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Politics and its Discontents: Climate Change And Cities

May

8

2017

This is a time when the credibility of national governments is at an all-time low. In the United States, Donald Trump openly denies climate science. Indeed, he has declared his intention to revive the coal industry and boost fracking, two very dangerous sources of environmental disruption. He is even musing about withdrawing the U.S. from ...

Politics and its Discontents: The Ultimate Disposable Species

May

6

2017

My mother was fond of repeating an old adage: “You’ve made your bed. Now lie it it.” While that advice, in one form or another, has probably been meted out for centuries, renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking apparently doesn’t think very much of it. In “Expedition New Earth” — a documentary that debuts this summer ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links

May

5

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Clive Hamilton discusses the accelerating calamity of climate change which we’re allowing to happen: Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet in the face of these facts ...

The Disaffected Lib: What Lurks Beneath?

May

4

2017

Let’s be fair. Climate change isn’t all bad. Then again, it’s a safe bet that Abraham Lincoln’s last visit to the Ford Theatre was pretty decent right up to the point of that gunshot. One of the good things about global warming, we’re told, is that it will make cold places a bit more liveable. ...

Politics and its Discontents: Weather Porn

May

4

2017

Since few seem willing to confront root causes, I guess that’s what these stories of weather disasters are becoming. Recommend this Post

Environmental Law Alert Blog: What does it mean for Chevron when glaciers have the right to sue?

May

3

2017

Wednesday, May 3, 2017 Last month, several major natural features were recognized – by governments and courts – as legal persons. First, the New Zealand government enacted a new law declaring the Whanganui River a legal person. A couple of days later, the Uttarakhand High Court, in India, granted personhood to the Ganges and Yamuna ...

PostArctica: River High, Shore Erosion In Verdun

May

2

2017

The Saint Lawrence has been much higher than usual this spring in Verdun. Today I walked between the Natatorium and the Marina and there were parts of the lower path already washed out. My first concern is that many trees along the shoreline have already leaned into the river and I wonder if this erosion ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Evening Links

May

2

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Trade Justice reports on Justin Trudeau’s role in pushing for an international corporate giveaway through a new Trans-Pacific Partnership – even as the country whose capital class largely shaped it before has no interest in participating. And James Munson reports that Justin Trudeau is officially more secretive ...

Politics and its Discontents: It’s Too Late

May

2

2017

As of late, after reading and viewing all of the bad news the world has to offer, especially with regard to rising sea levels and increasingly violent and intense storms wrought by climate change, I have come to the conclusion that there is no hope for us as a species. This is a new conclusion ...

The Disaffected Lib: Change You Can Believe In, Even If You Would Rather Not

Apr

27

2017

It caused a ruckus (is that still a word?) back in 2013. Four years ago, can you imagine? That’s when we learned that atmospheric carbon dioxide had broken through the 400 ppm mark for the first time in – well it seemed like forever. Many hundreds of thousands of years to be sure. Guess what? ...

Accidental Deliberations: New column day

Apr

27

2017

Here, on the Libs’ delayed climate change action as going beyond mere backloading of promises to outright destruction in the meantime. For further reading…– For just a few examples of the backloading in the Libs’ budget, see the Northern View’s interview with Nathan Cullen. – The latest report to the United Nations Framework Convention on ...

Politics and its Discontents: We Reap What We Sow, Eh?

Apr

25

2017

The news is very bad, but that isn’t really news for those of us who follow climate change: A new international report shows that Arctic temperatures are rising higher and faster than expected, and the effects are already being felt around the world. Among the findings in this year’s report: – The Arctic Ocean could ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark’s LNG promises are nothing but hot air

Apr

24

2017

Premier Christy Clark at her government’s LNG conference (Province of BC/Flickr) We have all been screwed, blued and tattooed in the riding of West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky, and let me tell you how this affects every British Columbian in every region of the province. Just as Kinder Morgan would use the Salish Sea as the sewage disposal and ...

Politics and its Discontents: Zelig, Anyone?

Apr

24

2017

I don’t know how many of you remember the 1983 Wood Allen film, Zelig, in which Allen plays an individual with the uncanny ability to take on the characteristics of those around him. The only problem, as I recall, was that there was no real individual at Leonard Zelig’s core, just a skilled chameleon whose ...

Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links

Apr

22

2017

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Eva Schaherl offers her take on how to fight against climate change: Stop being distracted by the “Sad!” theatre of the Greatest Show on Earth across our southern border. In Canada our leadership debates should be focused on how to save the world’s life-support systems, not imitating the ...

Accidental Deliberations: Leadership 2017 Links

Apr

22

2017

The latest from the NDP’s federal leadership campaign. – The Canadian Press reports on Pat Stogran’s official campaign launch. And Alex Ballingall highlights Stogran’s criticism of Justin Trudeau’s empty-suit governance, while Jeremy Nuttall focuses on his message about challenging politics as usual. – Charlie Smith interviews Peter Julian about his “just transition” energy policy and ...

Politics and its Discontents: Trudeau Dissected: A Guest Post By Pamela MacNeil

Apr

18

2017

In response to yesterday’s post on Justin Trudeau, frequent contributor Pamela MacNeil left the following response, which I am taking the liberty of featuring as a guest post today: Bill McKibben is spot on in his assessment of Trudeau and his hypocritical betrayal of supporting climate change, Lorne. While climate change is one of the ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

Apr

18

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Bill McKibben highlights Justin Trudeau’s disingenuousness in pretending to care about climate change while insisting on exploiting enough fossil fuels to irreparably damage our planet. – Juliet Eilperin examines how Donald Trump is letting industry lobbyists trash any protections for U.S. workers. And Dave Jamieson reminds us ...

Politics and its Discontents: When Is The Anti-Trump Not The Anti-Trump?

Apr

17

2017

Answer: When you scratch beneath the surface of Justin Trudeau’s soaring rhetoric. In his scathing assessment of our prime minister, 350.og founder Bill McKibben says that Trudeau is, in fact, a fellow traveller with Donald Trump when it comes to climate change, something I suspect more and more thinking Canadians are discovering: Trudeau says all ...

A Puff of Absurdity: Living in Glass Houses

Apr

17

2017

Über environmentalist Bill McKibben tells us, in The Guardian today, to “stop swooning over Justin Trudeau”: Look all you want, in fact – he sure is cute, the planet’s only sovereign leader who appears to have recently quit a boy band. And he’s mastered so beautifully the politics of inclusion: compassionate to immigrants, insistent on ...

Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links

Apr

14

2017

Assorted content to end your week. – Jordan Brennan and Kaylie Tiessen write that it’s long past time to set a level of federal revenue sufficient to support the social programs Canadians want: In the decades since [corporate-driven] reforms were undertaken, Canada experienced a significant deterioration in its macroeconomic performance: business investment has worsened and ...

Environmental Law Alert Blog: Climate in the 2017 BC Election

Apr

12

2017

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 In an earlier post we compared the BC Liberal and BC NDP Climate plans in advance of the upcoming election. Now that the BC Green Party has released its climate plan, Staff Counsel Andrew Gage provides an update to our scorecard evaluating the platforms of all three parties. In an earlier ...

A Puff of Absurdity: A Bigger Problem with Air Travel

Apr

12

2017

It was almost four years ago that Nature, a highly reputable peer-reviewed science journal, published a paper that suggests that climate change is going to affect us sooner rather than later. We will stop our more destructive habits like air travel, mass consumerism, factory farming…, but by choice or necessity is yet to be seen. ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

Apr

11

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Daniel Munro highlights how Uber and other service apps manipulate their workers. And The New York Times’ editorial board warns about the false promises of the gig economy: In reality, there is no utopia at companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Handy, whose workers are often manipulated ...

Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

Apr

9

2017

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Abi Wilkinson writes about the importance of making social benefits universal in order to reflect a sense of shared interests and purpose: Universal aspects of the welfare state tend to be thought of as the fruit of common endeavour. The NHS tops the list of things that ...