Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Cory Neudorf asks that Saskatchewan not play Russian roulette with the Omicron COVID variant. Rahul Suryawanshi et al. find that any theory of hoping for protection through infection is as foolish now as ever, since Omicron itself is limited in the immunity it
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
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.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Dr. Katharine Smart highlights the crucial choices which need to be made to avoid a calamitous fifth COVID-19 wave, while Chelsea Nash writes that the most important failings from previous waves have been those of the people with power to make decisions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Wallace-Wells discusses the alarming warning indicators from our still-developing understanding of the Omicron COVID variant. Nazeem Muhajarine writes about the importance of booster vaccines in limiting the damage, while Wallis Snowdon reports on the justified frustration of Alberta doctors faced with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Umair Haque reminds us that the COVID pandemic is far from over, while Julie Bosman, Amy Harmon and Albert Sun discuss the escalating U.S. death toll which now includes one of every hundred Americans over 65. Will Stone, Jesse Bloom and Sarah Cobey, and Carl
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 readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Deborah Gleeson discusses how inequality in vaccine availability is making new variants an inevitability, while Joseph Stiglitz and Lori Wallach write that an intellectual property waiver is a must to ensure vaccines are available around the globe. And Rachel Cohen warns that
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 readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Cory Neudorf argues that a pandemic is the last time when we can afford to prioritize abstract individual interests over the collective good, while Alexander Wong writes that vaccination is a textbook example of a way in which parents can protect children
Continue readingThings Are Good: They mapped the thousand places in America where you’re breathing poison
The Trump administration in the USA cut funding for their Environmental Protection Agency which led to an increase in pollution that harms people and nature. The pollution problem isn’t all thanks to Trump though, it comes from years of negligence around policies and procedures to protect communities from dangerous industrial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Lynn Giesbrecht talks to Alexander Wong about the Moe government’s refusal to prepare for a fourth wave of COVID-19 that’s been readily obvious to anybody willing to pay attention. Ed Yong writes about the efforts of long-haul COVID patients to have policymakers acknowledge
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Crawford Kilian takes note of new research showing that the Delta variant of COVID-19 produces more severe outcomes (including increased hospitalization rates) even taking into account its increased transmissibility. And the New York Times looks into one example of the variant infecting students
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – CBC News reports on the research which is just starting to systematically identify and treat the worrisome symptoms of long COVID. Gabriel Scally weighs in on the dangers of the UK’s choice to end any public health response to COVID-19 even as the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tom Parkin calls out Jason Kenney’s defence of genocide and its architects in an attempt to keep his party’s white supremacist base onside. And PressProgress notes that Kenney’s insistence on turning an in-person Stampede into the greatest summer outbreak ever has large
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Canada’s Mining Industry Bullies
Canadian mining companies dominate the sector in many parts of the world. Largely unregulated, they are able to profit from weak protection for the environment, workers, indigenous peoples and human rights in many countries. Two thirds of the value of Canadian mining assets is overseas, in 96 countries, and the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Plastics are Toxic in Canada
The advertising around plastics highlights how recyclable it is, but in reality plastics are a pollutant that barely get recycled in a meaningful way (this is why the 3Rs are in a particular order: reduce, reuse, recycle). Plastics come in all sorts of densities, colours, and strength, but are traditionally
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: You, yes you, will pay for the tar sands cleanup
The general rule in regard to environmental damage is the polluter pays. In accordance with that rule as applied to mining, Alberta has in place the Mine Financial Security Program (MFSP). The program is designed to collect financial security from mine owners to protect the public from the financial burden
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tonda MacCharles reports on David Naylor’s justified call for an inquiry into Canada’s pandemic response. And Peter Walker’s report on the rapid spread of the B.1.617.2 variant in the (heavily-vaccinated) UK offers a reminder that the work of protecting public health is
Continue readingThings Are Good: Plant Based Diets Reduce Mortality, Increase Environmental Wellbeing
Obviously, a diet change to consume less meat is good for animal mortality but what you might not know is that a mass shift to plant based diet is good for everyone’s health. New research has identified that the pollution caused by meat production is responsible premature death of over
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