It seemed like a grim consolation prize in the global overpopulation sweepstakes, the notion that mankind’s numbers would peak at somewhere in the vicinity of 9-billion before eventually ebbing to a more sustainable level. Well, so much for that. A new study says we’re heading for 11-billion by 2100 and
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Politics and its Discontents: And Speaking of Disappearances…
It seems like the silence over the disappearing Environment Canada committee discussed in my previous post may have had its precedent set back in 2012, when another strange silence was orchestrated over another disappearance. Margaret Munro, in The Ottawa Citizen, reports new evidence of the Harper regime suppressing information Canadians
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: No Surprise Here- An Update
Tuesday’s post discussed the apparent disappearance of a committee made up of representatives from Environment Canada, the Alberta government and oil and gas companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the tarsands. Investigative reporter Mike De Souza provides important new information about this committee on his website. Putting the heat
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Another Part of the Puzzle – Our Warming Oceans
The playpen of climate change denialists is on temperature change. They like to cherry pick statistics, sweep the bulk of the data under the carpet, and declare that global warming has stopped. Not so fast. Here’s an example of what the denialist mantra carefully omits. This is a depiction of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – In a theme all too familiar based on Brad Wall’s use of millions of public dollars to pay for access to U.S. lawmakers, Simon Enoch discusses the connections between Wall and ALEC: Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough is both a member and State corporate
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Meet The Newest Inductee Into Harper’s Enemies List
Warning to Harper Conservatives: If you see this man, do not approach. He is considered armed with charisma and passion for the environment that could be very dangerous to your leader. Last known Canadian sighting: Fort McMurray. Known Associates: Environmental radicals. Here is an example of DiCaprio’s attempts at subverting
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: No Surprise Here – Part Two
Given Stephen Harper’s most recent demonstrated indifference to climate change, I report the following with no surprise, only a degree of tired resignation: Environment Canada appears to have quietly ended key discussions that were intended to tackle carbon pollution from the oil and gas industry. A committee made up of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – In the context of Scotland’s referendum on independence, Polly Toynbee reminds us why fragmentation can only serve to exacerbate inequality – a lesson worth keeping in mind as the Cons look to devolve responsibility for taxation and public services in Canada: What’s
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Texas Brainwashing Youth
Well I guess North Korea doesn’t have a monopoly on this any more. The great state of Texas wants to implant lies in the minds of its youngsters. Texas has proposed re-writing school text books to incorporate passages denying the existence of climate change and promoting the discredited views of
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: 200,000 protesters won’t stop corporations from dominating UN
The United Nations will host dozens of governments, corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) during a one-day Climate Summit 2014 in New York on September 23rd but, alas, according to scientists and environmentalists, the meeting will deal mainly with only one limited way of fighting climate change. In recent years the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: There’s This Story Making the Rounds…
It’s an item from Reuters that has been picked up by a number of newspapers, including The Globe & Mail. It concerns a study that found one species of algae has managed to adapt fairly quickly to warming and more acidic oceans. What’s interesting is that the authors of the study
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How South Americans are Killing Their Environment
In some places, cutting down trees can have huge consequences. In South America, the impacts are especially far-reaching. Deforestation has picked up again in the Amazon. That, in turn, is causing havoc to the region’s hydrological cycle, triggering severe drought. The unprecedented drought now affecting São Paulo, South America’s giant
Continue reading350 or bust: Climate Disruption: Why Do We Do So Little When We Know So Much?
* This weekend in New York City, and at solidarity events around the globe, the People’s Climate March:
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Harper’s True Loyalties
In response to yesterday’s post about Stephen Harper’s boycott of a major climate change summit hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on September 23, Anon wrote the following, and offered this video which, I think you will agree, is a most appropriate choice: Harper, early on,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: No Surprise Here
Rather typical, wouldn’t you say?UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is hosting a major climate summit in New York on September 23, “to mobilize political will” towards reducing global emissions. U.S. President Barack Obama will be attending, as will U.K. Prime Minster David Cameron. In fact, 125 heads of state will
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Naomi Klein’s Confession – Is It Yours, Too?
In the run-up to the release of her new book, “This Changes Everything,” Naomi Klein has come clean. For far too long she was in what she describes as a “soft denial” about climate change. Does this sound familiar? “A great many of us engage in this kind of denial.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – James Meek observes that decades of privatization in the UK have eliminated public control over housing and other essential services – and that privatization takes far more forms than we’re accustomed to taking into consideration. And Rick Salutin offers his take on
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Climate Change Defence. District Attorney Drops Charges Against Anti-Coal Protesters.
In May, 2013, Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara used their lobster boat to block a ship carrying a load of coal for a power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts. At trial the pair intended to argue a form of the defence of necessity. They planned to argue that coal burning worsens
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