This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Daniel Tencer reports on a couple of important recent warnings that Canada is in danger of following the U.S. down the path of extreme corporatism and inequality: Speaking at a fundraiser for the left-leaning Broadbent Institute, Reich said Canada is facing the
Continue readingTag: renewable energy
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Tom Sullivan’s advice for Democrats south of the border that it’s essential to reach out to dispossessed voters of all types of backgrounds with a compelling alternative to the status quo is equally relevant to progressives in Canada. – But the good news
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot comments on the far more important values we’re endangering in the name of constant financial and material growth: To try to stabilise this system, governments behave like soldiers billeted in an ancient manor, burning the furniture, the paintings and the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Geoff Stiles writes that instead of providing massive subsidies to dirty energy industries which don’t need them (and which will only have more incentive to cause environmental damage as a result), we should be investing in a sustainable renewable energy plan: (W)hereas
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Does Stephen Harper Hate Renewable Energy?
Born into an oil company family, Stephen Harper’s rise to petro-politics has been uninterrupted from his days in the Calgary mailroom of Imperial Oil all the way to his arrival at Sussex Drive. Harper doesn’t like to talk about climate change and he’s even less disposed to doing anything about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Linda McQuaig discusses who stands to lose out from a CETA designed to limit its benefits to the corporate elite. And PressProgress points out that Canada’s pay gap between CEOs and workers is higher than that of any other OECD country other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the politics and economics of energy production are changing around the world – and how Canada is being left behind due to governments focused solely on pushing oil interests. For further reading…– Again, Vivek Radhwa discusses the progress that’s being made in developing – and broadly implementing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Linda Tirado writes about life in poverty – and the real prospect that anybody short of the extremely wealthy can wind up there: I haven’t had it worse than anyone else, and actually, that’s kind of the point. This is just what life
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: A Wee Design Flaw
The BrightSource Energy plant, a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert, works on the principal of focusing sunlight on a bunch of towers full of water until the water boils and drives a series of steam powered generators. Unfortunately, the reflected sunlight also focuses on the areas around the towers, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Ralph Surette suggests that Nova Scotia’s tax and regulatory review pay close attention to the fact that it can do more than simply slash both: Nova Scotia already has relatively low corporate taxes and lower than average taxes for the highest earners. Yet
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: World’s Largest Private Bank, UBS, Says Fossil Energy is Toast
The Swiss banking giant, UBS, says renewable energy is the hands down winner and conventional power generation is finished. In a briefing paper sent to clients and investors this week, the Zurich-based UBS bank argues that large-scale centralized power stations will soon become extinct because they are too big and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Lethal Dysfunction Of The Far Right: A Mound of Sound Guest Post
Problem: you’re already getting hammered by early-onset climate change. Solution: deny it’s happening, look the other way, think happy thoughts. It sounds ridiculously dysfunctional and it is but that is the approach being taken by governments, state and municipal, in parts of the American south. Take North Carolina, for example,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Real Hope For Renewables
I only have time for this quick post, but allow me to direct you to this story about what appears to be a breakthrough in solar power generation and this story that opens up a range of possibilities for electric cars. Here is some video to accompany the stories: Recommend
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post: The Relentless Growth of CO2
I put this item together a while ago but I was reminded of it today while reading a report from the WMO, the World Meteorological Organization, that April will go in the books as the first month in which atmospheric CO2 topped 400 ppm throughout the northern hemisphere. Not just
Continue readingreeves report: Kathleen Wynne’s environmental ups and downs
Feature image: Ontario Rangers youth gather at Queen’s Park in January, 2013 to protest cuts to a Ministry of Natural Resources program many former participants claim changed their lives. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has called an election for June 12, and as the parties gear up their campaign platforms, it’s
Continue readingthe reeves report: Field naturalists granted construction stay at Ostrander Point
The south shore at Ostrander Point in Prince Edward County (Photo by Terry Sprague.) The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists were awarded a stay of construction at Ostrander Point this week that will prevent wind developer Gilead Power from beginning construction on their nine-turbine, 22 megawatt project until the outcome
Continue readingthe reeves report: Europe looks to coal to reduce electricity prices
One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in a big way. Lignite, a low-quality form of coal that contains less units of energy and greater volumes of carbon than
Continue readingAlberta creates a Minister of Renewable Energy
Occasionally a spark of hope interrupts the dreary flow of environmental news. Such a spark occurred in Alberta last week with the announcement by Premier Redford that Donna Kennedy-Glans would be the new Associate Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy. The ministry will be the first of its kind in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – It shouldn’t be a surprise that more people are pointing out the importance of effective regulation in preventing disasters like the Lac-Mégantic explosion. But it may be somewhat unexpected to see that message from a CEO in the industry which stands to be
Continue reading