Michael McCarthy



Profile:
Full name: Michael McCarthy

Area of interest:

Journals: The Independent

Email: [mailto:m.mccarthy@independent.co.uk m.mccarthy@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: Independent.co.uk / Nature Studies

Blog:

Representation:

Networks: twitter.com/mjpmccarthy



Biography:
About:

Education:

Career:

Current position/role:


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles:

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

TV/Radio:

Video:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: Has three times been Environment Journalist of the Year (1991, 2003 and 2006) and in 2001 was Specialist Writer of the Year in the British Press Awards. In 2007 he was awarded the medal of the RSPB for "Oustanding Services to Conservation" – the first time in the medal's 100-year history that it has been given to a journalist – and in 2009 he was given the Marsh Award for Lepidoptera Conservation.

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: A cloud of nuclear mistrust spreads around the world, After decades of lies, nuclear reassurances now fall on deaf ears, 16th March 2011



The Independent: Nature Studies
Column info:

Column name:

Remit/Info:

Section:

Role:

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:m.mccarthy@independent.co.uk m.mccarthy@independent.co.uk]

Website: Independent.co.uk / Nature Studies

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Friday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2011

 * Why extinctions should worry us as a species - You probably missed it on the news, three weeks ago, the item about the Vietnamese rhinoceros going extinct; it didn't make a lot of noise - 11th November
 * Exhausted, deforested landscapes show the truth about over-population - I imagine most people would be hard put to place Burkina Faso on a map; it neatly fits that cliché of a faraway country of which we know nothing - 4th November
 * Can we really manage all the fracking risks? - New energy bonanza or new energy nightmare? That's the swing in extreme opinions about shale gas, the "unconventional" fuel which has boomed in the US and now could be taking off in Britain - 3rd November
 * Coming to terms with winter is part of growing up - More's the pity we haven't evolved the ability, like bears, to snooze until the damn thing is over - 28th October
 * There's beauty, and mystery, in any river's flowing waters - I cannot see a river, any river, without a quickening of the spirit, and this is such an automatic reaction that I sometimes wonder if it is hardwired into the genes, from our previous existence as hunter-gatherers - 21st October
 * Are we just going to talk our way to oblivion? - At Durban in eight weeks' time, the world's gaping split over climate change will be clear - 14th October
 * In a city of falcons, it's worth looking up - City of royalty, city of riches; city of poverty, city of squalor. City of billionaire Russian oligarchs; city of hate-filled Islamist preachers; city of English gentlemen's clubs. City of 300 languages. City of black cabs, red buses, green parks. City of blue plaques, marking the homes of its famous inhabitants. City of endless variety. London's been called all of those - 7th October
 * A glorious burst of the warm south - It's an extraordinary event, is it not? This miniature summer granted us weeks after what was meant to be the summertime, but was a chilly washout, is over and gone - 30th September
 * Betrayed by an act of despotism - Why should a government set up and pay for an independent organisation that is likely to criticise it? In terms of realpolitik, of course, there is no reason whatsoever, which is why in tyrannies such bodies do not exist - 23rd September
 * Saving the Pole – not such a strange idea - A curious notion, is it not? Save The Pole. Certainly a much less tangible one than Save The Whale or Save The Planet - 16th September
 * Don't underestimate the power of tiny things - It is a strange fact, not often remarked upon and indeed, strongly counterintuitive, that among the wild beasts of Africa, herbivores are much more dangerous to humans than carnivores - 9th September
 * In search of another great moth snowstorm - One of the lousiest aspects of the lousy summer which ended yesterday, for me at least, was that for yet another year, there was no chance of witnessing the moth snowstorm. Not in England, anyway - 2nd September
 * red berries and a literary curse'' - Three years ago, in 2008, human history passed a significant milestone: the proportion of the world's population living in towns and cities, rather than the countryside, exceeded 50 per cent for the first time - 26th August
 * loveliest living creature'' - You may well not have heard of it - 19th August
 * best discoveries canbe entirely accidental'' - It seems to me a curious part of the human psyche that we more deeply enjoy special things seen casually and accidentally, than those which have been expressly sought out - 12th August
 * badgers and cuckoos that really matter'' - It is a curious sensation, to be working in the middle of a national newspaper newsroom convulsed with the noisiest scandal for years, involving public outrage, gross malpractice, a media group in meltdown, Scotland Yard in turmoil and the political system in ferment, and to be writing about badgers and cuckoos - 22nd July
 * estuaries we must protect'' - In the ugly litany of environmental crimes, perhaps the worst is the destruction of a whole ecosystem - 15th July
 * solutions in one to a string of problems the free market could not deal with'' - There are lots of things the market will do for you, like lowering consumer prices or making companies lean, mean and keen, but one thing no one pretends the market will do is give you a clean planet - 13th July
 * summers conceal a terrible surprise'' - Aerosol is a word most people associate with the bathroom, the kitchen or the garden shed: we tend to use it to mean a spray can, for deodorants, cleaners, weedkillers or whatever - 8th July
 * – the rare, refined beauties of the plant world'' - Might the day ever come when it would be thought inappropriate to express open and unqualified admiration for an orchid – I mean for its beauty, its elegance and its glamour? Well, stranger things have happened - 1st July
 * flower whose smell brings back boyhood'' - Curious that a plant should have two separate smells: few living things present two quite different versions of themselves to our senses - 24th June
 * being awake at 3am to hear this sound'' - 17th June
 * in the splendour that is the month of May'' - 29th April
 * birdsong that's like blossom in sound'' - 22nd April
 * is a destroyer but can fix things, too'' - 15th April
 * disasters that are fundamentally different'' - 13th April
 * world cannot allow these species to die out'' - 11th April
 * so magical as the song of the nightingale'' - 8th April 2011
 * overcoming a poisonous prejudice'' - 1st April
 * science cannot account for beauty'' - 25th March
 * quintessence of early spring'' - 18th March
 * bird that offers a clue to mankind's destiny'' - 11th March
 * do sparrows thrive in America but not here?'' - 4th March
 * small-leaved lime, lost tree of England'' - 25th February
 * time Man stopped to consider Earth's health'' - 18th February
 * winter is a time to savour small pleasures'' - 11th February
 * government ever – that's a sick joke'' - 4th February
 * 21st century bodes ill for non-human species'' - 28th January
 * all our conservation failures, this is the saddest'' - 21st January
 * the dingy footman, and other such creatures'' - 14th January
 * we learned nothing since 'Silent Spring'?'' - 7th January



Journal #2:
Column info:

Column name:

Remit/Info:

Section:

Role:

Pen-name:

Email:

Website:

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:




news & updates:


