Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Stephanie Soucheray discusses new research showing how people with existing health problems are at substantially higher risk of long COVID. And Helen Floersh points out a new study on how different COVID-19 variants are adapting to evade immunity. 

- George Monbiot writes about the oil industry's constant lobbying and propaganda aimed at keeping us addicted to fossil fuels even as they poison us and destroy our living environment. And Gary Fuller points out how the trend toward larger vehicles results in more pollution and more dangerous roads. 

- Bryan Walsh notes that on a global scale, any gains against extreme poverty have slowed to a crawl (even as the top-end wealth accumulation which is spun as helping the cause of raising lower-level incomes continues to accelerate). 

- Oshan Jarow highlights how the US was able to put a massive dent in child poverty in the midst of a pandemic by lifting restrictions on access to social benefits - only to push children back into deprivation at the first available opportunity. And Connie Mason and Leah Hamilton examine the roots of the "parents' rights" language being used as a pretext for attacking and outing vulnerable children. 

- Finally, Thomas Zimmer discusses how a "polarization" frame gives cover to the cultivation of violent extremism on the right. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Adele Waters writes about the large numbers of UK doctors who are suffering from long COVID as a result of their efforts to care for patients - but who have been abandoned to financial ruin as a result. Elizabeth Cooney examines the likelihood of long COVID as the result of a repeat infection. Thanarath Imsuwansri et al. study the safety and effectiveness of nasal spray in neutralizing the spread of COVID.  And Alexander Tin reports on the Biden administration's decision to resume providing free COVID tests, rather than treating a continuing public health crisis primarily as a profit centre. 

- Meanwhile, Andrew Nikiforuk discusses how the e. coli breakout in Calgary daycare centres can be traced to both the specific unsanitary conditions at a single outsourced kitchen, and factory food production in general.  

- Andrea Houston asks whether the U.S. and Canada are headed toward a genocide against LGBTQ+ people, as anti-trans bigots consider themselves empowered to use the language of eradication due in no small part to their legitimization by conservative parties. Gil McGowan discusses how the wording comes directly from the fascist playbook. And Jackie Wong makes clear that nothing about the attack on trans people has anything to do with making children safer.  

- Finally, Max Fawcett examines the role of Stephen Harper and the increasingly anti-democratic IDU in discussing why the Cons have such an affinity for Narendra Modi and other fascist governments. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Chris Hedges interviews Matt Kennard about the hostile corporate takeover of democracy. And Adam King highlights how Canada's oil industry is profiteering at public expense while using the harm done by their own greed to promote the right-wing politicians in their pocket. 

- Jennifer Henderson reports on Nova Scotia's decision to remove maps showing the locations of glyphosate spraying in order to prevent the public from responding to known risks where the result might be some accountability for the polluters involved. And Tim Bousquet notes that Nova Scotia's supposed plan for housing is based entirely on funneling federal money to private developers. 

- Nina Lakhani reports on new research showing how the largest carbon offset schemes do nothing to actually limit carbon pollution. And in stark contrast, Allyson Chiu points out that one of the incidental benefits of remote work is a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - meaning that the effects of forcing people back into the office in the midst of a pandemic are as harmful for the environment as for public health. 

- Stanford University examines how the ecological damage from the anthropocene age isn't limited to particular species, but includes the elimination of entire branches of the tree of life. 

- Finally, Luke LeBrun offers an important look at the bigotry behind the "one million march for children" being pushed by the alt-right in Canada. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Exhausted cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Peter Borg discusses how the climate breakdown is compressing planetary changes which would normally take millions of years into individual lifetimes - even as petropoliticians seek to increase the damage we're doing to our living environment. And Edna Mohamed writes that climate refugees are already a major factor in global migration patterns. 

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera writes about the woefully inadequate housing being endured by migrant farmworkers in British Columbia. 

- Christopher Matthews and Collin Eaton offer an inside look at Exxon's misinformation campaign to keep carbon pollution spewing. And CBC News talks to Peter Hotez about the harm being done to even the most basic public health protections by the anti-science forces built up to cast doubt about climate change. 

- Penny Daflos reports on the massive amounts of money being siphoned out of public health care in B.C. (and elsewhere) by temp agencies.

- Finally, Linda McQuaig discusses why Canada needs an online ecosystem which isn't controlled by big tech - while noting that the fight over payments for corporate media content is just a small part of the picture. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Will Stone discusses what's still a limited state of knowledge around long COVID even as it continues to strike - and cause devastating effects - for ever more people. And CBC News reports on Evan Abene's advocacy for continued masking to limit the COVID-19 transmission that's been allowed to run wild. 

- Cory Doctorow writes about Canada's climate greenwashing which has resulted in the planting of monocultural tree farms which have turned into a tinderbox for constant wildfires. And Rachel DuRose points out that many of the few known ways to reduce the temperature increases caused by dirty energy involve other forms of pollution with their own toxic effects. 

- Meanwhile, Louis Sagahun reports on Calfornia's lawsuit seeking to at least make the oil industry pay for the direct environmental damage caused by its climate deception. 

- Ximene Gonzalez reports on the spate of rent hikes and renovictions in Calgary which is driving tenants into homelessness. And Zak Vescera reports on BCGEU's push to ensure that the end of a single tenancy doesn't mean that a needed housing unit loses rent controls and tenant protections.

- Finally, Torsten Bell highlights new research into the effect of populist governments - with the unsurprising conclusion being that those who take government based on resentment tend to produce poor outcomes by any measure other than clinging to power. 

Musical interlude

Dayseeker - Homesick

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Damian Carrington reports on a "scientific health check" showing that Earth's life support systems are well outside what's safe for humanity. But Jonathan Cook discusses how an obsession with growth over health and well-being is preventing us from taking any meaningful steps to reverse the damage. 

- Of course, it doesn't help that a secretive but massively-funded campaign by a shadowy network of conservatives is vilifying climate activists - as Amy Westeveldt and Geoff Dembicki report. 

- Drew Anderson writes about the fallout from the Danielle Smith UCP's decision to ban renewable development in order to keep Alberta's energy system hooked on dirty fossil fuels. And Isaac Phan Nay reports on the B.C. communities working on building a case against the oil industry for its contribution to the climate breakdown. 

- Gary Fuller discusses how the trend toward increasingly large vehicles is exacerbating pollution and other risks to health and safety. 

- Finally, Joshua Hill writes about the reality that the wealthiest few are willing (if not eager) to make life miserable for the majority of the population to enable them to consolidate wealth and control - as a property developer let slip in the course of a public appearance. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Mary Van Beusekom discusses new research showing that a quarter of COVID-19 survivors are still facing impaired lung function (among other health problems) a year after infection. And Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write about the CDC's approval of new vaccines better targeted toward current variants, while Beth Mole reports on its concurrent recommendation that everybody get a booster this fall. 

- Scott Denning makes the point that we shouldn't call a broken climate a "new normal" when we have no idea how to navigate it, while Al Jazeera reports on Volker Turk's warning that a dystopian future is already here. And Thora Tenbrink discusses how perceptions of the climate threat vary from place to place - particularly in a rural-urban divide. 

- Meanwhile, Michael Keller reports on a new research tool showing the consistent acidification of oceans as another example of the degradation of vital environmental systems. 

- Penny Daflos exposes the parasitic extraction of health funding by private staffing agencies. And Dayne Patterson reports on the Moe government's refusal to accept a donation of money to buy an MRI machine to operate in Estevan - presumably in large part because resources allowing essential services to be publicly performed would limit the ability of Sask Party donors to profit from them. 

- Finally, Doug Cuthand calls out the Moe government for trying to reduce access to sex education and inclusive learning in a province which desperately needs to work on improving both.