DeBriefed
DeBriefed is a weekly newsletter from Carbon Brief, a UK based website that publishes the work of journalists and academics. The focus is on the effects of climate change and…
Norman Farrell
A Damien Gillis event worth our attention
In the early days of IN-SIGHTS, I was influenced by the late Rafe Mair and his Common Sense Canadian partner Damien Gillis. November 16, a film directed by Mr. Gillis…
Democracy, taken for granted and less valued
While BC voters moved to the right in October, the voting pattern was not substantially different than in earlier times. The same cannot be said for the USA. More than…
Recent readings
About poetry and essays from the November 2024 issue of Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. The publication is useful for people at all levels…
Geothermal: unlimited, affordable, on-demand renewable energy
A decade ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists published a paper "How Geothermal Energy Works." It reported that the heat within 10,000 meters of the Earth's surface offers 50,000 times…
Accountability requires accurate and timely disclosures of BC’s finances
Years ago, Premier W.A.C. Bennett said the NDP "couldn't run a peanut stand." The BC Auditor General's report on the province's 2023-24 financial statements may reinforce that opinion. The Auditor…
Fascinate fools, muzzle the intelligent
More than 100 years ago, American labor activist Eugene Debs said, "Every robber or oppressor in history has wrapped himself in a cloak of patriotism or religion, or both." Today,…
Capturing fog
Not everything is doom and gloom at IN-SIGHTS. A story from The New Yorker's Brave New World Department is about Pavels Hedström, a Swedish architect based in Denmark. In architecture…
Don’t axe the tax; fix the tax
In theory, governments use carbon taxes to shift the costs of climate degradation from the public to those responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. However, contaminators can avoid paying carbon tax.…
Science denial, evil or stupid?
Sophisticated weaponry used in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and several other regions is causing acute suffering, death, and destruction. Some of the killing technologies are directly controlled by humans,…
Massive gap between rhetoric and reality
According to the latest UN’s Emissions Gap Report, global greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 reached a level unprecedented in modern times, rising 1.3 percent above the preceding year. The increase…
Collectibles that may no longer be collectible
Possessions we once thought valuable and worth preserving sometimes end up in boxes that are ignored for years. I tell my wife that our kids will probably use a giant…
Financialization of housing
New analysis from Popular Democracy and the Institute for Policy Studies reveals how billionaire investors have become a major driver of the nationwide housing crisis – and several common-sense measures…
Post election comments
The NDP holds one more seat in the Legislature than the BC Conservatives. David Eby will continue as Premier by depending on support from Rob Botterall and Jeremy Valeriote, two…
Greenpeace message
By exploiting coal, oil and gas, fossil fuel companies are inflaming extreme weather, making climate disasters more frequent and more severe–from hotter heatwaves to more destructive wildfires and unsafe air…
CCPA report on housing
Marc Lee and Alex Hemingway of the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives issued a report on affordable housing. It is an analysis that is worth our attention. Some of the…
BC Conservatives tolerate bigotry
South Surrey Conservative candidate Brent Chapman was revealed to have called Palestinin children "inbred, walking, talking, breathing time bombs." Additionally, he agreed with a podcast host from the fringe that…
BC Greens on Education
Surrey-Cloverdale BC Green candidate Pat McCutcheon pointed to the BC Government boasting that a new addition to École K.B. Woodward would allow some of the school’s portables to be “used…
An important week in British Columbia
Right-wing coalitions friendly to big business ruled this province for 52 of the last 72 years. Led by a man removed in 2022 from the Official Opposition caucus for denying…
Forests need protection, not exploitation
Plants, People, Planet is a peer-reviewed bi-monthly scientific journal established by The New Phytologist Foundation, a non-profit that promotes plant science. In 2022, the journal warned about the dire consequences…