MANY powerful people are, at long last, waking up to the real threat being posed to the world by global warming and consequent climate change. No matter how serious a situation is, human nature remains the same — we don’t start to act until a crisis arises.

FOR a country that gets so much rain, it would be easy to believe we’ll never run short of water. Not so, however. In fact, we’re no better off in this regard than many other parts of the world.

IT’S a moral quandary, even a ghoulish issue, some might say. The respect that ought to be accorded skeletal human remains that turn up in long-forgotten cemeteries and, especially, in bogland excavations continues to exercise people.

GIVEN reasonable weather, thousands of people will be taking to the outdoors for long walks during Christmas — a good way of working off excess calories and the over-indulgence of the festive season.

Donal Hickey on why recycling becomes a much bigger job during the festive season.

WITH the urban sprawl unabated, thousands of acres of farmland are giving way to concrete so to meet demands for housing and roads.

A NEW film may go some way towards restoring the seal as a loved and esteemed creature in Ireland.

FINANCIAL incentives should be given to landowners who restore land to provide habitats for endangered species, the Heritage Council has suggested.

A PIECE of salted ling, barely visible among many common and even exotic species in the fish department of Cork’s throbbing English market the other day, evoked memories.

WE could yet pay a high price for failing to protect nature sites.