bacterial attachment to biochar particles, and expression of bacterial genes that degrade PCBs.

Imaging analysis revealed that bacteria cells attached to the corn kernel biochar in greater numbers compared to the other types of biochar. Bacterial growth was also higher in the solution with the corn kernel material. In addition, there was increased expression of bacterial genes involved in PCB degradation in the corn kernel biochar solution compared with the other materials.

These findings suggest that combining biochar made from corn kernels and PCB-degrading bacteria may provide a cost-effective strategy to clean up contaminated sediments while protecting public and ecosystem health, according to the authors.

Citation : Dong Q, LeFevre GH, Mattes TE. 2024. Black carbon impacts on Paraburkholderia xenovorans strain LB400 cell enrichment and activity: implications toward lower-chlorinated polychlorinated biphenyls biodegradation potential . Environ Sci Technol 58(8):3895-907.

New lab model reveals the underlying mechanisms of PM2.5-induced lung disease

NIEHS-funded researchers developed a new model to study how fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure may lead to respiratory disease. The new multicellular model addresses the limitations of current methods, which use only one type of lung cell and are unable to capture the biological complexity of the respiratory system.

Upon breathing in PM2.5 air pollution, tiny particles enter the lung and are deposited in the alveolar capillary region (ACR), where gas exchange occurs. This exposure is linked to respiratory disease; however, the mechanisms are not well understood.

The scientists created a model using three types of lung cells and assembled them to mimic the structure of the ACR. The model included alveolar cells, which cover the surface of the ACR; fibroblasts, which support ACR connective tissue; and endothelial cells, which form the inner lining of blood vessels within the ACR. Then, they exposed the alveolar cells to a type of PM2.5 found in diesel exhaust for 24 hours and analyzed each cell’s response.

PM2.5 altered gene expression in both alveolar cells and endothelial cells. However, endothelial cells had more gene expression changes, despite having indirect contact with the particles. Endothelial cells also developed a type of biological stress, which led them to produce proteins that cause inflammation — an indicator of respiratory disease. Further analysis revealed that a cell signaling pathway in epithelial cells, known as mitogen activated protein kinase, played a key role in the changes observed in the endothelial cells.

The study shows that changes in endothelial cells may play an important role in how PM2.5 exposure leads to lung disease, according to the authors. They also noted that models that include multiple types of lung cells can help expand our understanding of how respiratory disease develops.

Citation : Vitucci ECM, Simmons AE, Martin EM, McCullough SD. 2024. Epithelial MAPK signaling directs endothelial NRF2 signaling and IL-8 secretion in a tri-culture model of the alveolar-microvascular interface following diesel exhaust particulate (DEP) exposure . Part Fibre Toxicol 21(1):15.

New strategy to prioritize PFAS for health risk assessments

An NIEHS-funded team developed a screening method that uses human-derived cells to evaluate how PFAS might affect health. The new approach might help prioritize different PFAS for further testing in efforts to improve health risk assessments.

PFAS are a large group of chemicals widely used in consumer products, but the majority lack toxicity data, making risk evaluation difficult. The most widely accepted approach to assess large numbers of PFAS organizes the chemicals based on structural similarities and then selects a few representative compounds for further testing.

In this study, the team explored a different approach using liver and heart cells grown in a lab and exposing them to 26 different PFAS. They looked at how the chemicals affected cell function and gene expression.

PFAS had minimal effect on liver cell function. In contrast, exposure to eight of the 26 compounds resulted in decreased beating frequency in heart cells. Genetic expression analysis of liver cells showed increased activity in genes that regulate stress and cellular structure, but decreased activity in genes that break down fats. In heart cells, PFAS exposure decreased the expression of genes related to how the heart contracts.

To compare their approach to the traditional structure-based grouping method, the team looked for associations between PFAS molecular weight or chemical structure and the observed biological effects. They found no structural similarities among compounds with similar biological effects.

These results suggest that grouping PFAS by structure alone might not adequately predict individual chemicals’ health effects, according to the authors. Their strategy could guide researchers and policymakers in determining which chemicals to prioritize for future evaluation.

Citation : Tsai HD, Ford LC, Chen Z, Dickey AN, Wright FA, Rusyn I. 2024. Risk-based prioritization of PFAS using phenotypic and transcriptomic data from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes and cardiomyocytes . ALTEX; [Online 22 Feb 2024].

Inhibiting mitochondria-related protein may protect against neurodegenerative diseases

Partially blocking Drp1, a protein critical for mitochondrial division, may protect against neurodegenerative diseases, according to an NIEHS-funded study. Mitochondria are small cellular structures that produce energy for cells to carry out various functions.

Mitochondrial dysfunction and errors in autophagy, a cellular process that degrades and recycles old cellular components, have been linked to various neurodegenerative disorders, including parkinsonism — an umbrella term for conditions that cause movement symptoms that closely resemble Parkinson's disease. Previous studies have shown that partial reduction of Drp1 may shield against neurodegeneration, but the mechanisms behind this process are not well understood.

First, the scientists used lab-grown cells, derived from human and rat brain cells, to examine the effects of blocking Drp1. Then, they conducted studies in mice with normal Drp1 protein levels and mice that produced approximately one-half the typical amount. They gave the mice either water alone or water containing manganese, a metal implicated in mitochondrial and autophagy impairment, daily for 30 days. Finally, the team analyzed alterations in mouse brain genes and mitochondrial activity.

Results from both cell and animal studies showed that exposure to low nontoxic levels of manganese had no effect on mitochondrial function. However, low-level manganese exposure decreased autophagy rates and increased levels of alpha-synuclein, a protein linked to parkinsonism. In addition, partially blocking Drp1 significantly reduced the damaging effects of manganese on autophagy.

According to the authors, these findings indicate that Drp1 plays an important role in autophagy, independent of mitochondrial activity, and may be a useful target for interventions to treat certain neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, the results suggest that exposure to manganese may increase the risk of parkinsonism by increasing the accumulation of alpha-synuclein.

Citation : Fan RZ, Sportelli C, Lai Y, Salehe S, Pinnell JR, Brown HJ, Richardson JR, Luo S, Tieu K. 2024. A partial Drp1 knockout improves autophagy flux independent of mitochondrial function . Mol Neurodegener 19(1):26.

(Mali Velasco is a research and communication specialist for MDB Inc., a contractor for the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training.)

Read the current Superfund Research Program Research Brief . New issues are published on the first Wednesday of every month.

Utah high school removes class assignment on student essay titled ‘It Is So Hard to Be Trans’

The essay, published in the new york times, contained no explicit or “pornographic” content that would have required its removal under utah law..

(Google Maps) Herriman High School, as shown in a 2021 Google Maps image, in Herriman, Utah. Jordan School District officials ordered that a class assignment at the school involving a transgender student's essay be removed.

Jordan School District officials ordered that an assignment involving a Texas student’s essay published in The New York Times titled “It Is So Hard to Be Trans” be removed from a Herriman High School class’s curriculum after it was brought to the attention of administrators.

“We apologize to any student offended by a Herriman High School classroom assignment involving a New York Times student essay and the disruption to learning it may have caused,” district spokesperson Sandra Riesgraf said in a statement Monday.

The district investigated the assignment, “which asked students to break down parts of speech in the essay,” after school administrators were notified, Riesgraf said. The assignment was ultimately removed and is “no longer part of the class.”

“Appropriate administrative action will be taken,” the statement continued, though the statement did not specify what that action would entail.

The district also did not specify why the assignment was removed. The content does not seem to violate Utah’s sensitive materials law .

But it did seem to prompt outrage after photos of the printed-out, stapled essay made rounds in conservative social media circles as early as last Thursday, with some posts claiming students were required to write a response to the essay explaining why being transgender “isn’t a choice.”

Riesgraf said that claim was false. “Students were not required to take a stance or form an opinion on why being trans isn’t a choice,” Riesgraf said. “The assignment was to review the writing, not the subject.”

Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, weighed in on X , formerly Twitter, arguing that he didn’t see how the essay would “fit into any curriculum that is state approved.”

“I’ve asked the district to investigate,” he wrote.

McCay did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Salt Lake Tribune.

The assigned essay had been selected as one of the Top 11 winners in a 2023 student editorial contest through the The Learning Network, a free resource for teachers curated by The New York Times.

It was written by then 16-year-old Callisto Lim, a student at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas. The essay details why Callisto felt scared for their “right to exist,” citing several states that had passed anti-transgender legislation.

“I am scared that if I stay in Texas I will be denied the health care that I need because of people like Governor Greg Abbott,” Callisto wrote.

Callisto’s essay contains no explicit “pornographic or indecent material” that would make it illegal under Utah’s current sensitive materials law.

Utah law also does not explicitly prohibit classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, though lawmakers have made attempts to pass legislation banning such topics in the past.

Earlier this year, Rep. Jeff Stenquist , R-Draper, proposed a bill that would have prevented school officials from “endorsing, promoting, or disparaging certain beliefs or viewpoints,” building upon existing restrictions meant to uphold “constitutional freedom” in Utah public schools.

The bill would have specifically added “gender identity,” “sexual orientation,” and “political and social viewpoints” as restricted topics, but it ultimately failed to pass .

A year prior, Stenquist also ran a bill that would have prohibited any discussion of sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. HB550 took language directly from a controversial Florida bill that became more widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” measure.

But after pushback from the LGBTQ community, Stenquist revised his draft , lifting the proposed ban on sexual orientation and gender identity but keeping the prohibition on sexuality. The bill failed to pass.

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Building for the future with a diverse student body

Fostering an inclusive campus environment is key to attracting a wider range of students.

Universities can build a diverse body by engaging in proactive outreach to underrepresented communities. Photograph: Getty Images

Technological universities (TUs) are local institutions, with smaller class sizes and a more diverse range of courses, from apprenticeships through to PhD level. CAO points have traditionally been lower at technological universities than at the main universities.

All of this has meant that the TUs have tended to attract a diverse student body. This includes mature learners, neurodivergent students (who may have, for instance, ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia), disabled students, carers, lone parents, students from disadvantaged backgrounds and students from ethnic minorities.

“Within the classroom setting, lecturing staff find that diversity — whether it’s students with a disability, or from diverse ethnicities or socio-economic backgrounds — encourages creativity and alternative opinions which demonstrates to students how to critically think and develop their own mindset,” says Sinéad Dunne, senior manager for access and outreach at TU Dublin.

“We believe that multiculturalism on campus fosters an appreciation for other cultures and diversity of thought.”

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In 2023, TU Dublin enrolled more than a third of full-time undergraduate new entrants through non-standard routes, over a quarter of which came from further education. TU Dublin has its own access foundation programme, aimed at mature students and young adults from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

There’s a dedicated autism coordinator at TU Dublin to support the increasing number of students with autism, while two occupational therapists and two assistive technology officers support students with a disability. An access and outreach project officer from the Travelling community has recently been appointed to work closely with Traveller and Roma communities and also to support existing TU Dublin students from these communities.

“The accessibility that was there when we were regional technical colleges and, later, institutes of technology, have carried over,” says Perry Share, the head of student success at Atlantic Technological University (ATU).

“CAO points have not soared and our student profile continues to be diverse. Because we have apprenticeships as well as degrees, there are many ways to be a student at ATU, and we try to be as flexible as possible when people come to us. We have long been leaders in online education at our Sligo campus [formerly Sligo IT], long before the pandemic, which has made us accessible for those students who may not, for whatever reason, have been able to attend in person.

“We have mature learners, students from across a disadvantaged area that includes the islands and Gaeltacht, and we are developing programmes for learners with intellectual disabilities.

“The challenge is always to ensure that the curriculum reflects that diversity of experience, and this is helped by our academic staff becoming more diverse, too.”

At TUS, meanwhile, access officer Dr Carolann Bargary says that the Certificate in Transition to Higher Education provides a pathway for more students to embark on and complete a degree programme.

TUS has a range of scholarships and supports designed to assist students with the costs of college. The technological university has a Traveller project which aims to provide opportunities for Travellers and to support and mentor students who progress to higher education. There are also 10 sanctuary scholarships every academic year for students living in international protection or from a refugee background to progress to TUS courses.

Bargary says that Higher Education Authority funding has been instrumental in supporting their initiatives.

Dr Laura Keane, head of the department of student life and learning at South East Technological University (Setu), says that there has been a 44 per cent increase in the number of students registering with their disability service between 2017 and 2023.

Setu runs several initiatives to support students from diverse backgrounds.

“Attains — assistive technology training assisting independent success — is an evidence-based programme targeted at students with disabilities from underrepresented groups, and it leverages existing local-level connections between Setu, Deis [disadvantaged schools], community partnerships, and cohort-specific advocacy groups, in partnership with 10 schools,” says Keane.

Setu runs several transition and orientation programmes and supports for underrepresented students, with mentoring opportunities and financial assistance available to help, too. It also runs programmes to support members of the Traveller and Roma communities to access education, providing student bursaries to 13 Traveller and Roma students in 2022-2023.

Across the higher education sector, there is a growing understanding of how to ensure neurodivergent students are fully included, as well as the benefits that different ways of thinking and learning bring to the campus.

TUS is the first university to be officially recognised as ADHD-friendly while, at ATU, the campuses are becoming autism-friendly spaces.

“Staff here are training in universal design for learning, which is about how they teach [to a broader range of students — an approach that ultimately benefits all learners and, evidence shows, makes for more engaging courses] and assess, while the layout of campuses is ensuring more quiet spaces,” says Perry.

In the southeast, Setu is developing educational programmes and training academic and support staff about autism.

“Work has been undertaken to develop education and training materials for those who work with students with autism, either in an academic or support capacity,” says Keane.

“Some of these include the creation of a pre-transition guide for autistic students, peer mentor autism training, the establishment of a Neurodivergent society and the introduction of biweekly quiet times in the gym for students who prefer a lower sensory experience.”

All of this suggests we have come a long way, moving from a time when inclusion was seen as a charitable act to today, when the real value of diverse student bodies is well-established.

Profiles in diversity

Zach Winters

Zach Winters (21) BSc in business at Setu

“I sat down with the CAO form when I was 18, not entirely sure what I wanted to do.

“Because I have cerebral palsy, my career options are a little more limited: I couldn’t do a trade, for instance.

“But, during secondary school, I was very good at business and accounting, so the course in Setu was a good fit. It is a four-year course, with a work placement in third year. I am hoping to use my qualification to teach at third level, which means I am likely to do a master’s.

“I like the campus here, it is relatively accessible — although there is room for improvement, very welcoming and well-designed. I’m now in my second year and I am involved as a student mentor.

“I like that there is a lot of diversity on campus, with mature, neurodivergent, disabled and international students all just part of the mix.

“The supports for disabled students are great, with extra time in exams among the ways we are facilitated. The disability office is currently running an autism awareness campaign on campus. One of the lecturers here has cerebral palsy, like me, and they have established a disability support network.

“I think my generation is perhaps more aware of disability and it is normal for us to be at third-level.”

Dave Doherty

Dave Doherty (54) BA in social care work, TUS

“I grew up in Moyross, a socially disadvantaged area in Limerick. I left school at 15 and went straight into employment.

“For years, I drifted between dead-end jobs and spells of unemployment. My lack of education was embarrassing for me and it affected my confidence in looking for jobs.

“I was a full-time dad for the last six years, but I knew it would be time for me to eventually return to the workplace. But at my age, with no qualifications, it was daunting, so I thought about returning to education.

“I discovered the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival and came across an information session on pathways to education for mature students, held here in TUS. So I went along and signed up: the course was a one-year programme, with a mix of online and in-person learning, where we worked on personal development, academic writing and maths. It boosted my confidence, so I applied to the CAO and here I am at the end of my first year of a social care degree.

“I’ve had moments where I questioned my abilities and wanted to quit, but I am determined to come through the other side. Being a mature student, I have the advantage of lived experience. I learn from my younger classmates and they learn from me.

“I’m hoping that, when I come out of here, that I can perhaps work in the education system or in the community, helping young people like 15-year-old me. Maybe I can help them and stop them from falling away from the education system.”

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