Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Marieke Walsh and Carrie Tait report on Canada’s grim milestone of two million COVID cases recorded – even as the medical system braces for another wave to crest. And Betsy Powell reports on the push toward fourth vaccine doses in long-term care homes.
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk distills the four myths which have resulted in Canada’s political leaders plunging us into multiple avoidable waves of COVID spread. Isaac Olson and Verity Stevenson report on Quebec’s latest set of public health rules to try to rein in an
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Omelas and the moral catastrophe of climate change
An illustrated map of the city of Omelas, the setting of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, a work of short fiction by science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Illustration by Andrew DeGraff. In 1973, Ursula Le Guin imagined a city called Omelas, filled with vibrant art, culture,
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The B.C. NDP convention on Sunday called for an independent investigation into allegations the RCMP used excessive force
Originally published by the Vancouver Sun By Vaughn Palmer: Many NDP members upset at government’s ‘impossible balancing act’ on gas pipeline. A notice to clear the road from RCMP sits in a tree fell Read more… The post The B.C. NDP convention on Sunday called for an independent investigation into
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Alejandro Jadad studies the social murder traceable to politicians’ flawed responses to COVID-19 and other known causes of sickness and death, while Tara Moriarty points out the incomplete reporting of deaths across Canada. And Solarino Ho reports on the new federal modelling showing that
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Inaccurate carbon accounting
Calling bioenergy “carbon-neutral” suggests that emissions are instantaneously offset, when in reality it can take trees decades to absorb all the carbon emitted by burning wood, say critics…
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Unprepared, ill-equipped
Despite massive disruption to the entire province, John Horgan’s government has made no change to its policies of promoting fossil fuels with lax regulation and multi-billion dollar industry supports. It continues to employ climate change deniers in senior positions. British Columbia remains North America’s leading coal exporter. The BC NDP
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Organized irresponsibility
For decades, flood risk studies written by specialists have accumulated on shelves in Victoria. One government after another failed to prioritize actions recommended by experts. They rated other expenditures as more important. Like the $14 billions in current dollars given to fossil fuel producers since 2007. Or the ten plus
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Mangroves Manage Climate Change
Dense mangrove forests provide an ecological boost wherever they are found because they protect both land and sea species. They are really ecosystems unto themselves with nuance and each with their own history. That history can help us understand how the delicate forests will survive climate change, we know they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Supriya Dwivedi writes about the Groundhog Day-style loop we’re trapped in due to a pandemic which is being allowed to continue and evolve. And while Daniel Wood and Geoff Brumfiel point out how the politicization of the pandemic is resulting in systematically higher
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Philip Bump discusses how partisan resistance to public health measures is making it harder for the U.S. to count on vaccinations to limit the spread of COVID-19. And Connor O’Donovan reports on how Saskatchewan’s health care system is drowning under chronic short-staffing which
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta premier’s lawyers to eight environmental groups: You’ll have our answer soon to your demand for an apology
If Jason Kenney’s lawyers give him sensible advice, they’ll tell him to seek a compromise with the coalition of eight environmental groups that threatened last month to sue him if he doesn’t retract and apologize for statements they say defame them. That could save Alberta’s premier a lot of grief
Continue readingwmtc: emergency preparedness: in which climate change plus living in a remote community push this 60-year-old into more responsible adulthood
In all our many years together, Allan and I never had an emergency kit in our home, or anything even approaching one. In New York, I never felt the need. Everything was in such easy reach all the time. It seemed nearly impossible to be cut off. We lived through
Continue readingThings Are Good: Carbon Capture Solutions from Students get Funding
The best thing to do to prevent climate change is to stop burning fossil fuels, until that happens we need to find ways to extract carbon from the air to reduce the speed of climate change. Of course, carbon removal needs to be powered by renewable systems themselves. The XPrize
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Suzuki apologizes, Kenney rants
David Suzuki recently made some rash comments about oil pipelines, specifically “There are going to be pipelines blown up if our leaders don’t pay attention to what’s going on.” Being the gentle soul that he is, he subsequently apologized for his loss of control. “Any suggestion that violence is inevitable
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On toxic preferences
From the standpoint of any reasonable observer, there’s reason for outrage that Saskatchewan is one of the provinces pushing to undermine federal standards for water pollution from coal mines – especially when the argument being made is that regulations should allow for a certain amount of selenium to be released
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Environmental groups tell Jason Kenney to apologize and retract by next Tuesday or meet them in court
A coalition of Canadian environmental groups has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging Premier Jason Kenney to a legal duel over his serial claims his government’s so-called “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns” proves they spread misinformation about Alberta’s fossil fuel industry. Rather than using epees or sabres in mortal combat,
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The future of the Six Mountains is ours to decide now
By Where Do We Stand 3 Years ago, our community asked for a pause of logging and pubic consultation on the future of the North Cowichan Forest Reserve.Now we are being given the opportunity to Read more… The post The future of the Six Mountains is ours to decide now
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What is it about environmentalist and scholar David Suzuki that makes Alberta Conservatives lose their minds?
What is it about David Suzuki that makes Alberta’s Conservatives lose their minds? On Saturday, the high-profile Vancouver-based scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster spoke at a protest in Victoria where he warned of the possibility of violence if politicians keep failing to act against climate change. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo:
Continue readingThings Are Good: Green Your Garage
If you have a garage filled with tools and other oddities, you can easily make it a little nicer for you and the environment. The next time you do some cleaning you can think about what is clean for the rest of the environment. Of course, you’re going to want
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