This and that for your New Year’s reading. – Bartley Kives reports on the most deadly year of the COVID-19 pandemic yet. And the BBC reports on the admonition that vulnerable people in Wales should avoid going to hospitals due to the lack of measures in place to avert the
Continue readingTag: environment
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your year-end reading. – Allison Maher et al. study how COVID-19 causes fundamental changes to a person’s immune system, resulting in far greater vulnerability to other infections. Spencer Kimball reports on the rapid spread of the XBB.1.5 COVID-19 variant – which appears to be rendering previous types
Continue readingThings Are Good: Taxing the Ultra Wealthy Can Save the Planet
A wealth tax could be a way to not only address inequality, it’s also a way to reduce the damage done to the planet by greedy billionaires. Oxfam looked into the investments that the ultra rich hold and found that their investments alone do more damage to the planet than
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: krakatoa: the day the world exploded: august 27, 1883 by simon winchester
The 1883 volcanic eruption known as Krakatoa was the largest, loudest, and most destructive natural event in human history. The explosions (there were many) were heard almost 3,000 miles away. The eruption produced shock waves that travelled around Earth seven times. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 has
Continue readingThings Are Good: Canada Starts Single Use Plastic Ban
Canada joins other nations in the banning of wasteful single use plastics starting at the end of this month. Canada’s plastic ban is being rolled out in an incremental fashion with the manufacture and importation of certain plastic items banned first, so what’s in stock now can still be used.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Blair Fix discusses how inflation reflects both instability in the overall system of prices, and a business strategy to turn that instability into an increased profit share. And Angella MacEwen writes that central banks are choosing to lend their authority to that strategy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Greg Jericho rightly notes that the COVID pandemic showed beyond doubt that poverty is a policy choice – which makes it all the more maddening that the powers that be are so determined to inflict it on people as part of any
Continue readingThings Are Good: Climate Crisis Course Required in Spain
Students at the University of Barcelona will now be required to take a class on the climate crisis regardless of their field of study. Adding the course to all students makes sense since the climate crisis impacts all aspects of knowledge from urban planning to our understanding of history. The
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Umair Haque discusses why the 2020s are turning into a particularly bleak decade as people are buried under a perpetually larger mountain of debt to try to fund a reasonable standard of living while corporate predators privatize and exploit every available source of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Greg Iacurci discusses how long COVID is set to cause trillions of dollars of damage to the U.S.’ economy (to say nothing of the toll in human suffering and death). Constance Sommer writes about the difficulty in distinguishing between “brain fog” caused by
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Chicago Brings Back Wild Nature Into the City
When thinking of Chicago you probably think of its famous architecture, and rightly so. In the future you may think of Chicago’s reclaimed land and eco-conscious landscaping. In the last few decades the city has covered rail yards and car parking with natural features (and art!), built new waterfronts where
Continue readingwmtc: planned obsolescence, future landfill, and premium-priced durability: in which we buy an expensive new washer
One of the things I hate most about our current world is planned obsolescence. There’s a “wmtc’s greatest hits” long piece unpacking planned obsolescence, as it relates to capitalism and our deteriorating environment: “we work to buy things that are built to die so that we must work to buy more
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Things that make u go HMMM!
The BC Government promised transformative change to Indigenous people. What First Nations are getting is transformative change to traditional territories altered for hydropower, coal, oil and gas.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Anjana Ahuja highlights the risks which result from quackery treating theories about an “immunity debt” as a reason to expose children to avoidable disease. And John Paul Tasker reports on Jean-Yves Duclos’ attempt to ensure children get vaccinated, even as far too
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Earth groans
Tuesday, according to the United Nations, was eight billion day, i.e. the world’s population was projected to reach eight billion souls on November 15th. Even if you like people, and my views on that are mixed, that’s a hell of a lot. In fact, it’s too many. And that’s not
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your long weekend reading. – Umair Haque theorizes that the relatively benign outcome of the U.S.’ recent election reflects a public that’s finally rejecting Trumpism. But Krystal Ball notes that some of the most important Democratic success stories (notably including John Fetterman) included a message based on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Tori Cowger et al. study how the presence or absence of mandatory masking policies affects the number of COVID-19 cases among students and school staff. The Canadian Press reports on the plea from Ontario doctors for parents and public health officials alike
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Methane EMIT
There’s a European satellite watching for methane pollution. It spotted a big leak in Alberta. ISS has a camera called EMIT attached and it can see methane plumes on Earth. The data is public, but not as easy as surfing around like on Google Earth to map it. “Jan Gorski,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk discusses the looming prospect that COVID-19 infections will cause ongoing damage by exhausting people’s immunity, while Betsy Ladyzhets writes about the lack of benefits for people who are disabled as a result of long COVID. Andre Picard highlights how children have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ewen Callaway discusses the COVID-19 “variant soup” which we’ll be drowning in this winter due to the deliberate elimination of any public health protections as politicians value denial over people’s lives. And Tyler Cheese reports that Ontario hospitals are going to be
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