Author: The Mound of Sound

When it comes to methane, the technology needed to identify the source of fugitive emissions from space isn’t far off. And not just by some general area. It’s possible to identify methane released by wellhead. Better yet, it’s a way to climate-shame a political caste that has preferred to look

With an election just three months away, can we say that our political parties are really loyal to the country and our people? Loyalty is an elusive term, shifting according to circumstance. As a general rule, the more dire the situation the more focused the word becomes. Being loyal in

Donald Trump’s path to holding the White House in next year’s election was dealt a setback today by California governor Gavin Newsome. The governor signed into law today, “The Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act.” If you want to be on the California ballot you’ll have to release the past

It’s hard to believe that Orwell wrote this 70 years ago.

Yes, I just disparaged Liberal and Conservative supporters but I have my reasons.  For starters, they’re on the wrong side of what is sweeping the world, Canada included. Maybe they’ve been conditioned to believe in fairy tales, utter nonsense. Could be, I don’t know. However they’re willing to believe some

It’s hard not to speak of Donald Trump in superlatives. He’s just that sort of guy. Yes, he’s moronic. You could even say he’s completely moronic. Oh wait, that’s already been done. With 2020 coming up, the Trumpster is spoiling for a fight. If it’s not Sweden prosecuting some American

It’s Earth Overshoot Day, the earliest ever. That’s not a good thing. July 29 marks the day on which humanity, the lot of us, have consumed the total volume of biomass, freshwater and clean air that Earth can provide in an entire year. For the remaining five months of the

There’s news this morning about Teck Resources play to open a new pit in the Athabasca Tar Sands. It promises to be a major investment, 20 billion, and the company hopes it will eventually produce 85,000 barrels per day by 2026 ramping up to 260,000 barrels of bitumen goodness per

Across the Middle East, climate change-driven heatwaves and drought are giving rise to destabilizing impacts.  The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reports that the country is dangerously unprepared for global food shortages. The state, which is heavily dependent on imported grain has failed to stockpile enough reserves.Haaretz also reports that hunger has displaced religion

Maybe he’s on to something.

The climate deniers’ equivalent of “speak to the hand” is to haul out their favourite line – the climate has always been changing. It’s their version of ‘nothing to see here, move along.’ It works because those who accept the climate science have to agree with it, in part. Yes,

Did I say “brave”? Okay, leave that out – James Lovelock’s New World. Jim turned the big One Oh Oh on Friday. Happy Birthday, James. Chances are you know Lovelock for his renowned “Gaia theory” that postulates Earth behaving just like a living creature, an organism. It was controversial at

To me, one word captures the essence of climate change – faster. The onset of climate change is coming at us faster than we ever imagined even just a few years ago. Ten years ago we were still talking about how this or that might happen by 2100 if we

The near total absence of fanfare marks the release by the BC government of a 400-page climate assessment for the province for the next 30 years.  The Vancouver Sun’s Vaughn Palmer reports it makes for grim reading. More than 400 pages, the report evaluates the risks to B.C. over the

Pretty hilarious. On Tuesday, Donnie J. Trump gave an address to a conservative youth group, Turning Point USA. As Trump approached the podium, the presidential seal was displayed on a giant screen behind him. Only that’s not the presidential seal of the United States. That’s not a bald eagle but

The ancient Greeks believed in hubris and nemesis. Hubris is associated with arrogance, pride, and a dangerous overconfidence that often leads to punishing a victim. Boeing was hubristic when it set about undermining Bombardier’s C-Series jetliner. Although the Canadian C-Series jet didn’t directly compete with any plane in Boeing’s stable,

A new record for Paris, 42.4 degrees Celsius. The City of Light swelters. July record set for Amsterdam. In the UK, orders have gone out that trains must slow down to avoid warping the steel rails. A new record for Germany, 41.5C. The chief architect responsible for restoring the Notre-Dame

It used to be so much easier. There would be big news on climate change once, twice, maybe three times in a big week. It was mainly the science stuff at first. Research, analysis, projections. This might happen by 2100. We were on track to experience something else by 2050.

It seems like just last month that Europe was enduring a heatwave that saw a pile of all time temperature records broken.  Wait, why it was just last month. Ah, those pesky Europeans, they’re back at it. They just can’t stop breaking records. What, June wasn’t hot enough for you

With each worsening season public awareness of the magnitude of the threat posed by climate change increases. Priorities shift when your house is on fire. Arguments extolling the merits of fossil energy become less compelling. The contradictions can’t be ignored forever. The argument becomes increasingly more absurd. The change is