Globe and Mail Letter
In today’s Globe and Mail, you will find a letter from me (fourth from the top, under the heading “In the national interest”) relating the present interprovincial pipeline kerfuffle to…
environment
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jim O’Neill proposes an end to corporate free-riding (and an assurance of contribution to the society which allows for profit) through explicit “pay-or-play”…
Flowers Reduce use of Pesticide Spraying in Farms
Farms in the UK and Switzerland are trying a classic approach to reducing their use of pesticides: flowers. Yes, the flowers provide nutrients for insects that eat crops, but they…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses the apparent destructive belief among Davos’ elites that irrational exuberance and top-heavy economic gains are remotely sustainable: The world is…
Forgotten amid pipeline war brouhaha, new study details failure of Oilsands Big Five to control emissions
PHOTOS: There’s no Plan B! And Alberta’s five largest oilsands producers have set no targets let alone taken action to get their emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.…
The bitumen hits the fan in Alberta and Ottawa as British Columbia moves to restrict pipeline and rail flow
PHOTOS: B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman, foreground, with members of his environment and climate change strategy council last fall (Photo: Province of British Columbia). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Canadian…
EU Launches Urban Mining Project
The European Union’s newest mining project focuses on urban areas throughout the continent. Their ProSUM project built a database of metals, chemicals, and materials brought into the EU market over…
Memo to Jacobin: Ecomodernism is not ecosocialism
“To say that ‘science and technology can solve all our problems in the long run,’ is much worse than believing in witchcraft.” —István Mészáros This summer, the left-wing magazine Jacobin…
Global Warming Stirs the Methane Monster
Photo by Ralph Barrera It’s January, yet methane hydrates in the Arctic are growling like an incensed monster on a scorching hot mid-summer day. But, it is January; it’s winter,…
Blue bin blues
Every Monday it’s the same thing. I walk my dog along local streets, past the blue bins put out on the curb by residents, bins stuffed with content meant for…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Julian Cribb reports on new research as to mass exposure to chemicals and pollutants: Almost every human being is now contaminated in…
Monbiot’s Out of the Wreckage
The book cover says the book “provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.” Well, he certainly tries. He’s got a plan of action that’s possible, but I…
Courts vs. Climate Change
New York City launched a lawsuit against some of the larger polluters on the planet to cover the costs the city faces due to climate change (projected to be over…
Oxygen Depletion in the Oceans
This can’t be good: “The oxygen content of the open ocean and coastal waters has been declining for at least the past half-century, largely because of human activities that have…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Wanda Wyporska highlights the UK’s corporate executive fat cats, and argues that it’s long past time for the public to stop rewarding…
On Shame, Honour, and Vulnerability
I was forwarded this 47 minute podcast with Brené Brown on 1A, and some of the ideas she has are remarkably similar to Timothy Snyder’s views in On Tyranny (e.g.…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joan Hennessy writes that instead of limiting ourselves to holiday-season charity, we should insist on fair wages and dignity for our fellow citizens…
BC’s oil and gas industry regulator withheld fracking data
BC’s Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) withheld information confirming that fossil fuel industry fracking operations could contaminate surface waters and groundwater sources, and absolved companies of the responsibility to act…
Global warming: Our most dire predictions for the future of the planet are probably right
Photo from Public Domain Climate change models that are more severe are likely more accurate, according to a study published on Wednesday in Nature. The study discovered that predictions with…
$150,000 Award Rejected due to Immoral Investments
money The insurance company Aviva gives a cash award for community groups that make a positive change, one of their winners this year rejected the financial award. Indigenous Climate Action…