Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The Canadian Press reports on Statistics Canada's findings that Canadian life spans have fallen for three years in a row - with Saskatchewan continuing to face the most extreme decline. And Codi Wilson reports on Toronto's closure of its remaining COVID-19 vaccination clinics due to the Ford government's decision to stop funding prevention of avoidable transmission and illness. 

- Norm Farrell discusses how the push to expand liquid gas production may be the most dangerous fossil fuel plan in the world, while Oliver Milman writes about the U.S.' expansion of fossil fuel extraction while the world tries to work on a phaseout. Markham Hislop calls out Danielle Smith's enshittification of energy policy as a means of stalling any transition to clean energy. And Cory Doctorow points out that insurance companies are exacerbating the climate breakdown by funding oil and gas extraction while constraining public mitigation and remediation efforts. 

- Chip Colwell offers a reminder that individual-level behaviour can only accomplish so much in a system designed to encourage consumerism and waste. But David Danelski notes that one all-too-familiar form of corporate manipulation appears to be backfiring, as payment for "sponsored" product positioning in search results produces a justified aversion among users.  

- Meanwhile, Merissa Daborn writes that we should be ensuring that people have access to the necessities of life including food, rather than focusing on policing and punishing people who lack them. 

- Finally, Amanda Marcotte discusses why it's entirely healthy that so many U.S. women expect more for themselves than to settle for a MAGA reactionary in order to get married.