Thomas McConnell

Every day is St Patrick's Day.

[World Explorer @flower6260]

Sandy point, Victoria

[Earth @earthcurated]

— peace

[Ireland's Energy Mix @XEnergyIreland]

Wind delivered a total of 1119 GWh in January this year = 33% of Ireland's electricity.

How does this compare to previous Januarys?

2018: 1127 GWh
2019: 769 GWh
2020: 1118 GWh
2021: 925 GWh
2022: 970 GWh
2023: 1186 GWh
2024: 1138 GWh
2025: 1077 GWh
2026: 1119 GWh

Source: EirGrid Data

⚠️ Diminishing returns are evident for new installed capacity. Stuck on ~33% of total despite new installed wind capacity. No progress. Sham.

[South East Energy Agency @SEEnergyAgency]

🎩Meet Cllr. @DollardMaria – EU Climate Pact Ambassador, Kilkenny City Councillor, and Chairperson of Keep Kilkenny Beautiful – a woman of many hats, all dedicated to sustainability! 💚

🌱She’ll be speaking at the EU Climate Pact Conference in Ireland, sharing insights on tackling the climate crisis and turning government policies into real action at the community level.

#EUClimatePact #MyWorldOurPlanet #ClimateActionNow

[Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment @DeptCEE]

Representatives from @Dept_ECC with exhibition partners @iCRAGcentre and Irish Minerals Fund welcomed the Consul General for Ireland in Toronto, @JaniceMcGann and @Entirl to Ireland’s mineral exploration and mining stand at #PDAC2025.

[The Carter Center @CarterCenter]

What an honor to welcome former President of Ireland Mary Robinson to The Carter Center and learn from a leading voice in human rights and climate justice. We also enjoyed a special screening of “Mrs. Robinson,” a new documentary about her life and career.

[OECD ➡️ Better Policies for Better Lives @OECD]

Ireland's economy & living standards have improved significantly in recent decades despite several major shocks.

Modernising infrastructure, providing affordable housing & combating climate change can mantain this trend.

🆕 Economic Survey of Ireland: https://t.co/IL0q9V1eg8

[Faculty of Science & Engineering | UL @sci_engUL]

How much carbon do Ireland's peatland forests store, and how can we best manage them to help meet our climate targets?

Nobel Laureate Professor Ken Byrne's research @UL
will help to answer these questions

https://t.co/M0OgWTX94S

#StayCurious #treeweek2025 @coilltenews

[Κεαλαν 🗽 @Flyck66]

Ireland has the second-highest electricity prices in Europe. €3.3 billion has been funneled to electricity suppliers in 'credits', yet 230,000 are in arrears. €18 billion has been laundered through the Green scam in 25 years. And €26 billion is to be paid in climate fines. 👇

[Climate Change Advisory Council Ireland @CCACIreland]

Climate measures enacted now could save Ireland billions in future compliance costs.

This money has the potential to deliver significant improvements in Irish society, as outlined by our report in collaboration with the Fiscal Council.
Read more: https://t.co/GhoPJ4CRiQ

[Green Party Ireland @greenparty_ie]

The Climate Change Advisory Council and the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council pulled no punches by calling their recent report 'A Colossal Missed Opportunity'. 2030 is swiftly coming towards us, and the Government needs to start hitting our climate targets.

https://t.co/rZmu8c09hC

[UN Environment Programme @UNEP]

The global economy is consuming more natural resources than ever, and the world is not on track to meet the #GlobalGoals.

Urgent and bold action is needed to fix humanity’s relationship with nature. See more in the global resources outlook report: https://t.co/ItBtcc2dMb

[David Steel @SteelySeabirder]

We hope everyone is safe but the tanker disaster off the East Yorkshire coast could have dire consequences for the east coast seabirds as the blog explains: https://t.co/VnWtRiQI6m

[Native Woodland Trust @NativeWoodTrust]

Less than 2% of Ireland's landmass is native woodland - of this 2%, ancient woodlands account for only a fraction.

We want Ireland's ancient woodlands protected for biodiversity
NOT converted into 'green deserts'

This is post 2 of 7 for #treeweek2025

[United Nations @UN]

We need more #WomenInJustice to ensure courts represent everyone they serve, address the concerns of all citizens and hand down sound judgments.

Monday is the International Day of Women Judges. https://t.co/pC7QJo7pE1

[Terry Flanagan @mybroadcasts]

Tonight on "Mooney Goes Wild" (RTE Radio One at 10), I visit Dermott Doran to watch the spectacular display of mating frogs on his pond in Co. Kildare. Make sure to have the sound on. Video by Dermott. @NatureRTE @AMAZlNGNATURE @SandMartinWall @InterestingSci1 @Britnatureguide

[Voyageurs Wolf Project @VoyaWolfProject]

Wolves transporting the remains of beavers they have killed. Beavers are critical prey for wolves in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem for a 7-8 month period of time, roughly April to October/November…i.e., when ice on lakes and ponds is largely absent.

Beavers constitute, on average, ~30-40% of all biomass wolves obtain from predation during this period. However, we have studied numerous wolves for which beavers are the primary prey during the spring to fall.

For instance, beavers can constitute up to 82% of all biomass killed by some wolves during this 7-8 month stretch. In other words, some wolves rely almost exclusively on beavers during spring to fall and then deer almost exclusively during winter.

Given how often wolves are killing beavers, we naturally get footage of wolves carrying remains of beavers they have killed, often taking the carcasses back to their pups.

The reason wolves rely heavily on beavers is almost certainly due to the abundance of beavers in the area. Beaver densities have remained roughly around 1 beaver lodge per square kilometer (and there are ~5ish beavers per lodge) for about 40 years now.

That is a very high beaver density, and likely is similar to, if not higher than, beaver densities in other southern boreal forest ecosystems in places like Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec.

We suspect beavers are, in part, why the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystems has sustained very high wolf densities for many years, and we are actively trying to understand how beavers drive aspects of wolf population dynamics.

Prior to our work, wolf-beaver interactions had received very little attention or research. In 2018, we wrote a peer-reviewed publication summarizing all that was known on wolf-beaver interactions up to that point. In that paper, we dubbed beavers “the forgotten prey of an iconic predator."

Of course, biologists knew wolves in a variety of ecosystems hunted beavers to an extent but that was about it. Fortunately, we have made substantial headway in understanding this predator-prey dynamic but there is much we still don't understand...which means there is still much to be discovered!

[Sheep’s Head Nature @SHeadbirder]

Marsh marigolds on the River Windrush this week. #wildflowerhour #YellowFlowers

[#SaveAYear @saveayear]

Germany Shuts Down Its Last Nuclear Power Reactors: Europe’s largest economy is the third nation to quit atomic energy, choosing coal over fission in a struggle with high stakes for climate change and geopolitics. https://t.co/3uNB4CnB2l