In a New York Times article, “What do teens learn online today?“, Elizabeth Weil suggests that kids are on the right track when they stream every inch of their anguish and joys in countless video tutorials aimed at, perhaps a necessary clarification, other teens. Weil says, “It’s nice if our fellow
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Paul Gorski on Education and Inequity
For the first time in 28 years of teaching, I approve of the new guru being brought to the masses from on high. Immediately, from just the first few seconds of the video we were compelled to watch for some force-fed professional development, I knew this guy was different. The sound was
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Kyle Whyte on Wilderness
I saw Dr. Kyle Whyte present at the University of Waterloo on Thursday night on climate change, traditional knowledge, and environmental justice. It was similar to what he said in this video, but longer and with a Q&A at the end. It was eye-opening in the worst way – in
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cycling Rant
If cycling is part of your life, it looks like the NDP comes way ahead in terms of addressing cycling concerns. Extinction Rebellion is clear about the need for car-free streets as part of action to decrease the threats of climate change. And even my city claims to be moving
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: LIberals the Best Bet for Climate Change
A climate scientists, Katharine Hayhoe, and economist, Andrew Leach, seem to suggest that the Liberals are our best bet for tackling climate change if you averages the grades they gave for ambition and feasibility. I know! I was surprised too. Here are their final grades: Conservatives: grade D for ambition,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Online Predators
From Keller & Dance’s article, ‘The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?“ Some of the less brutal bits: “An investigation by The New York Times found an insatiable criminal underworld that had exploited the flawed and insufficient efforts to contain it. As with hate
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Like a Good Horror Film?
Most terrifying thing I’ve seen: We’re headed for 10 degrees in the next 20-30 years, and we will hit human extinction at 4 degrees?? Do I even bother to go to work today?? We’ve missed the window that could allow a gentle reversal. The only solution, he says, is to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Lesser of Two Evils
This is a great interview with Trudeau that asks all the important questions:
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Why We Won’t Sufficate
…even if the entire rainforest burns down: Hank Green explains it here in just four minutes:
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Mann’s Madhouse Effect
Michael Mann recently tweeted this: It’s dumb luck that I chanced to do just that! This book a comprehensive exploration of the issues mixed with clear examples and Tom Toles’s cartoons. It could easily be used as a climate change primer in a high school or middle school, and it
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Nathaniel Rich’s Losing Earth
This is a quick read outlining the history of the efforts to do something to slow down fossil fuel use. Everything we know now about climate change, pretty much, we knew with great certainty forty years ago, in 1979. “The climate scientist James Hansen has called a 2-degree warming ‘a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Maintaining Firm Categories: Do Labels Matter?
This link about people on the spectrum came to my FB feed as “Sponsored Content,” so I’m wary at the get go, but they present this argument to be addressed: “Autism is a neurological difference in processing, and simply having a collection of traits or quirks without this difference in processing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Plague of Climate Change
I just finished Camus’s compelling read, The Plague. It’s a parable provoked by the Nazi Occupation, but also about general occupation, oppression, and isolation. It’s about resistance to incomprehensible evil and what it looks like to be a good person. But, it’s striking how well what much of he says fits
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hannah Arendt’s On Violence
Unfortunately, this is really timely. Arendt wrote this short book in 1970, but there’s nothing in it that needs to be updated today. Absolutely nothing significant has changed; it’s just more. She was responding to the violence of WWII, Vietnam, the student riots in Paris, and, most specifically, the People’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: We Don’t Need a Scientist; We Need a Priest
PhilosophyTube is one of my favourite channels for in-depth analysis of issues in a philosophical and comedic yet profoundly heartfelt manner. Today Ollie tackled “Climate Grief” by working through the stages of grief. It’s curious how similar it is to my previous post: “Seven Shades of Green.” In brief: 1.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Seven Shades of Green
I’m trying to sort out all the solutions to the current and ongoing climate catastrophe. This is all getting very complicated, and I’m not sure I completely have my head around who’s who and which organization is promoting what, so this is just a partially completed overview of current ideology
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The 1619 Project
From the opening: “The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Giant Hamster Wheel of Political Rhetoric
I really believe that the arts are vital in times of strife, and that’s particularly true with witty orators and writers. They are the court jesters who get away with more than the rest of us can, and they’re necessary to any rebellion. So I appreciate how Anthony Jeselnik discusses
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: IPCC – On Land Use
The most recent IPCC special report is on “desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems”. The video at Lorne’s post does a nice summary, and Climate and Capitalism has a thorough run-down, but Mound‘s has more flavour to it. GlobalEcoGuy has some
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Planet of the Humans Coming Film Release
Jeff Gibbs, a close associate of Michael Moore, has directed a new doc about the problems with green solutions to climate change. The doc isn’t out yet, but the promotional material suggests it will reveal how solar panels and electric cars are making the situation worse. So NOW what do
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