Over the past few weeks, several studies have been published that provide new evidence of the urgency of the threat of global climate change. There has been almost no discussion of any of these studies in the Irish media – instead, a large number of journalists, both mainstream and tabloid, have chosen to ignore the findings. Early May new large international study suggested that the Arctic could be almost completely free of sea ice by the summer of 2030, more than a decade earlier than originally thought. The main reason for this revised forecast was to take into account positive feedback effects, such as the reduction in the reflection of heat from the Earth into space as the volume of polar ice shrinks. (Cormac O'Raifeartaigh)