Thin blue line bleeds red
Eight years after Myles Gray was beaten to death by a police gang, almost nothing has changed in the process of holding officers accountable for violent misdeeds. Those Vancouver police…
Norman Farrell
Planting seeds of destruction
Instead of moving away from climate damaging energy sources, both Liberal and NDP governments of British Columbia have accelerated fossil fuel production through direct and indirect subsidies.
Zero years for procrastination
We have zero years before climate and ecological breakdown, because it’s already here. We have zero years left to procrastinate. The longer we wait to act, the worse the floods,…
Defending democracy through public engagement
In my years of political observation, I have come to realize that elected officials individually have little opportunity to influence public policy. At senior levels of government, power has concentrated…
Carbon dioxide removal may be “next to useless”
Humanity has never removed an atmospheric pollutant at a global, continental or, even, regional scale — we have only ever shut down the source and let nature do the clearing…
Carbon tax justification for fools
According to a study published by Nature Climate Change, governments of 51 countries spent C$940 billion subsidizing fossil fuels in 2021. The number is likely higher since there are many indirect…
Norway’s oil fund approaching C$2 trillion
In 1996, Norway began depositing oil revenue into a national wealth fund so that current and future generations would benefit from the nation’s oil wealth. Bolstered by oil taxes and…
Economics of biodiversity
The UK commissioned a study published in 2021 that was to help the government establish environmental policies for 25-years. Project leader Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University was assisted…
Hollow words, and deep down we know it
When people gather, it is common to hear acknowledgements that the group is meeting on unceded traditional territories of Indigenous people who have populated western Canada for roughly 14,000 years.…
Woke is not a slur
President Biden vetoed a measure that would have blocked fiduciary retirement fund managers from considering climate change, corporate governance and other factors when making pension investments…
Overtaxed or underserved?
Metro Vancouver and 21 lower mainland municipalities reported total accumulated surpluses of $42 billion in 2021. That was seven times the annual expenses reported in 2021 by the same local…
A special day
Some folks think social media is a toxic cesspool and avoid it. Other search for valuable content and find it. Many have found Zachery Dereniowski, creator of this video, which…
Note to readers
Reduced activity here will continue for a while. While treating me for a now four-month-old case of Shingles, medics found a heart disorder that needs attention. I’ve been quickly in…
Trans Mountain: A $35+ billion fossil fuel subsidy
“There is a genuine possibility that within the coming century, we will hit temperatures that are deeply incompatible with the continued existence of human life.” Canadian industrialists, the Trudeau government,…
Toward local energy generation and a distributed grid model
After implementation of efficiencies and conservation measures, the least destructive way to meet future energy needs may be local power generation from solar and wind sources…
What time is it?
Co-authors Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of economics at University College London, and economist Rosie Collington think democracy is endangered by the growing involvement of consultants in public policy development and implementation.
War on carbon would result in economic efficiency and improved quality of life
Following are excerpts from The Symbolic and Substantive Politics of Climate Change, an article by Dr. Steven Cohen, Senior Vice Dean of Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies.
A better way forward is still possible
In Bill Henderson’s guest post, he drew attention to a commentary by University of New Brunswick’s Jason MacLean. Published in April 2022, Dr. MacLean’s article should be reviewed. Excerpts follow…
On climate, it’s not too early to say
Denial is fast becoming an addict’s tantrum, and nobody can be quite as clueless and ignorant about existential climate dangers like those in the oil patch and the journalists, think…
Fossil fuel producers mining gold in Victoria
British Columbia’s NDP government issued a press release in May 2022 that promised an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Politicians were concerned that consumers troubled by rising energy prices might…