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…
Norman Farrell
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…
Protect nature, or face human extinction
It seems like a no-brainer that in protecting nature, we are protecting ourselves and working to ensure human survival. Yet the ruling classes believe they can insulate themselves from consequences…
Democracy
Democracy is a system of government not immune to challenges and threats. In recent years, there have been concerns about the health of democracy in a number of countries, as…
Special interests dictated BC’s energy policy
For years, informed commentators without a partisan interest or a financial stake in construction of Site C argued for alternative energy projects. BC New Democrats and BC Hydro were disinterested…
Power alternatives
Public utility BC Hydro is now admitting that significant rate increases are coming because of Site C. Whatever happened to the “40 percent growth over 20 years” that BC Hydro…
Note to readers
This site has been inactive for a while but will soon be reactivating. After a case of shingles that began in November, I experienced a complication known as postherpetic neuralgia.…
A safer future for life on earth
Along with Greta Thunberg and Naomi Klein, The Guardian presented on video three other panelists, Prof. Saleem Huq, Prof. Kate Raworth and Ayisha Siddiqa. The panelists did a great job…
BC’s government partnered in greenwashing
The NDP government of British Columbia says the province’s CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 “is one the strongest climate plans on the continent.” If that is true, the continent is in…
Food supplies threatened by water shortages
With food production threatened in southwest USA, British Columbia should pay more attention to the value and potential of its agricultural resources. The present NDP government is in thrall to…
Things that make u go HMMM!
The BC Government promised transformative change to Indigenous people. What First Nations are getting is transformative change to traditional territories altered for hydropower, coal, oil and gas.
The downside of wind power
Unlike Site C in British Columbia, wind projects have relatively low budgets and short construction timelines. Those factors limit lucrative employment opportunities and impede privatization of public wealth. While good…
A bias for inaction
In the hugely successful business book In Search of Excellence, co-authors Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman listed eight attributes of excellent, innovative management. Number one proposed a “bias for action.”…
Sweden has a public utility not stuck in the 1960s
I invite readers to look beyond a comparison of the noted energy projects to consider the long term objectives of two publicly owned energy companies. BC Hydro is focused on…
Punishing personal distress
The unarmed victim was seeking help, apparently suffering a personal crisis. CBC News reported the Ojibway man “was in distress from a bear mace attack and was attempting to relieve…
Climate emergency warnings
The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible on the timescale of people alive today, and will worsen in the decades to come…
Ominous warnings: emissions increasing, not decreasing
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an intergovernmental organization with 193 member states and territories, issued an ominous climate change warning on October 26, 2022. The cold reality is that G20…
Unreasonable reasoning
If reason is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense?
Decision-based-evidence-making
David Fisman is a tenured professor in the University of Toronto’s Division of Epidemiology. On Twitter a day ago, Dr. Fisman accused British Columbia health officials of employing “decision-based-evidence-making.”he
So we don’t all lose
GUEST POST — If you read the climate science, climate breakdown is clearly a civilization if not humanity threatening emergency requiring urgent mitigation action. Reducing GHG emissions by at least…