Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Damian Carrington reports on a new warning from scientists that we're on pace to exhaust humanity's carbon budget in the next two years, while also pointing out a report on how misinformation is feeding into the climate catastrophe. Umair Irfan discusses how the climate breakdown stands to worsen hunger by reducing agricultural yields. And Laurence Tubiana writes about the desperate need for political leaders to respond to the climate crisis with ambition rather than denialism and excuses. 

- But sadly, Alexander Quon reports on Scott Moe's decision to keep spewing coal emissions for no apparent reason other than to stoke disputes with the federal government, while Adrienne Tanner discusses how Doug Ford is using distant and implausible promises of nuclear power as an excuse to avoid transitioning to cheaper, cleaner energy. David Dayen reports on Republicans' plans to shovel free money to big oil. Jillian Ambrose notes that Keir Starmer is doing the same for UK gas plants, while Sam Bright points out that UK Labour is also promising the oil industry that it alone will be granted an effective exemption from paying a windfall profits tax. And Mitch Anderson discusses how the UCP has failed to advance climate policy an inch even by its own hand-picked (and meaningless) "intensity" targets. 

- Joshua Dean and Robert Hilton discuss how rivers are releasing large amounts of previously-stored carbon dioxide. And Inayat Singh and Tess He report on new estimates indicating that inactive wells produce seven times more methane pollution than previously assumed. 

- Molly Taft reports on the refusal of AI companies to provide any accounting for the energy they plan to burn through. And Andrew Chow reports on a new study showing how the substitution of ChatGPT for actual research and writing results in the erosion of critical thinking skills. 

- Finally, Charlie Angus calls out the social and environmental destruction being pushed by Mark Carney, while Alex Himelfarb and Craig Scott write about the joint effort by the Libs and Cons to ensure a lack of scrutiny into legislation designed to disempower the public. And Randy Thanthong-Knight reports that the Libs' cuts to immigration have resulted in a zero population growth rate for Canada, serving to marginalize us rather than allowing us to stand up for our country on a global scale.