If you live near a park you know that even a small amount of nature can cool the local environment, and you know that the bigger the park the more cool it is. In terms of a land-to-cooling-effect ratio certain types of parks are more efficient than others with the
Continue readingTag: environment
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – The Climate Change Performance Update’s latest update shows Canada tumbling to the bottom of the world’s development countries in climate performance – even as right-wing petropoliticians demand that we make matters worse. Justin Ling discusses how we’ve ended up with that painful gap
Continue readingThings Are Good: eBikes are Killing the Oil Industry
This Earth Day it’s good to reflect on one’s own love for the planet Earth. If you want to express your love and appreciation for this ball of rock and air that orbits then Sun then you should ride a bike everyday. If an ordinary bike isn’t your style then
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Graham Lawton writes that continued (or worse yet growing) inequality represents an intractable obstacle to ameliorating the climate crisis. Laurence Tubiana discusses the importance of taxing polluters, while Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin expose how big oil is trying to bribe its way
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Alex Tanzi reports on new research showing how COVID-19 has radically changed the main causes of death globally. And Michael Peluso et al. study how COVID can persist and do damage to the body long after an initial infection. – Benjamin Wehrmann reports on new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Cory Doctorow discusses the inherent impossibility of trying to build any public good on an economic system centered on selfishness: This is the problem at the core of “mechanism design” grounded in “rational self-interest.” If you try to create a system where people
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Can Save Itself and the Planet
The fossil fuel industry seems to have a romantic fascination with “all the oil in the ground”, a fascination that shields it from financial reality. There are two things absolutely true about the fossil fuel industry. It has a finite end because there is a finite end to the oil
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Provincial Politics And Other Bad Things
Was inspired to add a new blog entry by a Conservative troll, just like the old days. Prove it. — John "Saskboy" Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) April 4, 2024 === https://t.co/cc91yKhRDy #onpoli — John "Saskboy" Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) April 4, 2024 === “The Amazon” — lambanmartyr (@iRamona) April 4, 2024 === You know,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate report highlights how higher temperatures and devastating consequences have become the norm around the globe. Anand Ram reports on a new study showing that the effects included a jarring new development, as air quality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Kate Irwin reports on new research showing that dozens of the U.S.’ largest corporations are doling out more money to their five top executives than they paid in total federal income tax. And Robert Renger makes the case that windfall gains in
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: BC NDP sanctioned destruction
Vancouver author and environmental journalist Arno Kopecky talks about the threat to Howe Sound from LNG operations.
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: The amazing natural world
This video is from National Geographic’s new docuseries Queens. It shows an encounter between a 60-year-old female orca whale and a great white shark. The first three episodes of the seven-part docuseries are available to stream on Disney+.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Susan Riley points out the glaring gap between the urgency of the climate crisis, and the Canadian political response which (Charlie Angus aside) ranges from mealy-mouthed corporatism to outright sabotage. And Gillian Steward calls out the UCP’s continued climate denial which is preventing
Continue readingThings Are Good: Floating Flowers Clean Pollution in Waterways
Industrial farming, golf courses, and some industries all contribute an incredible amount of nutrient runoff that enters our waterways. This influx of unexpected nutrients can cause algae blooms and otherwise damage the local ecosystem. To combat this damage from runoff a team from the Florida International University created a floating
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Kevin Jiang reports on the results of the largest-ever study into the effects of COVID-19 vaccines – which concludes they’ve been extremely safe (while serving to prevent far worse outcomes). But Gregg Gonsalves laments that public health authorities are under attack by the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Meghan Bartels interviews Maria Van Kerkhove about the continuing and emerging threats in the fifth year of a pandemic which most of the powers that be have long since disappeared from any discussion. And Crawford Kilian talks to Ziyad Al-Aly about the unconscionable lack of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Claude Lavoie examines the problems with the far-too-rarely-questioned assumption that public policy needs to be oriented toward top-end economic growth at the expense of human well-being and environmental sustainability. – George Monbiot calls out how the wealthiest few have torqued the law to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Paris Triples Parking Fees for SUVs
Paris is undergoing a transportation revolution that champions the movement of people over the movement of vehicles and the most recent change was put to the people of the city. Citizens of Paris have voted to triple parking fees for heavy, road destroying, SUVs that take up more space than
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Rotterdam Uses Water to Protect Itself from Flooding
As global warming melts the polar ice caps we are witnessing a human caused increase in sea level. The city of Rotterdam is on the front lines of holding back this tidal increase and they have designed some nifty ways to protect the people that live in the city from
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Fossil Fuel Companies’ New Evil Strategy
There’s an effort underway by Conservatives and Fossil Fuel companies to suggest that fossil fuels are “sustainable”. This is an attempt to rebrand fossil fuels as non-harmful, when the reality is they’re causing much of the world’s pollution and breakdown in our climate. There are some ad agencies pledging to
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