With friends like Drew Barnes, does the United Conservative Party really need enemies in these troubles times? The right-wing Frankenparty may have won the 2019 provincial election convincingly soon after it was cobbled together from the fringy Wildrose Party and the old Progressive Conservatives by former Harper Government cabinet minister
Continue readingTag: climate change denial
Politics and its Discontents: A Larger Perspective
In these uncertain times, we are all seized by concerns about Corvid-19. The prospect of death invariably focuses the mind, especially in the short-term. Facilitated by fossil-fuel propaganda and an often uncritical media, it is unfortunately easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, one that we have been warned
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A Letter from an Albertan to His Prime Minister About the Tech Mine
Over the weekend I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau about the proposed Teck Frontier tar sands mine and cc’d appropriate parties. The letter is below. I felt it was important to let the feds know that not all Albertans are in denial about the climate crisis. I hope
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: … And Now We Indoctrinate Our Children
As if we needed yet another example of Albertans’ deep denial of global warming. Education Minister Adriana LaGrange claims she is receiving reports from parents of “extremist views” being taught in the province’s schools. “There was a particular document that was shown to me recently,” she complained, “in terms of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The World’s Most Dangerous Man
There are a lot of unpleasant people running countries these days. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un for example, surrounding himself with nuclear weapons while his people starve. Or China’s Xi Jinping, who has made himself emperor. Or the homicidal crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman. Or Jair Bolsonaro of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Holocaust in Australia—We Are All Guilty
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, has been referred to as a blockhead, which is fair, and not because his large head is rather squarish. He was warned by his Department of Home Affairs that Australia faced more frequent and severe heatwaves and bush fires due to global warming. Twice
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: War Rooms and Coal Barons
Alberta’s recently constituted “war room,” sometimes known as the Canadian Energy Centre, is off to a rocky start. First we learned it plagiarized its logo and now it turns out one of its spokesmen has been misrepresenting himself as a reporter. Not an auspicious beginning for the ministry of truth.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Looking Toward Liberation
I have regular telephone conversations with my friend Dave, who lives in Winnipeg. Like me, he has a very jaundiced view of those elected to ‘serve’ us, and part of our routine is to compare and bemoan the atrocities committed by our respective provincial governments. While things are bad under
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Big Market For Humbug
In today’s New York Times, Paul Krugman takes on what he calls the “cockroach arguments” of climate change deniers. Cockroach arguments are “false claims you may think you’ve gotten rid of, but keep coming back.” Even when proved false, these arguments are recycled. Consider taking the temperature from a particularly
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Monumental Stupidity
Everyone is fixated on Hurricane Florence. News networks have sent reporters down to the Carolinas to ride out the storm. And they’re reporting — windblown and soaked to the skin — every fifteen minutes. But, Michael Harris writes, they’re missing the point: It comes down to this: Warmer air holds
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Setting The Record Straight
In theory, this primer should cut through weather-change denialism. In practice, of course, it will do no such thing. Conspiracy theories, junk science and muddled thinking, after all, are so much easier to spout. Recommend this Post
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Perfectly Orwellian
Elizabeth Shogren reports that a recently released report from The National Park Service in the United States has been edited to omit all references to human impacts on climate change: National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Balmy Weather At The Pole
Europe is experiencing a cold winter this year. But where we used to take cold weather for granted — the North Pole — something wierd is going on. Jonathan Watts reports that: The North Pole gets no sunlight until March, but an influx of warm air has pushed temperatures in
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not A Hopeful Sign
As much as I have long been an advocate for the development and honing of critical thinking skills (while readily admitting that I often fall short of the mark – for me, it is always a work in progress), I regret to report, via the CBC, that there is much,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: When It Serves Economic Interests, Ignorance Is A National Policy
Burying their heads in rapidly disappearing sand is something of a national characteristic of Americans when it comes to climate change. However, when it is aided, abetted and promoted by monied interests, all should be concerned. I think it is reasonably well-known that several states have banned any references to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Capitalism and Climate Change
In today’s Guardian, George Monbiot writes that capitalism — and, most particularly, neo-liberal capitalism — cannot solve the problem of climate change. It can only exacerbate it: As Milton Friedman, one of the architects of neoliberal ideology, put it: “Ecological values can find their natural space in the market, like
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Drowning In Ignorance
Just before Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, Rush Limbaugh raged at climate scientists. Paul Krugman writes: On Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh accused weather scientists of inventing Irma’s threat for political and financial reasons: “There is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Simply Shameful
The other day I noted the difference between Canadian and American coverage of natural disasters. Canadian news does not shy away from references to, and analyses of, climate change, while American news, doubtlessly due to corporate decree, treats it as a theoretical/ideological/political construct not to be mentioned. Apparently, not running
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the Ottawa bashing, Jason Kenney launches bid to lead UCP pitching coded woo to religious right
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney makes it official he’s running to lead Alberta’s United Conservative Party at Edmonton’s Italian Cultural Centre yesterday (Photo: Radio Canada). Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley and Education Minister David Eggen. How soon before Jason Kenney makes permitting the teaching of “creation science” in Alberta schools a formal
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Thing Of Beauty: Rick Perry’s Comeuppance At The Hands Of Al Franken
If you start at the two-minute mark, you will see the start of Senator Al Franken’s public humiliation of Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, as the latter amply demonstrates both his intellectual deficiencies and his abject obeisance to the oil industry. a Recommend this Post
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