Someone reading this blog might get the impression I take pleasure in hearing about environmental lawsuits against oil companies and their friends. They would be right. I do. And so I enjoyed hearing about perhaps the most prominent climate lawsuit in the U.S. California, the most populous state in the
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Chris Hedges interviews Matt Kennard about the hostile corporate takeover of democracy. And Adam King highlights how Canada’s oil industry is profiteering at public expense while using the harm done by their own greed to promote the right-wing politicians in their pocket. – Jennifer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Borg discusses how the climate breakdown is compressing planetary changes which would normally take millions of years into individual lifetimes – even as petropoliticians seek to increase the damage we’re doing to our living environment. And Edna Mohamed writes that climate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Damian Carrington reports on a “scientific health check” showing that Earth’s life support systems are well outside what’s safe for humanity. But Jonathan Cook discusses how an obsession with growth over health and well-being is preventing us from taking any meaningful steps to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Rebecca Leber highlights how drilling in the Arctic and other high-cost fossil fuel extraction plans are based on a sociopathic bet against any prospect of limiting the harm from a climate breakdown. Carl Meyer reports on new research showing that 90% of Saskatchewan’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jamey Keaten and Seth Borenstein report on the World Meteorological Association’s finding that we’ve just had the hottest summer in recorded history. And Chelsey Harvey highlights how the combination of extreme heat and other climate calamities looks to be a harbinger of worse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sascha Pare reports on the growing recognition that methane emissions could trigger “termination” events which see tundra turn into tropical savannah. And Robson Fletcher reports on a drop in wheat production caused by drought which may make staple foods far more expensive. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Apoora Mandavilli writes that cleaner air is essential to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Elizabeth Hlavinka discusses the severe impact of long COVID on children and the lack of resources to treat it. And Helen McArdle reports that hundreds of Scottish hospital
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Madeline Holcomb reports on new research showing that COVID-19 boosters are more effective when delivered to the same arm as previous vaccine doses. – Jessica Wildfire highlights how the war on remote work is the result of corporate landlords’ determination to sacrifice human health
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Oil industry disappoints (but doesn’t surprise)
Once upon a time I toiled in the oil patch and it was good to me. I worked for Shell Canada and the royal pectin paid well, provided excellent benefits and training, and offered ample opportunities for advancement. I made lifelong friends and was proud to be helping folks heat
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta pauses the future
Alberta is Canada’s leader in renewables projects and investments. Of the new solar and wind generation capacity added in Canada in 2022, 75 percent was in this province. This, it seems, is too much too fast for the provincial government. The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) has paused approvals of new
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta sacrifices agriculture for oil
There is panic on the prairies. The greatest fear of farmers and ranchers alike is stalking the land—drought. Drought has always been a part of prairie life, of course, but droughts today are different from those of history. Today they are increasingly fuelled by global warming and will get nothing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andrew Dessler writes about the non-linear nature of the environmental effects of carbon pollution – with the result that we’re seeing cascading effects with each additional increase in temperature. And Sarah Kaplan discusses how we should be recognizing extreme weather events as alarm
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Neil Shaw reports on the demands by Scottish doctors that their government reinstate COVID -19protections in health care facilities. And Tia Ewing reports on new research showing the devastating and lasting effects of long COVID. – AFP reports on what’s already a record-breaking
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Qiulu Ding and HanJun Zhao study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain, including lasting effects on function and memory. Ida Mogensen et al. find that the younger people who were so frequently declared to be “low-risk” are entirely vulnerable to long
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Heidi Ledford discusses new research which is helping to identify genetic risk factors for long COVID – though the fact that new COVID-19 variants are being allowed to run wild while that work is in its infancy means that people will be exposed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Puthussery et al. study the feasibility of real-time, location-based air sampling to identify the presence of COVID-19, while Jennifer La Grassa reports on the efforts of scientists to ensure the powers that be don’t scrap what few remaining monitoring efforts are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jessica Wong et al. study the risk of hospitalization and death from the Omicron strain of COVID-19, and conclude (contrary to the spin of denialist governments) that it was just as severe as the original version. And Lindsey Wang et al. find (PDF)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jerry White discusses how the wealthiest few have continued to amass obscene riches in the first half of 2023 despite occasional rumblings about requiring them to contribute to the common good. – Paul Fauteux points out that fossil fuel pushers have used trade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Seth Borenstein writes that we shouldn’t treat constant wildfires as an exceptional event since we can expect them to be the norm for decades to come. The Straits Times reports that the wildfires are both a consequence and cause of climate disaster,
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