This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Saima Iqbal discusses new research showing how much of the COVID-19 virus people emit while contagious. And Erica Edwards reports on the development of blood tests to help confirm the biological basis of long COVID. – Emile Torres warns that the chaotic
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Bruce Arthur discusses how last week’s rallies for bigotry are reflective of a broader social illness which is being encouraged by right-wing parties and politicians. And Charlie Angus writes about his experience on the receiving end of violent authoritarian rhetoric and personal threats.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Wildfires — deadly for some, unhealthy for hundreds of millions
Stanford research reveals the rapidly growing influence of wildfire smoke on air quality trends across much of North America. Wildfire smoke in recent years has slowed or reversed progress toward cleaner air. Tens of millions of people suffer degraded health, thousands die…
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Big state takes on big oil—a lesson for Alberta?
Someone reading this blog might get the impression I take pleasure in hearing about environmental lawsuits against oil companies and their friends. They would be right. I do. And so I enjoyed hearing about perhaps the most prominent climate lawsuit in the U.S. California, the most populous state in the
Continue readingClaiming Joy & Healing Amidst the Climate Emergency : Cultivating Mindfulness While The Climate Emergency Clock is Ticking
This past June I had the good fortune to spend five days on a family kayaking trip in Pacific Rim National Park, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. It was amazing to spend time in this part of the world, with its important indigenous history and stunning beauty. While
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Western Canada’s plans for fossil fuel expansion are the second largest in the world
2023 is the worst ever year for areas burned by wildfires in British Columbia, Alberta and the entire nation of Canada. For years before 2023, despite huge sums invested by the public to improve firefighting responses, areas burned were trending upward. So what is the response by Canada’s federal and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Chris Hedges interviews Matt Kennard about the hostile corporate takeover of democracy. And Adam King highlights how Canada’s oil industry is profiteering at public expense while using the harm done by their own greed to promote the right-wing politicians in their pocket. – Jennifer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Borg discusses how the climate breakdown is compressing planetary changes which would normally take millions of years into individual lifetimes – even as petropoliticians seek to increase the damage we’re doing to our living environment. And Edna Mohamed writes that climate
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Covid or Climate: Can’t it be both?
In a local school board meeting from last June, in which they discussed their plan to remove HEPAs in rooms that had mechanical ventilation added (as if it’s and either/or option), they first discussed how far they’ve overshot their energy budget. There were clear implications that Covid mitigations had forced
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: American attitudes toward climate change
A 2022 study1 by investigators from Yale and George Mason universities reported survey results after Americans were questioned about climate change. I suspect ignorance would be lower and expressions of concern would be higher in Canada since this country is not bombarded with reckless disinformation to the extent experienced by
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Precarious times
If we paid more attention to impacts of climate change, we would demand our governments take immediate and effective action, not offer promises that solutions will somehow be in place by 2050. Warning signs are plentiful in 2023. NASA reports that current warming is happening at a rate not seen
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Will Stone discusses what’s still a limited state of knowledge around long COVID even as it continues to strike – and cause devastating effects – for ever more people. And CBC News reports on Evan Abene’s advocacy for continued masking to limit the COVID-19
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Stages of Genocide
We like to think we are way beyond barbarity and that the outrageously cruel acts of the past (many not in the too distant past) will never be anything we consider again. But neoliberal capitalism feeds an addiction to profits, and addicts will do anything to get a fix. We
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Damian Carrington reports on a “scientific health check” showing that Earth’s life support systems are well outside what’s safe for humanity. But Jonathan Cook discusses how an obsession with growth over health and well-being is preventing us from taking any meaningful steps to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mary Van Beusekom discusses new research showing that a quarter of COVID-19 survivors are still facing impaired lung function (among other health problems) a year after infection. And Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write about the CDC’s approval of new vaccines better targeted toward
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – John Woodside weighs in on the UN’s recognition of the need to stop our dependence on dirty energy. And Jillian Ambrose reports on the International Energy Agency’s projections which foresee the beginning of the end of fossil fuel use. – Leo Collis points
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Star’s editorial board writes that there’s still every reason to take precautions to avoid the spread of COVID-19, while Frances Ryan points out how disabled and vulnerable people haven’t been so privileged as to be able to pretend it’s ever gone away. And
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Aug 3: The day Danielle Smith kneecapped wind and solar energy
The low point of my summer (and there were many with this UCP government) came on Aug 3 when Danielle Smith announced a 7 month moratorium on wind and solar renewable energy projects—a decision that paralyses more than 100 projects valued at $33 billion—ostensibly to address policy concerns that could
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Leaving the Goldilocks Zone
This very brief TikTok from view.from.my.eyes is a perfect metaphor (and reality) of our current situation: @top_jumbomortgage_lender #greece #flood ♬ original sound – steve Check out the people on the left, some of whom continue to eat and drink as if this is all dinner theatre. Nothing will wake us
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Rebecca Leber highlights how drilling in the Arctic and other high-cost fossil fuel extraction plans are based on a sociopathic bet against any prospect of limiting the harm from a climate breakdown. Carl Meyer reports on new research showing that 90% of Saskatchewan’s
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