This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jessica Wildfire examines how employees are being illegally forced to put their health at risk by employers determined to impose policies which facilitate the spread of COVID-19. And Craig Ellingson and Chelan Skulski report on the Alberta Medical Association’s warning that the province’s health
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A Puff of Absurdity: The One with the Apocalypse
I recently watched a few things, back to back, to distract me from the news. One was openly apocalyptical, as so much is these days. Is it a trend, or is the output the same, but I just never gravitated to it so much?? I’ve also noticed a rise in
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Not governed by reasonable people
Given the ultimate consequences, reasonable people should be applying the precautionary principle on climate and environmental matters. I suppose that means our governments are not populated by reasonable people.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Solar geoengineering, yes or no?
Responding to a mention of climate scientist Michael Mann (U of Pennsylvania), reader Tim Smith linked to an article by independent researcher Robert Chris and Hugh Hunt (Cambridge). It is titled: The […]
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Staggering. Unnerving. Mind-boggling. Absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.
I spent time recently listening to and reading Chris Turner, a Calgary based journalist and author of numerous books. Turner has become a climate change optimist. In contrast, I lean toward climate pessimism, the belief that causes will not be fully addressed, at least until catastrophe severely affects powerful groups
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matthew Rosza reports on the continued toll of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including over 1,000 deaths per week in the U.S. alone along with massive numbers of hospitalizations. Lauren Pelley highlights how health care workers are being burdened with unmanageable case loads and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Adam King discusses how governments and employers have memory-holed some of the most important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic as to the need for paid sick leave to ensure workplaces don’t exacerbate the spread of dangerous diseases. – Debbie Cenziper, Michael Sallah
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Living in a Nightmare
“Many describe living in a sort of waking, powerless nightmare where an obvious catastrophe is unfolding but society just blithely ignores it.” That’s from this Guardian article from May 2022 that could have been written today, and possibly needs to be written every day to wake us up: “People have
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The cost of emissions just went up
With gorgeous blue prairie skies all too often transformed into smoky shrouds, we have just experienced a summer that brought climate change home. We are aware of the fires, the floods, the storms, the droughts, the heat waves, the rising sea levels, the effects on our health, but what’s the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Nandini Gautam discusses the World Health Organization’s research showing how COVID-19 damages the human immune system. And Adam Kucharski takes a look at historic accounts of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic as a grim foreshadowing of how history books will look back on the public
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: A captured government
An excerpt from a newsletter published by a international non-governmental organization is worth attention. Toronto Star reports the Danielle Smith convoy that travelled to the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference in Dubai actually involved 150 government and petroleum industry representatives.,,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Damian Carrington reports on Antonio Guterres’ warning to COP28 that we’re already in the midst of a climate collapse. Katelyn Reinhart discusses new research showing how existing climate studies underestimate the effects of extreme heat. And Nicholas Beuret writes about the unequal responsibility
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Mark Sumner discusses the World Health Network’s recognition that the damage from COVID-19 includes harm to people’s immune systems which has made the effect of other diseases more severe. – Patrick Metzger examines how the climate crisis is accelerating faster than anticipated. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The Canadian Press reports on Statistics Canada’s findings that Canadian life spans have fallen for three years in a row – with Saskatchewan continuing to face the most extreme decline. And Codi Wilson reports on Toronto’s closure of its remaining COVID-19 vaccination clinics
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Fracking Hell!
Sunday was the busiest day ever for air travel in the U.S. Almost 3 million people were screened at airports across the country. Meanwhile, Gianluca Grimalda lost his job doing climate-change fieldwork because he refused to take a plane back to the office, choosing a much longer journey home that took
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Empty promises and unmet pledges
The 28th United Nations Climate Change conference begins this week in a middle east petrostate. UAE hired a team of lobbyists to “inoculate” COP28 and Sultan al-Jaber from “any potential criticism” and drum up support from “politically influential individuals.” COP28 president designate Jaber is managing director and group CEO of the Abu
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: The most dangerous expansion of fossil fuel in the world
In November 2023, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkeley, along with more than 60 congressional colleagues, asked the U.S. Department of Energy to reconsider liquified natural gas (LNG) policies because those do not “fully or accurately consider how these exports impact the climate, environmental justice, or domestic energy prices.”
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Andrew Nikiforuk discusses the 10 inescapable laws of pandemics – and the grim future they portend in light of our pitiful response to the social challenges posed by COVID-19. And Jessica Wildfire writes that the effects of repeated COVID infections on people’s immune
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Climate crisis failure
According to IEA, Canada’s per capita emissions of methane are almost three time the global average, more than half from the energy sector. Methane releases in Canada are likely worse than reported because the energy industry and government regulators have had little interest in publishing accurate measurements.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Emissions gap is really an emissions canyon
Progress in dealing with climate change is too slow to meet stated climate goals. The world is on course to see global temperatures rise as much as 2.9°C above preindustrial levels if current climate action commitments remain unchanged. Canada is headed for 5.7°C in 2100 according to Berkeley Earth.
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