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Dublin used to have a pretty amazing public transport system

But we had to go and rip the whole thing up.

THE LUAS CROSS City development has been ongoing for the past two years.

The new development will connect the existing red and green lines.

While an additional 10 million journeys a year will be facilitated in the city, major traffic delays across the city have been caused and the line will not be operational until the end of 2017.

This is all a bit strange considering the fact that Dublin’s tram system used to look like this…

Dublin's tram system Wikicommons / Kelly Wikicommons / Kelly / Kelly

View the full-sized image here. 

Up until the 1920s the main mode of public transportation around the city was its tramways.

Ther service came into existence in 1865 and, according to Moving Through Modernity: Space and Geography in Modernism, was considered “one of the most impressive in the world” by 1904.

On the old system, Dublin had pretty comprehensive coverage.

Examples of some of the routes in service at the time included:

  • Phoenix Park to Ballsbridge
  • O’Connell Street to Dalkey
  • O’Connell Street to Howth
  • Rathfarnham to Drumcondra via Harold’s Cross

What brought about the end for Dublin’s tramways was the rise of the bus service in the city. Buses proved to be more mobile and had the ability to travel to areas that were a long distance away from tram stops. Dublin’s first official bus route opened in 1925, running from Killester via Clontarf to the city centre.

Coming towards the end of the 1940s, the use of trams in the city went into rapid decline, as shown in this table in an article published in the Journal of Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland in 1955.

dublin buses How transportation in the city changed coming into the 1950s Stewart Stewart

Click here to view a larger version of the above table. 

The last tram journey taken in the city before the establishment of the Luas was on the Hill of Howth line on 31 May 1959. 

Read: Here’s how Dublin was served by trams over 100 years ago

Also: Ireland’s railways could be the next up for privatisation…

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58 Comments
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    Mute J Ven
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:17 PM

    80 million international passengers visited France, 7 million in Ireland. France is 550,000 sq km, Ireland is 77,000. France has more visitors and more people inhabitants per capita than Ireland. Ireland is a island, you can’t just drive into Ireland from Germany

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:49 PM

    @J Ven: We should build a Euro tunnel.

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    Mute brian o'leary
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:13 PM

    @Thesaltyurchin: normally its a wall first, then a tunnel?

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:28 PM

    @brian o’leary: It was a ‘pie in the sky’ bait comment anyway. Imagine us, with a Euro Tunnell Lol! Cant even build a train line.

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    Mute You're Not Serious
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:35 PM

    @J Ven: try telling that to the Greens

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:32 PM

    @J Ven: If your figures for visitors – and visitors is a loose term – are correct, then France had 1.24 ‘visitors’ per person and Ireland had 1.39 per person.

    What does ‘visitor’ mean in this context?
    Tourist?
    Does it include temporary workers, or any other group?

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    Mute J Ven
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    Feb 7th 2024, 4:55 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: International arrivals.

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:32 PM

    @J Ven: So, that includes all immigrants, and not just tourists, then?

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Feb 7th 2024, 10:18 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: not to mention there was a World Cup in France last year.

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    Mute Adrian
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:18 PM

    As an Island economy we depend on air travel to sustain our economy. The main danger could be that flights are taken on by the Belfast airports and emissions are even further increased by a trip down the M1.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:51 PM

    @Adrian: More air or is it freight?… Our goods supply is a joke currently, just lob it on the roads with everything else, no thought. Hopefully, they move Dublin Port, would be a start at least.

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:21 PM

    @Thesaltyurchin: where should they move it to mullingar?

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:26 PM

    @Adrian re. ” As an Island economy we depend on air travel to sustain our economy”

    No.

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    Mute The next small thing
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    Feb 7th 2024, 8:16 PM

    @Martin Mongan: There’s plenty of coastline it could be moved to, I’ve heard both Louth and Arklow as possible locations. It’s madness that we have a port on the most expensive land in the country. It would also mean that the port tunnel could be repurposed for other uses e,g, buses, cars etc.

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    Mute Athena
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    Feb 7th 2024, 9:17 PM

    @Adrian: … or indeed by Shannon or Knock, Dublin can’t have that, can they??

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    Mute Ciaran
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:23 PM

    Who would have thought there would be lots of flights to and from and island nation.

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:27 PM

    @Ciaran: No one.

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    Mute Mike 100
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    Feb 7th 2024, 8:59 PM

    @Ciaran: I wonder if Lanzarote are considering culling the number of flights to their island in an endeavour to reduce their emissions, eh No, they dont have an Eamon

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    Mute Shane C
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:29 PM

    But what about the environment?!?!? It’s cold because it’s hot and we need to migrate to get warm when it’s cold and visa versa !!!!!

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    Mute David Owens
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:52 PM

    @Shane C: it’s climate change now seeing as the Global warming ruse didn’t work out

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:23 PM

    @David Owens: The temperature of the planet creates the climates. Therefore Global Warming results in climate change.

    Which part is tripping you up?

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    Mute David Owens
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:44 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: like I said it’s a ruse, even your master Bill Gates acknowledges it now

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:23 PM

    @David Owens: your master bill gates has to be the dumbest thing I’ve read on here in a while and that’s saying something

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:40 PM

    @David Owens: That famous climate scientist Bill Gates?

    What’s Bill Gates go to do with the price of coffee?

    Anyway, I took the trouble to look up what this Bill Gates might have said recently regarding climate change, and got this:
    “Essentially, his argument is that emissions will peak and then start to go down. They won’t go down as fast as we want them to, so temperatures will continue to rise. Reversing this trend will require massive carbon removal. The goal of staying below 2 degrees Celsius (much less 1.5) appears lost, but we will not find ourselves in worst-case scenarios, and it is unlikely we will go above 3C.”

    How, pray tell, does that even come close to this Bill Gates character saying climate change is a ruse?
    (Even if he was an expert on the subject.)

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    Mute Cornelius Paul O Mahony
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:15 PM

    If he is saying that the extra flights won’t add hugely to omissions he needs to publish data or analysis to back it up.

    Airplanes are more efficient today than 20 years ago and he knows what’s landing and taking off, he will also know other factors like how much fuel would be needed with the additional flights.

    Obviously adding 8 million passengers will have cO2 emissions too.

    Simply saying ” I’m supporting the economy” isn’t a very strong strategic approach.

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:29 PM

    @Cornelius Paul O Mahony: This CEO is not an economist.
    He is hired to increase profits.

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    Mute Cornelius Paul O Mahony
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    Feb 8th 2024, 2:28 PM

    @Juri Hertel: An economist?

    Any CEO must have a full understanding of the business to make decisions, simply stating something isn’t how business works, especially when the decisions made affect those outside of the business.

    What economist or economics has to do with this has me baffled.

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    Mute T S
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:38 PM

    By all means increase the cap, but only after they improve the access roads and build a bleedin train!

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    Mute Connor Savage
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:39 PM

    “increase the annual number of flights at Dublin Airport from 32 million to 40 million”?
    Either there’s a monstrous typo or flights have really rebounded post-covid …

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    Mute You're Not Serious
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:37 PM

    @Connor Savage: they are not talking about overnight-

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    Mute Connor Savage
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    Feb 7th 2024, 2:18 PM

    @You’re Not Serious: i think you’re missing the typo. 32-40m flights annually??? Thats 110,000 flights a day; from Dublin. bahahaha

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    Mute Cornelius Paul O Mahony
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    Feb 7th 2024, 2:46 PM

    @Connor Savage: it’s passengers not flights, still big numbers but it’ll take time to get to 40m

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    Mute Connor Savage
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    Feb 7th 2024, 4:54 PM

    @Cornelius Paul O Mahony: i get that, bud. Am simply taking the pi*s about the sentence as it reads

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    Mute John Dennehy
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:08 PM

    “If governments want airlines to burn sustainable aviation fuel [SAF], they’re going to need to devote extraordinary sums of taxpayers’ money to make it happen,” Aengus Kelly, CEO of the world’s number one lessor AerCap, told the Airline Economics conference Lessors, bankers and airline executives meeting in Dublin last week, SAF is not realistic or viable means of cutting emissions that the taxpayer will end up paying for, so wealthy airlines can keep on making massive profits while being exempt from any sort of binding emission targets.

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    Mute joe tobin
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    Feb 7th 2024, 2:22 PM

    Cycling lanes are a waste unless policed. In portlaoise where 2 new schools were built with perfect cycle lane access which cannot be used as at finish times for 1/2 mile either side of te schools the cycle lanes and footpaths are car parks making it extremely dangerous and impossible to cycle …..nothing is being done about it . Something will be done when a tragedy happens

    35
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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:16 PM

    @joe tobin: Well, how can a tragedy happen when no one uses the cycling lanes?

    9
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    Mute Tim Oconnell
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:59 PM

    Cork Shannon knock all under-utilised increase use of these airports cheaper parking landing charges sell the alternatives , instead of bringing everyone through Dublin ,

    33
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    Mute John Terry
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    Feb 7th 2024, 5:02 PM

    @Tim Oconnell: It’s been explained many times,the passenger numbers are not there…..Ryanair said they would happily put in more flights if there were…

    13
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    Mute Paul
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    Feb 7th 2024, 2:34 PM

    Let Cork, Kerry, Knock and Shannon bear some of the capacity load.

    Those turnip munchers are always whining there’s not enough flights for them!

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    Mute Lulu
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:20 PM

    @Paul: Classy boy Paul eh?

    10
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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:15 PM

    @Paul: Sure Paul, you fork out more subsidies and we will bear more profit.
    Mighty … what did you do when others went to school?

    10
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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Feb 7th 2024, 12:53 PM

    He’s right, the targets agreed on are what matter, if they can deliver more and be under the agreed limits then have at it, the real problem is access, if our ‘accountants’ could pull up their pants and get a light rail sorted, that would help.

    22
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    Mute David Owens
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    Feb 7th 2024, 2:04 PM

    All that extra walking and cycling will offset the extra carbon footprint from increased air traffic

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:15 PM

    @David Owens: That’s the plan.

    4
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    Mute Dermot Byrne
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    Feb 7th 2024, 5:22 PM

    On any given weekday Shannon airport is not much more than 2 hours from most major urban centres and the M50 . It can nearly take as long to get to Dublin airport from the south side. Extend and upgrade the rail line from Limerick to Hueston and make Shannon a viable alternative.
    If Shannon was privately run it would probably be the busiest airport on this side of Europe. All transatlantic flights and European flights are internal clear customs and immigration for both on the one site. As far as I’m aware it’s only Dublin and Shannon have this luxury.

    19
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    Mute Athena
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    Feb 7th 2024, 9:26 PM

    @Dermot Byrne: … and realistically, most tourists go to the Western coast.
    Maybe a “this way in/that way our” concept could be run, incoming tourists to the Western airports and leaving from Dublin. Might need a bit of trickery, though …

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    Mute Vlad Eire
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    Feb 7th 2024, 2:47 PM

    It’s passenger numbers they want to increase from 32m to 40m. Not flight numbers.

    14
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    Mute Irish Citizen
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:33 PM

    40 million flights?? Flights?? Who is screening these articles

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:32 PM

    @Irish Citizen: No one.She writes a lot of BS as usual.

    9
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    Mute SV3tN8M4
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    Feb 7th 2024, 7:02 PM

    The Greens telling Porkies. Eamon Ryan on today defending his air travel, that he has to be there in person & that we shouldn’t be finger pointing, apportioning blame to anybody, bit rich from one of the biggest HYPOCRITES in Ireland, when he personally finger points those of us driving cars, farmers, those of us using air travel for holidays, one rule for Eamon & the Greens, another for Joe & Josephine Soap. Greens giving Aviation & Data Centers a free ride, even appointed an Aviation insider to one of their committee’s, Ciaran Cuffe wasn’t contacting the financial institutions, not to lend to the Aviation or Data Center industries, that hate is just reserved for farmers.

    21
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    Mute bruce banner
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:57 PM

    No principals or empathy left in the world just snuffling around in the dirt for cash. Seems every ceo has no problem with their own grand children suffering or dying. Its sad.

    16
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    Mute Dave Murray
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:12 PM

    I would say could we not wait till we get the Metro built first? But, well, you know how long we will be waiting for that pipe dream to happen.

    12
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    Mute Brendan shanahan
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:38 PM

    Strange. It’s up to Final County Council to decide. They have to date backed DAA in everything and they will again. Fingal County Council represents ??????

    11
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    Mute Padraig O'Brien
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    Feb 7th 2024, 1:31 PM

    An absolutely foolish statement!

    16
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    Mute Gearoid O'Ceilleachair
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    Feb 7th 2024, 5:55 PM

    Planetary climate is the rate of change in surface, atmospheric and oceanic conditions across latitudes as our planet rotates daily and runs a circuit of the Sun. That rate of change is determined by the relationship of daily rotational inclination to the orbital plane.

    The seasons are long-term weather, so attempting to railroad the relative success of short-term weather modelling into long-term weather modelling as ‘climate’  is a fraud, not a mistake or an overreach, but actual fraud.

    Once people understand how mathematical modellers use contrived logic to suit themselves and their dire predictions,  the more they see the horror of climate change modelling. The scam is getting to believe that empirical modelling equates to science.

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:27 PM

    @Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: you keep copy and pasting the same rubbish on every article. I look forward to your automated copy paste response

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    Mute brendan C5
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    Feb 7th 2024, 3:35 PM

    Junk science.

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    Mute Chutes
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:57 PM

    @brendan C5: No, just ignorance on your part.

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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Feb 8th 2024, 7:48 AM

    Why not reducing his salary by 50 percent in the name of economy?

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    Mute Chutes
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    Feb 7th 2024, 6:54 PM

    Only essential air travel should now be allowed, SAR, humanitarian airlifts, etc., no leisure travel should be tolerated.

    In spite of your selfish opinion, you aren’t entitled to three holidays a year at the expense of the life still on the planet, degraded as it is.

    Taking them just makes you a selfish a**h*le!

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Feb 8th 2024, 10:41 AM

    Protecting the economy:

    -pv–magazine-de.translate.goog/2024/02/08/vertikale-photovoltaik-anlage-am-flughafen-frankfurt-wird-auf-174-megawatt-ausgebaut/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

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