Short-term thinkers who put quarterly profits above all else consistently argue that caring for the environment destroys business. They are wrong. The evidence keeps growing that planet (and people) friendly policies encourage economic growth while also forcing companies to increase their efficiency. It’s a win-win for businesses and the planet.
Continue readingTag: politics
Things Are Good: Malaysia Stops Jailing Addicts, Helps Them Recover Instead
Addiction is tough and it can happen to anyone. In Malaysia they are changing their drug laws to reflect this reality by providing rehab for users instead of locking them up in prison. Malaysia has tried the now-classic and irrefutably irrational “war on drugs” approach and found that it didn’t
Continue reading52 Ideas: Rex Murphy’s poor argument about the Tragedy in Texas made me write this post
“In reality, failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, said in a press conference Tuesday.” No, renewable energy is not primarily
Continue readingThings Are Good: Highways Make Traffic Worse, Transit Improves Traffic
Regular readers of this site already know that highways are amongst the worst ways to move people effectively and also a way to ensure urban development is built to cater to cars instead of human beings. Yet, in Ontario the government wants to build a $6 billion highway to promote
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Argument to Shrink the Economy Keeps Getting Stronger
The idea that we can eventually decarbonize our economy to keep it growing has been talked about for decades; sadly we’re far away from a carbon neutral economy and even it we did achieve such an economic system we still need to shrink it. What makes a “good” economy is
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Canada In The 21st Century: The Path Ahead
This short essay was written as a response to a YouTube video on the CaspianReport, titled, Geopolitics of Canada. At some point I may re-write it to be more in the form of a stand-alone essay, or a stump speech; but considering I am back-logged with 96 finished essays and
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Powder Keg USA – Part II
Most of the world is in crisis, in a number of ways. The US in particular is in bad shape, and set to either explode in civil war, or implode by economic collapse – and most likely it will be the latter followed by the former, though anything is possible
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Top 12 Books For Understanding The World
Or, Why A Critical Reading of History Is Now Critically & Urgently Needed The details are important, but an understanding of the major patterns of history are even more important. I don’t think that is possible without giving due credence to the quiet revolution which occurred in anthropology in the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Accelerating the Circular Economy
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected economies from the local to the global and we can rebuild our economy using old destructive methods or rebuild it in a way that future generations can benefit. Everyday there are more calls to reshape our economic systems to respect the environment more while
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: SK Gov Asks People To Watch NFL In Restaurants
Feb. 7, 2021 – emailed the Premier and my MLA. Dear Premier Moe: It’s no secret that your weak response to the pandemic has given us Canada’s most shameful second wave. Manitoba realized they were on track to be Canada’s disaster epicentre, and used an effective lockdown to return to
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Hollow Men Encounter The Spirit of Capitalism
And We Recoil In Horror Before The Reality Is Anything More Than A flickering and Fleeting Perception, Which Can Be Easily Denied, and Swept Aside “We are the hollow men, the stuffed men” Weber’s, The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism remains the most important text in sociology, and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Moe Says We Can Do This
Scott Moe says he thinks Saskatchewan can do this. What is this? It’s BS. He thinks we’ll buy his BS. And he’s probably right that at lesst half of the people will. Look at his consistent catch phrase: The only time Saskatchewan flattened the curve was with a lockdown and
Continue readingThings Are Good: America Finally Acting on Climate Change
After years of neglect, and at times overt destruction, of the environment by the federal government in the USA is finally doing something about climate change. It’s acknowledged by scientist and average people that the greatest threat to humanity is climate change. Arguably the States have been the greatest contributors
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: US Army Busy Erasing Females
This is what happens when you let gender magic guide your policy decisions. The results are almost always bad for women.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Overviews of philosophy, religion, politics, history & sociology: where one might begin – or continue in more depth
Fascinating look here, in this BBC podcast (linked below), at the history, sociology, psychology, theology and politics of fundamentalism, evangelism, millennialism & apocalyptism. See also, Michael Grosso’s, The Millennium Myth, & The Millennium Book of Prophecy by John Hogue. My own views in terms of religious philosophy, political philosophy and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Alphabet Union Wants Alphabet to Behave
The workers behind the unionization efforts at Google are expanding to take on the whole Alphabet, the parent company of Google. They’ve formed Alpha Global to be a common voice for issues facing Google workers around the world and for people who are being negatively impacted by the actions of
Continue reading52 Ideas: And the World moves on…. (or why Alberta needs to pay attention to the way other people are getting their energy)
When I was a child, I was privileged in that I got to travel to Jamaica and Barbados to see my relatives. The trips were amazing; and, each time I went down, I learned more about the Caribbean. At some point, in the 1980s and 1990s, my education about my
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: #Petrostate of the Province
You know you live in a #petrostate when local city council exec votes to restrict fossil fuel sponsorship and 1) the Premier threatens the City’s budget and 2) the official provincial opposition has nothing to say about it. This is the #CultureOfSilence I have written about — Emily Eaton (@emi_eaton)
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: How Flawed A Leg
If the Sask Party split off a few MLAs to form a secondary Con party, they could fill the Official Opposition role also. This might put the NDP at an even greater disadvantage, since the questions would mostly go to a phony opposition leader’s fake party. This is part of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Plague Of Pipelines
We have Canada's worst COVID handling, where's the Premier on that? — Saskboy from Saskatchewan (@saskboy) January 18, 2021 With Biden apparently poised to pause KXL into oblivion, Saskatchewan’s hapless Premier Moe lashes out at Trudeau. The meme, a modified Kenney cartoon, was available prior to Moe’s latest predictable bleating.
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