Author: Dan Moutal

John Oliver gives a great summary of why Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement makes absolutely no sense Or as David Roberts puts it: An agreement cannot be both nonbinding and draconian (Spoiler: Paris is the former) Early on in the speech, Trump said: “Thus, as of today,

What drives scientists? – Richard Alley’s Golden Nugget h/t Variable Variability

It is not something to say I chose not to believe e-mc2; YOU DONT HAVE THAT OPTION! When you have an established scientific emergent truth, it is true whether or not you belive in it and the sooner you understand that the faster we can get on with the political

I started my 25 Radiation treatments today. 1 down and 24 to go.

Chair of House Science Committee Says the Journal ‘Science’ Is Not Objective

The hope is that the radiation will stop the growth of my tumour. It wont’t, however, remove it. The success rate is roughly equivalent of the success rate of surgery (90%), and there is a greater chance of not loosing function on the left side of my face and keeping

… before the EPA

Hans Rosling, one of the most enlightening science communicators, passed away last week. It was his first Ted talk that thrust renowned Swedish academic Hans Rosling into the international spotlight in 2006, billed as the man in whose hands data sings. Since then, the statistician more likely to illustrate an

The greatest story ever told ended today: Stuart McLean, the host of CBC Radio’s The Vinyl Café and an award-winning humorist, has died at age 68 after a battle with melanoma. McLean’s trademark blend of storytelling — part nostalgia, part pithy observations about everyday life — and folksy, familiar delivery

I have a tumour; the good news is that the doctors believe it is benign. The bad news is that while it may be non-malignant it definitely isn’t benign (at least not by any reasonable definition of benign). I have a facial nerve schwannoma. It is a slow-growing, rarely malignant

This is exceedingly good news! Yes these elder statesmen Republicans aren’t elected members of the government, and yes it will be difficult to convince elected Republicans of the importance of climate change, but this is what a first step looks like. In fact once you get past the knee jerk

After the horrific events at the Mosque in Quebec it is worth remembering that hatred doesn’t stop at the border. The suspect in the deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque was known in the city’s activist circles as an online troll who was inspired by extreme right-wing French nationalists,

Trump Bars Refugees and Citizens of 7 Muslim Countries WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, ordering that families fleeing the slaughter in Syria be indefinitely blocked from entering the United States, and temporarily suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries.

For a while now, those who deny climate change (like the majority of elected Republican officials) have complained that climate science has been politicized and therefore cannot be trusted. The evidence for this has always fallen apart under the most superficial of scrutiny. Yet less than a week into the

The opponents of the Keystone XL and other pipelines have to keep on winning, forever, while those trying to build pipelines, or similar projects, only have to win once I said those words 4 years ago, and sadly it looks like I was right: President Trump signed an executive action

Fidel Castro was the best Dictator the Cubans ever had, But Cubans deserve better than a dictatorship.

This isn’t a 2ºC or bust fight. It’s a fight to limit consequences. It’s a fight for every 1/10 of a degree. If we fail to hold to 2ºC, we have to fight for 2.1º; failing that, we battle on for 2.2º. With millennia of impacts at stake, we never

The end of the world as we know it The Trump victory in the US presidential election is a victory for incoherence (also racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and denialism). During the campaign Trump never once articulated a coherent set of policies, he never explained how he was going to “Make America