Earth Overshoot Day Arrives this Week
This graphic depiction from The New York Times indicates our worsening predicament. The black bars represent the Earth’s capacity to deliver the resources that sustain humanity. The battery is fully…
The Mound of Sound
What a 4C World Looks Like
This graphic from The Guardian depicts what a world at 4 degrees Celsius (above pre-industrial levels) will mean for humanity. If it looks grim, it is. The red zone, as…
A Voice From the Past
Over the past couple of years I’ve been exploring early progressive thought. Yesterday I stumbled across the following passage that immediately hit a chord: The misery of the people is…
Too Toxic to Continue
They’re the Old School chapter of the GOP, conservative Republicans alarmed at how their party, the‘party of Lincoln’ succumbed to rightwing extremists, misogynists, xenophobes, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, racists and…
What Remains For the Trudeau Liberals?
Bill Morneau was not the problem but a symptom of a greater failure known as the Trudeau government. With his finance minister out, resigning both his cabinet post and his…
Covid-19 is a Delayed Action Killer
The anti-mask/anti-vaccine crowd routinely downplays the severity of the Covid-19 virus. Some like to compare the current pandemic, now in its seventh month, to the Spanish Flu of 1918 that…
Higher Learning, Higher Infection
Many of us live in dread of Covid-19 creeping into our children’s classrooms. Little kids, getting sick, bringing the virus back home to their siblings, parents, perhaps grandparents. Scary stuff.…
Timothy Snyder Urges Americans to Keep a Close Eye on Belarus
Yale prof, Timothy Snyder, is probably best known for his book, “On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century.” (available free on PDF here) He’s considered something of an expert…
Our Hottest Decade
The last decade was the hottest on record but this decade, the 2020s, is blowing the doors off it. And, when it comes to heat, America remains Number One. What…
What Will They Think of Next?
For the first time in the history of the US Weather Service the agency has issued a “fire tornado” warning. The Reno office of the National Weather Service warned Northern…
Has the Clock Run Out on Bill Morneau?
With Mark Carney hovering in the wings is the writing on the wall for Trudeau finance minister, Bill “Job Churn” Morneau? There have been a few reports of friction between…
S.O.S. – Save Our Soils, Save Our Souls
One of the great ecological challenges of this century will be to save our stocks of farmland from soil degradation. While the degree of soil degradation varies from country to…
Some Good News on the Pandemic Front
The US FDA has approved a new Covid-19 detection test that is said to be less costly, fast, more accurate and, best of all, non-invasive. A COVID-19 saliva test is…
You Can Ignore It, For Now, But There’s No Denying It
It is increasingly hard to believe how we ignore the climate breakdown even when it’s on our own doorstep. Our federal government has proclaimed a climate state of emergency but…
Why Not Just Make Them Walk the Plank?
The rightwing government currently in power in Greece is testing a new solution to unwanted refugees cluttering up its beautiful islands – haul them back out to sea. The Greek…
What? Are You Kidding? Three Months?
Those bastards! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC, report that those who contract, survive and recover from the Covid-19 virus receive immunity. That immunity…
A Reporter Waits Years to Ask Donald Trump "The" Question.
Huffington Post’s White House correspondent, SV Date, is usually a spectator when Donald Trump stages a press conference. Trump, like his press secretaries, tend to invite questions from a select…
There’s No Going Back. We Need to Start Imagining Our Future Before Someone Else Does.
It’s not that the Covid-19 pandemic is as cataclysmic as the Black Death or even the Spanish Flu of 1918. There’s a good chance it won’t be – BUT… The…
Nursing Homes Should Be a Government Responsibility
One thing the Covid-19 pandemic has brought home is that for-profit nursing homes have proven less safe for the elderly in their care. It’s not just a Canadian problem either.…