Musical interlude

Royksopp feat. Susanne Sundfor - Never Ever

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Ian Urquhart writes that while it's well and good to insist that the oil and gas industry stop attempting to greenwash its contribution to climate destruction, Canada also needs to reckon with its own unsupported claims to climate progress. Alienor Rougeot and Stephen Thomas discuss how Canada is falling behind the rest of the world in building clean energy capacity (while subsidizing continued fossil fuel emissions). And Marc Lee offers a reminder that British Columbia's carbon tax system is set up to favour polluting businesses over the public.  

- Gabriel Zucman writes that it's both feasible and necessary to make sure the rich pay their fair share. And Linda McQuaig calls out how the Fraser Institute and the Cons are teaming up to misrepresent how Canada's tax system works to ensure that never happens.  

- Gaby Hinsliff discusses how shrunken public services only end up imposing ever-more-unmanageable burdens on people to provide health and social care for relatives and loved ones. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow points out that when private equity sets out to extract wealth from an existing business, its marks include the people who invest their money based on the false promise that there's any plan to operate more efficiently (or at all) in the long term. Danyaal Raza and Karen Palmer write about the particular dangers of letting private equity take over health care services. And Audrey Guay highlights just a few examples of how privatization has undermined the public health care system while doing nothing to sustainably reduce waiting lists. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Fiona Harvey reports on the UN's warning that fossil fuel propagandists are engaged in a massive disinformation campaign to keep us spewing carbon pollution, while Petra Stock discusses new research showing how false denialism is seen as more credible the more often it's repeated. And John Woodside reports that Canada's oil and gas sector is predictably trying to suppress any reporting and sharing of accurate information about greenhouse gas emissions. 

- Meanwhile, Carl Meyer reports on the constant contact between pseudo-populist Pierre Poilievre and fossil fuel lobbyists. And Matt Simmons and Mike de Souza report on TC Energy's attempt to work political channels within the B.C. premier's office after a report emerged on its multiple environmental violations. 

- Climate Central examines how the effects of a warming planet include dangerously high nighttime temperatures. And Michelle Gamage discusses how poverty more than doubles one's risk of dying from extreme heat - though it's worth noting the converse that relative wealth doesn't bestow immunity either. 

- Michael Phillis reports on the Environmental Protection Agency's emergency order against the use of a pesticide which harms fetal development. And the Canadian Press reports on research showing that ultrafine air pollution particles were responsible for 1,100 deaths in Toronto and Montreal alone over a 15-year span. 

- Diane Taylor discusses how truth is the antidote to racist violence. But Luke LeBrun highlights how Pierre Poilievre is deeply committed to lying in order to preserve potential support on the lunatic fringe. And Joan Westenberg writes that there's no more sure path to to far-reaching platforms and consistent income than to claim  have been "canceled" for one's bigotry. 

- Finally, Kevin Watkins reports on the prospect that the G20 could lead the way in eliminating hunger and extreme poverty - though there's reason to be concerned that international discussions won't be matched by budgetary resources. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Clingy cat.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- The Technical University of Munich highlights the uncertainties involved in putting a timeline on particular climate tipping points - even if their arrival is certain if we don't stop spewing carbon pollution. And Meghan Bartels discusses how the climate breakdown is damaging all kinds of infrastructure designed for a temperature range which is entirely in the past. 

- Meanwhile, Alexis Simmerman and Doyle Rice report that an oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico caused by industrial pollutants has expanded to over 6,700 square miles. 

- Emilia Belliveau and Nola Poirier discuss how oil tycoons are perpetually lobbying to avoid cleaner energy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. And David Climenhaga points out how the UCP's hostility to renewable energy was able to shut down enough planned projects to power every house in Alberta - making it clear that Canada's right isn't interested in making energy available, but in ensuring that we have to pay off their dirty energy donors to access it. 

- Tom Perkins writes about the connection between increased food prices and blatant corporate profiteering.  

- Finally, Joe Mulhall rightly calls out against any attempt to legitimize racist violence. And Gil Duran warns that Twitter has been weaponized to favour exactly that - meaning that any responsible users need to be developing an exit strategy (if they haven't already). 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Gillian Steward asks how many communities need to be destroyed for the UCP and other climate denialists to start even pretending to care - though I'm not optimistic there's any level of real-world destruction that would dislodge a well-funded and deeply-ingrained culture of fossil fuel zealotry. Doug Cuthand writes that Canada's increase in wildfire activity is one of the many harms caused by climate change. And Erin Martin-Jones discusses how the same phenomenon has been observed around the globe, while Brian Owens points out the increase in "fire clouds" as a particularly severe form of fire activity.

- The University of Amsterdam examines how scientists are responding to the climate breakdown, and finds that the people who know the consequences of carbon pollution best are doing far more to try to avert it. And The University of the Basque Country finds that the oil industry's fraud on the public isn't limited to denying its longstanding knowledge of the climate crisis, but includes suppressing research into damage to biodiversity.

- Michelle Gamage offers a reminder that the COVID pandemic remains an ongoing crisis - even if British Columbia has joined other jurisdictions in treating it as less than an emergency. And Craig Brierly discusses new research showing that COVID-19 vaccines have helped people to avoid heart attacks and strokes.

- Cory Doctorow rightly questions why we allow the finance sector to loot the productive economy.

- Finally, Sarah Krichel discusses how Mark Zuckerberg's selective ban on Canadian news (allowing the right-wing pseudo-news echo chamber to reverberate while suppressing any journalism with standards of accuracy) is poisoning the flow of public information.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Julia Simone-Rutgers highlights how extreme heat (which is only getting worse) already looms as a major cause of death and disruption in Canada. Alison Snyder discusses how the climate breakdown is contributing to the spread of wildfires, while Li Zhou points out how wildfires are exacerbating the housing crisis as people are driven from their homes. And Mark Gongloff discusses how the inability to insure against climate disaster stands to chip away at housing values.

-  Meanwhile, Maanvi Singh reports on new research showing that the drying out of saltwater lakes may result in yet another unaccounted-for carbon bomb.

- Nili Kaplan-Myrth offers a reminder that we should be taking care of each other in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. And Cynthia Porter et al. confirm that basic precautionary steps like getting children vaccinated can significantly reduce the effects of COVID-19, while Bobo Wing-Yee Mok et al. find that the consequences of letting supposedly mild strains run rampant may include increased cardiac dysfunction among other dangers.

- The Daily Hive discusses how corporate greedflation is behind increasing consumer prices. And Dean Baker notes that the explanation for lower restaurant patronage seems to be based largely on extreme price-gouging - even if NPR's reporting insists on blaming other nebulous causes rather than identifying the connection.

- Finally, Cory Doctorow points out that the more we accept obviously-exploitative practices aimed at perceived out-groups, the more likely we are to see the same normalized and applied to everybody.