Friday Morning Links

Assorted content for your Friday reading.

- Emma Buchanan writes about the restrictions on media access that have resulted in people being poorly informed about the damage done by COVID-19. Meredith Wadman reports on new research showing that the increased infectiousness of the Delta variant is the result of its leaving more of its genetic code in host cells. And Matt Gurney discusses the importance of increasing vaccine supply around the globe - though he leaves out the obvious source of the current shortage as wealthy countries continue to prohibit the release of intellectual property over publicly-developed vaccines to let developing countries establish their own supply.  

- Corry Anderson-Fennell writes about the benefits for everybody when workers have access to paid sick leave, rather than being financially compelled to work through illness and pain. And Kim Siever debunks the corporate lobby's rhetoric about Alberta workers choosing federal pandemic benefits over work - as the only sectors seeing less employment are the ones where employers (government or otherwise) have chosen to restrict operations. 

- Meanwhile, Mario Canseco discusses new poll data showing an increasing number of Canadians recognizing the opioid crisis as a major problem and recognizing the need for political leadership. 

- David Suzuki calls out the continued subsidization of fossil fuels even as climate science points to an urgent need to transition away from them. Liang Jing et al. study (PDF) the carbon intensity of oil, and find Canada to be the second-worst polluter on the planet for the amount of crude it produces. And Aaron Wherry makes the seemingly obvious point that the high-pollution, low-efficiency tar sands are logically among the first resources which need to be left unextracted as we work on reducing our fossil fuel dependence. 

- Chen Zhou highlights how wealthy countries are trying to shift the goalposts to avoid meeting existing commitments to fund climate finance. Phoebe Weston reports on new research showing the grossly disproportionate share of emissions attributable to luxury carbon consumption. And Andrew Nikiforuk writes about the need to reduce our energy use in order to rein in the climate crisis.

- Finally, Susan Ferguson discusses how the systemic violence of capitalism has dictated a woefully insufficient response to COVID-19 (and to other crises). And Alex Steffen calls out the plutocrats who are using the spoils of existing wealth inequality to corner the market on the necessities for survival in a foreseeable climate apocalypse.