Yesterday, friend Mound posted a disturbing piece on the fact that the oceans have absorbed 60% more heat than expected. The implications for global warming are significant, and suggest, among other things, that we have far less than 12 years to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. If you haven’t
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Earthgauge News: EG Radio Interview with Chris Turner
“If Canadians really want to see climate action, we need to hand politicians the political will. If we are willing to punish politicians who don’t put a price on carbon and invest in renewable energy, it might make it a lot easier for them. Right now there is no cost
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump and the Deadly Deniers
We've known for a long time that Donald Trump is a climate change denier. For a long time his ridiculous tweets have made that only too clear. And although the sweltering heat, and all those hurricanes, have forced him to admit that in his words "something is going on out
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Pattern We Cannot Ignore
As I write this on the morning of Labour Day, it is already 38 degrees Celsius with the humidex in Southern Ontario, another day of oppressive heat and humidity in a long line of them this summer. Scientific consensus points to the ever-increasing effects of climate change as the chief
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: National Post Letter
In today’s National Post, I’ve got another letter to the editor on everyone’s favourite topic: the Trans Mountain pipeline. (I’ll stop repeating myself once people start listening!) My letter appears only in the print edition, so I cannot provide a link. Accordingly, here is the full text: The pipeline crisis
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Hot? No, Cool.
Heating is a major contributor to modern energy consumption. We like to keep our homes, workplaces and business we attend nice and comfortable. That takes a lot of energy. Only we’re in a warming world, one that has a long way to go yet. This means we’re going to need
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Of Premiers and Pipelines
In an interview with the National Observer last week, Justin Trudeau raised more than a few eyebrows by comparing B.C. premier John Horgan to former Saskatchewan premier and climate policy obstructionist Brad Wall. “Similarly and frustratingly,” said the prime minister, “John Horgan is actually trying to scuttle our national plan
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Globe and Mail Letter
In today’s Globe and Mail, you will find a letter from me (fourth from the top, under the heading “In the national interest”) relating the present interprovincial pipeline kerfuffle to global efforts efforts to solve the climate crisis. Never hurts to remind ourselves how much is really at stake.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Well, That’s Certainly Sooner Than We Had Expected. 1.5 C In Just Five Years.
Who can forget the heady days of 2015 when a newly minted prime minister and his enviromin stormed the Paris Climate Summit to promote a new global warming limit of just 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, sweeping aside the old target of 2C by 2100, So, how is that working
Continue readingEarthgauge News: Earthgauge News – Dec. 4, 2017
Edition #7 of the Earthgauge News podcast for the week of Dec. 4, 2017. A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring stories from across Canada and around the world. Join me here every week or subscribe in iTunes or your favourite podcast catcher. On the show this week: Global carbon
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Faint Hope
These days good news on climate change is hard to find. Yet recent progress by major emitters, specifically China, give hope that the world might just meet the Paris Climate Summit goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. Over the past half-century, growth in the global
Continue readingEarthgauge News: Earthgauge News – Oct. 23, 2017
Edition #3 of the new Earthgauge News podcast for the week of Oct. 23, 2017. A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring the top stories from across Canada and around the world. Join me here every Monday or subscribe in iTunes or your favourite podcast catcher.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: I Wonder
When even the dimmest and most ideologically bent among us realize they backed the wrong pony when they ignored the warnings about climate change, and when it is far too late to do anything about it (as it almost is now), who will they blame? Will it be their political
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Lurks Beneath?
Let’s be fair. Climate change isn’t all bad. Then again, it’s a safe bet that Abraham Lincoln’s last visit to the Ford Theatre was pretty decent right up to the point of that gunshot. One of the good things about global warming, we’re told, is that it will make cold
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: You can’t educate Republicans on global warming
Many progressives believe that if the public were better informed about the science behind climate change, people would be more inclined to accept the reality of anthropogenic global warming. A U.S. survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that’s only true for some people. Climate scientists tell us that global
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Louis-Philippe Rochon writes that while American voters had to know what they’d get in casting their most recent ballots, far too many Canadians may have believed the Libs’ promises of something else: On this side of the 49th parallel, however, when Canadians elected
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A carbon tax—an ethical imperative
The following article was published in the Calgary Herald on January 7th under my byline. You can read it here, along with comments, or below. A carbon tax allows us to clean up after ourselvesLike most people, one of the life lessons I learned at my mother’s knee was that
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A carbon tax—an ethical imperative
The following article was published in the Calgary Herald on January 7th under my byline. You can read it here, along with comments, or below. A carbon tax allows us to clean up after ourselvesLike most people, one of the life lessons I learned at my mother’s knee was that
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Vancouver Sun Letter
For what is likely to be my last letter to the editor of 2016, see today’s Vancouver Sun (fourth letter from the top). The gist of my argument is that Kinder Morgan is bad. Fun fact: this ain’t the first time I’ve responded to a pro-Kinder Morgan op-ed by former
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada’s $3.3bn fossil fuel subsidies undermine climate action: Report
Canada’s $3.3 billion in federal and provincial subsidies to fossil fuel companies undermine climate action, says a new study by four prominent Canadian environmental groups. The post Canada’s $3.3bn fossil fuel subsidies undermine climate action: Report appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
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