Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joanne Light and Cathy Orlando point out that we don't have any more time to waste in reining in a climate breakdown in progress. And Justin Ling writes that we should be far more concerned about Canada's massive and increasing deficit in action to avert a climate crisis than small amounts of ink on the federal balance sheet:

Even if Canada only contributes a fraction of the world’s emissions, we stand to shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs. Rising sea levels promise to displace populations along the coasts, increased rainfalls will require ever-larger bailouts for flooded communities in the East, and worsening wildfire seasons have wreaked havoc through the West.

To not prepare more actively to prevent and mitigate that – and to campaign, instead, on the few-hundred bucks in short-term savings that would come from doing nothing – takes the taxpayers for chumps.

Climate change is already costing us billions. If we don’t turn our entire government toward reducing and eliminating further emissions, and preparing and mitigating incoming effects, we’re only compounding the costs we’ll incur down the line.

- Meanwhile, Melanie Green points out that the ill effects of a climate breakdown extend to avoidable mental health difficulties for the people forced to confront it. And Andrew Van Dam reports on new research showing how living wages can ameliorate numerous social and health symptoms.

- Oliver Wainwright discusses the rise of the new form of corporate-designed company town. And Shawn Micallef argues that we shouldn't allow tech giants to demand the power to shape living spaces and monitor individual activity without accepting the accountability which should apply to any de facto government.

- But based on the examples reported by Ainslie Cruickshank and Jim Bronskill, we shouldn't pretend that public resources aren't also misused to monitor people for the benefit of the wealthy few (including the fossil fuel industry). And Sharon Riley exposes CAPP's lobbying efforts to ensure that nobody other than oil barons has any say in the decisions made around dirty energy projects.

- Finally, a new Upstream study examines the continued shame of appallingly high child poverty rates among status First Nations children. And Andrew MacLeod writes about the role racism plays in Canadian politics.