Assorted content to end your week. – Adam Bienkov highlights the evidence from the UK’s COVID-19 inquiry which has demonstrated the utter neglect for public health from Boris Johnson and the political system around him, while Andrew Nikiforuk offers a reminder that the pandemic is still roiling around us. And Tinker
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Bryan Harris, Steve Bernard and Chris Campbell discuss the danger that a drying Amazon rain forest will accelerate the climate breakdown. – Jordan Omstead reports on Canada’s place of shame as one of the countries looking to increas carbon pollution in the
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Deader than a doornail
According to the godfather of climate science, the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, is “deader than a doornail.”
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ajit Niranjan reports on the Copernicus Climate Change Service’s findings that 2023 is on pace to be the hottest year on record, with October’s temperatures at 1.7 degrees above the pre-industrial level. – Damian Carrington highlights a UN report warning of the destructive insistence of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Zimonjic reports on the latest audit from the federal environment commissioner showing that Canada is falling far short of meeting its greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments. And Brendan Haley discusses how a focus on a transition to heat pumps could provide
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon reports on the less-than-surprising revelation from New Brunswick’s departing chief medical officer of health that political preferences were a major factor in COVID-19 decision-making. And Liz highlights how the rich, powerful and well-connected are still insisting on COVID precautions to avoid
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Earth cannot satisfy human greed
Revenues of Chevron Corporation in 2022 were one-third of a trillion Canadian dollars and the company’s comprehensive income was C$50 billion. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth’s 2022 compensation was C$32 million. So it is not surprising that Chevron’s CEO recently defended his company, saying “We are not selling a product
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Warming in the Pipeline
There are brutal fires across Austrailia right now and horrible flooding in many places including Italy, and winds clocked over 200 mph in Acapulco, one of the strongest winds ever recorded. We can’t ignore the effects of climate change happening right now. A paper just out, “Global Warming in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Alex Himelfarb reviews Quinn Slobodian’s Crack-Up Capitalism as a valuable account of the myths and rationalizations underlying the propagation of inequality to serve the uber-rich. Cory Doctorow highlights how the attack on Social Security by Republicans and their donors represents a form of class
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jingwei Li et al. offer an update on the current state of knowledge surrounding long COVID, including the need for far more work dealing with its wide range of harmful effects. Kavita Bajeli-Datt reports on a new survey from India finding an
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Compassion Challenge
One of my favourite short stories is Tolstoy’s “The Godson.” It’s the story I revisit whenever I find myself thinking that this whole world has turned a wrong corner. I’ve changed a few details to make this super-abridged version make sense, taking out all the hows and whys of it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Larry Patriquin reviews Nancy Fraser’s Cannibal Capitalism, with a focus on explaining how we’ve been pushed into a system based on squeezing people and the planet alike in the name of greed. And Cory Doctorow discusses the six categories of corporate bullshit used to
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Danielle Smith Goes to the Pembina Climate Summit
Perhaps Danielle Smith forgot she where she was when she told the attendees at the Pembina Climate Summit that clean electricity by 2035 was impossible and anyone who thought otherwise was a fantasist. The Summit attendees paid $400 to $600 for the one-day event which brings together “thought leaders from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Derek Lynch writes about the need to recognize that humanity isn’t separate from the living environment it needs to survive. Eric Ralls points out how the climate breakdown and dwindling biodiversity are part of the same crisis. And Katie Surma highlights how climate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Sultan al Jaber and Vanessa Kerry offer a reminder that a climate breakdown in progress represents a foundational danger to human health and well-being. Geoffrey Diehl observes that the root causes of the crisis are greed and strictly-enforced ignorance. Miki Perkins points
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Canada lags on renewable energy
In Canada, more than $100 billion is now being spent to expand fossil fuel production. Meanwhile, other nations are working to mitigate climate change and enable long-term human survival. For example, Airbus ordered new vessels to transport aircraft subassemblies across the Atlantic. The low-emission ships are powered by dual-fuel engines
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ed Broadbent discusses how economic equality is a precondition to freedom for the majority of the population. Chris McGreal reviews Angus Deaton’s book on the role of the corporatist assumptions of economists in fomenting a war on the poor. And John McDonnell warns that
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: We are Afraid
That was a headline in Forbes yesterday, followed by: “Scientists Issue New Warning as World Enters ‘Uncharted Climate Territory.’” The Forbes article summarize an article from BioScience: “The 2023 State of the Climate Report: Entering Uncharted Territory,” a follow-up on a 2020 report co-signed by over 15,000 scientists from 163 countries that called on government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jessica Wildfire examines the continued threat of COVID-19 even as governments have largely decided to stop recognizing its devastating effects on public health. And Tom Kitchin points out how the same phenomenon has played out even in New Zealand (which was once
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Sonia Sodha discusses how children will bear the brunt of COVID’s effects for years due to decision-makers have prioritized short-term profits and frivolities over their futures. And Clare Wilson reports on new research showing how investing in air filtration can limit the ongoing
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