Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Patrick Greenfield reports on a new study from the Zoological Society of London showing how wildlife populations are plummeting in the face of environmental destruction. Charlie Warzel makes the seemingly modest request that people care about the large swaths of the western U.S. on fire as a result of climate change. And Martin Dunphy reports on new research showing the nearly immediate damage to human health caused by wildfire smoke.

- Seth Klein offers seven lessons from Canada's World War II mobilization effort which we'd be applying if we were approaching the threat of a climate breakdown with anything close to the seriousness it deserves. Charlie Smith reviews Klein's A Good War - including in its emphasis on being able to point to a better future as a reward for pursuing a difficult struggle. And Sara Hastings-Simon warns us not to accept delay in climate action (generally presented through distant and implausible substitutes for immediate means of transitioning to a cleaner economy) which produces the same substantive effect as outright denial.

- Meanwhile, in case there was any doubt that mere people are ill-served by a status quo which puts fossil fuel development ahead of human interests and environmental stability, Kim Siever debunks the claim that oil and gas is the economic foundation even of Alberta alone - let alone Canada as a whole. And James Wilt highlights how the public oil resources taken from Alberta for private profit result in pitifully little provincial revenue. 

- Jim Stanford writes about the resiliency of Canada's labour movement in the face of decades of neoliberal attacks. But Jeff Labine reports on Jason Kenney's latest attempt to undermine the effectiveness of collective action by treating uninterrupted business as sacrosanct.

- Finally, Michael Smart writes that it's less than vital to obsess about reducing Canada's national debt when there are urgent needs to be addressed immediately. And Bruce Campbell notes that a wealth tax would both help to rein in Canada's existing inequality, and held to fund the society we want to build.