It is great to see Canada playing a productive role on the World stage.The Trudeau government’s pledge of $2.65 billion dollars to help developing countries with sustainability is important. It shows Canada takes climate change seriously. It is imp…
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Accidental Deliberations: Burning questions
Does anybody actually believe for a second that a Republican-dominated Congress will be more willing to ratify a climate change treaty simply because it doesn’t contain binding targets?And if not, doesn’t a deliberate failure to include binding targets…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Learning How to Live in the New and Harperless Canada
It's a strange feeling. I want to celebrate the end of Stephen Harper's ghastly Con regime. I want to think that the monster has disappeared into his own darkness.But I still can't quite believe it. And what with the state of the world, an…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Suzuki’s No Slave To The Economy
I hope we see meaningful changes in our economy, in time. There’s not a great understanding in our society that the economy is a system of resource distribution. We’ve enshrined it, even creating a phony holiday today when our retail gods go into the black. .@SheilaColesCBC @MMandryk "Who would say today that the economy should […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Mariana Mazzucato discusses the futility of slashing government without paying attention to what it’s intended to accomplish. And Sheila Block and Kaylie Tiessen are particularly critical of Ontario’s short-term sell…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Fossil fuel lobby seen as main threat to meaningful progress in Paris
- Instead of governments taxing emitters – a simple and inexpensive system to operate – corporations want to create a world market where polluters and investors can buy and sell carbon credits. They claim the system would help spur investments in low-carbon energy However, this system has worked poorly in Europe and is vulnerable to abuse.
- The fossil fuel industry wants governments and the public to acknowledge natural gas as a “clean energy source.” This would result in significant increases of fracking in many parts of the world. It’s true that gas, when burnt, has low emissions, but the fracking process leaks methane into the atmosphere, which is 80 times worse than carbon.
- The ‘net zero’ proposal: Rather than attempting to reduce emissions to zero, ’net zero’ means that some emissions can keep rising. The industry says this would be offset in the future via the removal of emissions from the atmosphere when yet-to-be developed technologies make the removal possible.
- According to Shell, going to net zero would allow them to keep burning fossil fuels for the rest of this Century. This would be balanced off by the – so far – theoretical removal of carbon from the atmosphere at some point in the future.
While public interest groups will be kept mainly on the sidelines, corporations are being allowed to hold at least 10 special events for government officials. Names of some of the sessions: “Business and Climate: A positive revolution for companies?”; “The Future is Looking Up”; and “Energy for Tomorrow.”
A Different Point of View....: Fossil fuel lobby seen as main threat to meaningful progress in Paris
In the early-1950s, when it became widely known that smoking caused cancer, giant tobacco companies formed the Tobacco Industry Research Council (TIRC). Its main goal was to deny the harmful effects of tobacco and confuse the public. The tobacco lobby wormed its way into the United Nations’ World Health Organization
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Fossil fuel lobby seen as main threat to meaningful progress in Paris
In the early-1950s, when it became widely known that smoking caused cancer, giant tobacco companies formed the Tobacco Industry Research Council (TIRC). Its main goal was to deny the harmful effects of tobacco and confuse the public. The tobacco lobby …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Brad Wall is looking like more and more of a climate change laggard compared to every other leader in Western Canada.For further reading…- CTV broke down the state of provincial climate commitments here. But as John Klein noted, the Sask…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- George Monbiot discusses the inherent conflict between consumption and conservation:We can persuade ourselves that we are living on thin air, floating through a weightless economy, as gullible futurologists pr…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- David Ball talks to Joseph Stiglitz about inequality and its causes – including the spread of corporate control through trade agreements:What would you say is the dominant cause [of growing inequality]…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- David Olive talks to Robert Reich about his work fighting inequality:There are certain irrefutable facts besides water always running downhill. There is no arguing, for instance, that the U.S. era Reich describe…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower’s Plan Isn’t Ambitious
SaskPower’s new target, announced by the Premier last week, is out. .@PremierBradWall @SKGov This doesn't seem overly ambitious, given #ABclimate's goals. Can't Sask do more than Alberta? #skpoli #PowerToGrow — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) November 23, 2015 We’re procuring 100 MW of wind generation in 2016 and will develop up to 1600 MW between 2019-2030. #powertogrow pic.twitter.com/CwMjPsvEeF […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Upstream offers a summary of the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s latest report, with particular emphasis on growing inequality in health metrics due to social factors despite increased funding into the …
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s climate-change strategy: Rachel Notley builds a coalition of big business, environmentalists and civil society
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley with leaders of the remarkable coalition on climate change her NDP government has built (Government of Alberta Photo). Below: Brian Jean, Alberta’s complaint-of-the-day Opposition leader; Gary Doer, three-term ND…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Who said what about the NDP’s ambitious Made-in-Alberta Climate Change Plan
Pigs continued to fly in Alberta politics today as energy industry leaders and environmental groups joined Premier Rachel Notley and Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips at a press conference to release Alberta’s much anticipated plan…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Louis-Philippe Rochon explains how higher taxes on the wealthy can be no less a boon for the economy than for the goal of social equality:In fact, empirical analysis shows that while the relationship between hig…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Karen Brettel and David Rohde discuss how the cult of shareholder value is destroying the concept of corporations actually making anything useful. And Deirdre Hipwell writes that the financial-sector workers …
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Is your pension in climate denial?
Fossil fuel divestment campaigns have become a focus for climate change organizing, targeting university endowments, churches, foundations and pension funds. While the motivations are primarily moral—if it is wrong to wreck the climate, it is wrong to profit from that wreckage—there are important economic arguments for divestment. If we are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Martin Whittaker reminds us that the American public is eager for a far more fair distribution of income than the one provided for by the U.S.’ current political and economic ground rules. But Christo Aivalis writes that there’s a difference between a
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