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Donnachadh McCarthy

@DonnachadhMc

Donnachadh McCarthy is an environmental auditor, campaigner and is the author of The Prostitute State – How Britain’s Democracy was Hijacked. Twitter - @DonnachadhMc

<p>Britons love nature, so why would we literally devour it unnecessarily?</p>
Opinion

Is the government ready to embrace veganism?

<p>Ending new fossil fuel projects is the minimum first step for a transition to a renewable energy economy</p>
Opinion

Climate activism works – and HSBC proves it

<p>Human culture has made the wolf the repository of all our fears of nature, from the devouring wolf in Red Riding Hood to the demonic werewolves in movies</p>
Opinion

Awoo! Let’s welcome our best friend back to the wild

<p> I did manage to grow or scrump eight months of fruit and green salad leaves. I also provided all my own jams, chutney and wild garlic pesto</p>
Voices

I calculated my carbon footprint for 2022 – here’s what I found

Opinion

Why is the UK taking part in a global ‘orgy of destruction’?

<p>The ban is a democratic shambles</p>
Opinion

Britain can do better than Don Quixote-style delusion over wind farms

<p>Sunak’s greenwashing affords him positive headlines – and little else </p>
Opinion

The government is scamming us on insulation

<p>The issue is a minefield due to past authoritarian crackdowns on women’s fertility in countries such as India and China</p>
Opinion

Why is nobody willing to say the ‘P’ word?

<p>This is the one simple demand of Just Stop Oil – that the UK government bans all new fossil fuel projects </p>
Opinion

Just Stop Oil have just landed a major victory

<p>Sunak has sabotaged UK climate action repeatedly over the last year</p>
Opinion

Nobody has done less for the climate than Sunak the saboteur

<p>A protester climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway on Monday </p>
Voices

You don’t have to glue yourself to anything to help Just Stop Oil

<p>We contacted the government and official opposition parties to see if they would support such a regulation</p>
Opinion

Close the damn doors on Oxford Street – I mean it

<p>It is crucial that British Cycling immediately reneges on its betrayal of young cyclists across Britain by abandoning the Shell deal</p>
Opinion

A sponsorship deal with Shell – what was British Cycling thinking?

Opinion

A sponsorship deal with Shell – what was British Cycling thinking?

<p>It is crucial that British Cycling immediately reneges on its betrayal of young cyclists across Britain by abandoning the Shell deal</p>
<p>From 1 October, the Eurasian beaver has been given protected native species status</p>
Opinion

If you hate beavers, you’re sorely misguided

<p>In the midst of Truss’s destructive extremism, there were two positives</p>
Opinion

Truss has no electoral legitimacy for her climate-wrecking policies

<p>Electricity companies charge for electricity by the kilowatt hour</p>
Opinion

Are you energy literate? Here’s how to tell

<p>In winter, I wear really warm ski socks, thermal long-legged underwear and an extra-warm fleece cardigan</p>
Voices

‘One room living’ is how I stay warm and save money in winter

<p>In winter, I wear really warm ski socks, thermal long-legged underwear and an extra-warm fleece cardigan</p>
Voices

‘One room living’ is how I stay warm and save money in winter

<p>This is a genocidal suicide note to humanity</p>
Opinion

Truss’s energy plans will be disastrous for our bills and the planet

<p>Lord Frost writes regularly in the Daily Telegraph and Mail </p>
Opinion

This minister under Liz Truss would be an ecological disaster

<p>The idea of spending hours in a hot stuffy car, in the middle of a heatwave, sounds like madness </p>
Opinion

Want to holiday to Europe by car? Consider your emissions first

<p>The Tory Energy Secretary has authorised the consumption of more than 20 billion litres of water by a new nuclear plant</p>
Voices

Why don’t we talk about how much water nuclear power plants use?

<p>An average hosepipe churns out about 1,000 litres of water an hour</p>
Opinion

We should ban hosepipes all year but they’re only part of the problem

<p>Climate Finance Pledge Unfulfilled</p>
Opinion

The UN must resolve its internal contradictions on climate change

<p>And even deeper grief for the many species in the wider natural world</p>
Opinion

The UK’s heatwave was not a wake-up call – it was a funeral bell

<p>Either we are serious about the climate crisis or we should admit we do not give a toss </p>
Opinion

I have zero sympathy for victims of travel chaos – just ban flights

<p>Climate Finance Pledge Unfulfilled</p>
Opinion

The UN must resolve its internal contradictions on climate change

<p>And even deeper grief for the many species in the wider natural world</p>
Opinion

The UK’s heatwave was not a wake-up call – it was a funeral bell

<p>Either we are serious about the climate crisis or we should admit we do not give a toss </p>
Opinion

I have zero sympathy for victims of travel chaos – just ban flights

<p>No damage was done to any of the paintings targeted by these young people</p>
Voices

Art galleries are complicit in trashing our planet – they can change

Voices

Art galleries are complicit in trashing our planet – they can change

Head shot of Donnachadh McCarthy
Donnachadh McCarthy
<p>No damage was done to any of the paintings targeted by these young people</p>
<p>Along with Ireland and Malta, the UK has the most depleted wildlife wealth in Europe</p>
Opinion

Wait until you hear what the Tories have done to British wildlife

<p>This evoked the ultimate left-wing caricature of evil, scruples-free capitalism</p>
Voices

How a suspended HSBC executive admitted the truth behind greenwashing

<p>Extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change are already hitting global food supplies</p>
Opinion

Our food was under threat before Putin – now it’s getting worse

<p>When I heard the chancellor was imposing another nuclear surcharge on our energy bills, I decided to try to eliminate my night-time electricity imports</p>
Opinion

My net zero home generates triple the electricity I use – here’s how

<p>When I heard the chancellor was imposing another nuclear surcharge on our energy bills, I decided to try to eliminate my night-time electricity imports</p>
Opinion

My net zero home generates triple the electricity I use – here’s how

<p>Many of the new taskforce’s members have been attacked for their greenwashing</p>
Opinion

The government created a greenwashing taskforce for the climate crisis

<p>Is it any wonder that more and more people, despairing at the government siding with banks and oil companies, are turning to civil disobedience?</p>
Opinion

How Rishi Sunak is quietly going back to coal, oil and gas

<p>He had been planning it for at least one year</p>
Voices

Activists are self-immolating over the climate, yet they are ignored

<p>Angus had heard that a presentation by the government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance to Boris Johnson had <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60203674">opened his eyes</a> </p>
Voices

This convinced Johnson on the climate. Other MPs need to see it too

<p>Regulations killed off almost every new windfarm in the devolved nations </p>
Opinion

How the UK strangled its onshore wind energy industry at birth

<p>According to the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency’s latest report, the cost for ‘cleaning up’ Britain’s closing nuclear power stations, has soared to more than £132bn</p>
Climate

Nuclear reactors won’t fix Britain’s energy crisis

<p>It is in this frenzied existential moment in human history, that the Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion blockades are taking place</p>
Opinion

An existential war is raging – and I don’t mean in Ukraine

<p>Farage is already whining his debate is a victim of cancel culture</p>
Opinion

Why won’t Nigel Farage answer questions about his new project?

<p>Solar panels can also help reduce energy costs for those who can’t install them</p>
Opinion

It is our national duty to embrace rooftop solar panels at home

<p>The chancellor has previously supported £11bn of new investments in North Sea oil</p>
Opinion

We cannot invest into North Sea oil while claiming climate leadership

<p>If you say McKay, we need you to get arrested, I am at your service. It is high time someone put the cuffs on me, says the director </p>
Opinion

Why Hollywood director Adam McKay is offering himself up for arrest

Opinion

Why Hollywood director Adam McKay is offering himself up for arrest

Head shot of Donnachadh McCarthy
Donnachadh McCarthy
<p>If you say McKay, we need you to get arrested, I am at your service. It is high time someone put the cuffs on me, says the director </p>
<p>Fossil fuels provide 40 per cent of Putin’s income to fund his war-machine</p>
Opinion

We need an ‘Eco-Marshall Plan’ to rebuild Europe’s energy

<p>Producing a kilogram of replacement milk formula involves the emission of about 4kg of CO2</p>
Opinion

The surprising environmental benefits of breastfeeding

<p>The UK’s JET Fusion programme only produced enough energy to boil 60 kettles </p>
Opinion

Nuclear fusion is an expensive delusion

<p>The London mayor’s cycle safety programme was threatened in negotiations with the government</p>
Opinion

How can we hope to hit net zero when cyclophobia is rampant in the UK?

<p>The London mayor’s cycle safety programme was threatened in negotiations with the government</p>
Opinion

How can we hope to hit net zero when cyclophobia is rampant in the UK?

<p>Unfortunately, the UK is heading in the opposite direction from that appealed for by the UN</p>
Opinion

Our government must legislate to end new fossil fuel investments now

<p>A section of the BP Eastern Trough Area Project oil platform in the North Sea</p>
Opinion

The Energy Charter Treaty allows oil companies to do as they please

<p>Whether critics think the hit Netflix film ‘Don’t Look Up’ is artistically good or not is beside the point</p>
Opinion

Don’t Look Up is a call to action. Here’s what the government could do

<p>‘Let’s scrap the poll tax on bills and reverse the recent punitive cut in Universal Credit cut to cover rising energy prices’ </p>
Opinion

We must end the standing charge on energy bills to protect the poor

<p>James staged a spectacular climb on top of the fuselage of a British Airways jet at London City Airport in October 2019 </p>
Opinion

Paralympian James Brown’s message to the PM: act now on the climate

<p>More than 8 million poinsettias are sold in the UK every year</p>
Opinion

It’s time to ditch ‘festive’ poinsettias and protect our peatlands

<p>Transport minister Grant Shapps is an avowed aviation enthusiast, owning a private £100,000 Saratoga Piper plane</p>
Opinion

The government is bungling the Omicron disaster and the climate crisis

<p>‘Priti Patel has inserted another 15 pages of repressive measures into the bill’ </p>
Opinion

Police bill is an unprecedented assault – Patel must be stopped

<p>Cows gather near the coal-fired power station in Niederaussem, Germany</p>
Opinion

We can learn from Germany’s plans to tackle the climate crisis

<p>Supporters of the jailed Insulate Britain protesters on Lambeth Bridge in London</p>
Opinion

Remember the names of the nine jailed Insulate Britain protesters

<p>‘Cop26 is dead. Long live (the reformed) Cop27– and mass global peaceful direct action’ </p>
Opinion

Climate crisis has put us on the Titanic – we are, literally, sinking

Opinion

Climate crisis has put us on the Titanic – we are, literally, sinking

<p>‘Cop26 is dead. Long live (the reformed) Cop27– and mass global peaceful direct action’ </p>
<p>A coal-fired plant near Selby</p>
Opinion

Just admit it – we’re all climate hypocrites

<p>‘A ban on all new investments in fossil fuels is the <em>minimum</em> outcome needed from Cop26’ </p>
Opinion

We know almost for a fact that Cop26 will fail – this is why

<p>‘Our forests are burning, oil continues to spill, the miners continue to invade our territory and colonists cut down our forests to feed societies abroad’ </p>
Opinion

A message for Cop26 – from deep within the Amazon rainforest

<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer shows his frustration during the defeat to Leicester</p>
Opinion

How can Man United defend their 10-minute flight to Leicester?

<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer shows his frustration during the defeat to Leicester</p>
Opinion

How can Man United defend their 10-minute flight to Leicester?

<p>‘Insulate Britain are risking so much in trying to raise the alarm with their desperate disruptive tactics’</p>
Opinion

What if doctors had blocked the M25 to warn us about the pandemic?

<p>Wildfires rage in Chiang Mai, Thailand</p>
Opinion

A recent climate report has left me devastated – I beg you to read it

<p>‘If we did what the Insulate Britain climate protectors are calling for, we would effectively save thousands of lives’ </p>
Opinion

More people – particularly parents – should be joining M25 protesters

<p>‘The era of heating our entire homes to 20 to 25C and having endless hot-water on tap must end’ </p>
Opinion

About to switch the heating on? Read this first

<p>‘It is crucial that us climate protectors also lovingly care for ourselves’ </p>
Opinion

If we want to protect the planet, we must first care for ourselves

<p>Climate activists from the Extinction Rebellion group cross the Millennium bridge in London on 2 September</p>
Opinion

Stop using China as a distraction from our own carbon emissions record

<p>An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace </p>
Opinion

The XR protests come at a crucial time – why can’t police see that?

<p>Extinction Rebellion kicks off two weeks of protests in London </p>
Opinion

Anti-fracking activist Tina Rothery may be what politics needs now

<p>Climate change protestors demonstrating in Parliament Square to mark 100 days until Cop26 on 23 July 2021 </p>
Opinion

Good luck getting answers out of Keir Starmer about the climate crisis

<p>‘Local communities are being destroyed by second home ownership, as it artificially forces house mortgages to soar above what a local working class wage can afford’</p>
Opinion

Second homeowners are harming local communities and the planet

<p>‘Torrential downpours revisited London on Saturday – but people still drove through floodwaters’</p>
Opinion

It is time to take even more drastic measures to save the planet

<p>‘It is crucial to remember that all emissions in 2021 demolish the idea of a zero carbon 2050’</p>
Opinion

I’ve seen endless politicians promise green nirvana – it never happens

<p>‘Branson failed to note that while he went on a space joyride in Arizona, almost all of the state was suffering from an extreme multi-year drought’</p>
Opinion

The rich are taking joyrides in space as our precious planet burns

<p>Countries like the UK have made big promises about ‘net zero’ targets</p>
Opinion

When does ‘zero’ not mean ‘zero’? When it’s greenwashing, of course

<p>Wildlife is destroyed by plastic grass, and staggering emissions are released into the atmosphere while making it</p>
Opinion

Plastic grass is a curse – it’s bad for nature and the climate

<p>‘We should agree a target of net zero by 2030, not that of 2050 endorsed by oil corporations’</p>
Opinion

This is the 13-point plan we need to see put into action at Cop26

<p>Countries like the UK have made big promises about ‘net zero’ targets</p>
Opinion

When does ‘zero’ not mean ‘zero’? When it’s greenwashing, of course

<p>Wildlife is destroyed by plastic grass, and staggering emissions are released into the atmosphere while making it</p>
Opinion

Plastic grass is a curse – it’s bad for nature and the climate

<p>‘We should agree a target of net zero by 2030, not that of 2050 endorsed by oil corporations’</p>
Opinion

This is the 13-point plan we need to see put into action at Cop26

<p>‘The UK is a major global advertising hub’</p>
Opinion

It’s time to ban advertising of flights abroad and fossil-fuelled cars

<p>Alok Sharma, the UK’s president elect of Cop26</p>
Opinion

Alok Sharma is beginning to look like an emperor with net zero clothes

<p>Police officers detain an activist from the Extinction Rebellion outside the Barclays offices in Canary Wharf</p>
Opinion

Barclays must take responsibility for its role in the climate crisis

<p>‘The average Briton uses about 127 rolls per year<a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/15676/cmo-toilet-paper-consumption/"></a>, which is more than twice the European average and is third highest in the world’</p>
Opinion

We must stop flushing our trees down the toilet

<p>‘Some insurance companies are ruling out insurance for new coal, shale oil and Arctic exploration projects, making it potentially more expensive or difficult to procure’</p>
Opinion

Insuring fossil fuels is ensuring climate destruction

In the UK, an estimated 10.9 million own a cat, up from six million in 1981 
Opinion

Owning a pet does more damage to the environment than you realise

<p>‘An estimated area of 1.9 million square miles is bottom trawled each year – that’s 230 times the size of Wales’</p>
Opinion

Bottom trawling must be banned immediately – it’s wrecking our oceans

<p>‘Pouring billions of pounds of investment into new fossil fuels could be devastating for humanity’</p>
Opinion

Banks must stop funding new fossil fuel projects as fast as possible

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