Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman calls out the U.S.’ deficit scolds for continuing to invent a crisis to distract from the real problems with middling growth and high unemployment. And Bruce Johnstone singles out a few of the Cons’ talking points which have somehow become conventional
Continue readingTag: environment
Cowichan Conversations: Rafe: With fracking, tankers “world-class safety” is a weasel word
It is great to read more from Rafe Mair once again. He is still on the mend but has come a long way and is reading and writing once again. I had believed every word from our Premier but Rafe has set me straight! I feel so much better now.
Continue readingreeves report: New evidence of Triclosan toxicity
Hand soaps containing triclosan and triclocarban. (Andrew Reeves/Reeves Report) OTTAWA KNOWS that a common ingredient in antibacterial soaps is posing acute and chronic problems for human health and freshwater ecosystems but has done nothing to ban triclosan, according to environmental and consumer advocates. But now there’s even more evidence against the
Continue readingwmtc: upcycling with teens at the library
My summer youth programs have been going really well. Attendance has increased with each program – first 7, then 13, then 15 – and yesterday we hit the jackpot with 23 teens. We actually had to turn away three kids without tickets, as our program room was so packed with
Continue readingThings Are Good: Addiction Therapy Applied to Car Use
It’s no secret that as a global society we are addicted to automobile use. It’s also no secret that cars are literally killing us (just starting the engine causes harm) and the way we have built cities to cater to drivers has damaged society from our health to our social
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Climate change divestment movement gains ground in church – but not in Canadian media or political circles
Ho-hum… Some typical Canadian reporters, hard at work … Actual Canadian newsrooms may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Is he more influential than we imagined in Alberta? CALGARY When retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Alberta’s Tarpatch capital of Fort McMurray last month and called
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The Cowichan River is in trouble once again.
Cowichan Coversations Contributor With the low snowpack and unusually dry weather, Cowichan Lake is 40 cm lower than it should be at this time of year, while the river flow is down to 5 cubic metres per second and well below typical July levels. If the situation does not improve,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ralph Surette highlights the dangers of a pollution-based economy which fails to account for the damage we’re doing to our planet and its ability to provide food for people: This is something to behold. A more-or-less hurricane in early July. Has anyone ever
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: EWG’s Dirty Dozen Report Lists The Most Pesticide-Heavy Fruits And Veggies Of 2014
Richard Hughes-Grow your own If you ever wondered about the value of growing your own vegetables and fruits, or when that is not possible buying organic, here is Sarah Kleins Huffington Post report. Actually it is amazing how much we can grow in our own gardens. It is tastier, healthier
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Alberta’s Climate Change Strategy Goes Up in Smoke
Alberta’s Auditor General blew a gasket. He called the government’s performance on climate change strategy “troubling” and “disturbing”. Hey, he’s a mild mannered accountant; this is as in-your-face as he gets. Our feisty Auditor General Mr Saher kicked off the July 2014 audit report with a lesson on the role
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Lego Pimps Your Kids’ Brains For Shell Oil
This is just too much. Lego has teamed up with Shell Oil to pimp your kids’ brains for Shell. We need to be helping our children understand that our future lies in the post-carbon energy infrastructure and things like solar roadways. Here’s one way to do that, at Lego Block
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: World Council of Churches Endorses Fossil Fuel Divestment
The fellowship of over 300 churches representing some 590 million people in 150 countries, this week endorsed fossil fuel divestment. The post World Council of Churches Endorses Fossil Fuel Divestment appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingreeves report: ECO urges province to create new climate action plan
SO MUCH OF THE THINKING around climate change has evolved since 2007 that Ontario’s seven-year-old climate action plan is now “irrelevant” according to Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller. In releasing Looking for Leadership: The Costs of Climate Inaction this morning, Miller said the province has been a leader in the climate file but has
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Translink Impedes Transit Use
Translink is “being evasive on exactly how much money is being spent on this.” via Compass Card program delayed again by TransLink – British Columbia – CBC News. How’s that for not surprising. Translink is notorious for its taxation without representation: taking municipalities’ money without providing democratic representation to municipalities.
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Planned breach of Cowichan Bay causeway planned for late July
A group of dedicated volunteers, organized under the Cowichan Estuary Restoration and Conservation Association aka (CIRCA) have taken on the task of improving life for marine and wildlife that have struggled against industrial disruption for many decades. Peter Rusland interviewed Goetz Schuerholz in this article carried in the Cowichan News
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The products that have been banned are better!
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger The green revolution away from fossil fuels is gaining momentum. We need time to make the crossover but it surely is coming as night follows day. Alternate building materials and alternate approaches are on the rise. Let us try to reduce our use of gas and oil
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on the 1% and inequality on the tongues of the sly gazillionaires who rule the world, and into mass consumption. Now
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: The Athabaska Oil Sands: Enough to make you sick. Real sick.
I don’t normally reprint news releases. This time I will make an exception. At the end of the news release are two videos I recorded earlier this year that speak to this issue. In the first, Dr. Stéphane McLachlan, of the Environmental Conservation Lab at the University of Manitoba, talks
Continue readingreeves report: Ottawa completes $400,000 Asian carp science lab
A $400,000 ASIAN CARP science lab was opened by Public Works Minister Diane Finley Monday as part of $17.5 million committed by Ottawa to fight the spread of this aquatic invasive species. Captured grass carp at Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans research lab in Burlington, ON (Andrew Reeves) The new lab
Continue reading