Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- The UN sets out Antonio Guterres' New Year's message calling for us to divert course from the road to climate ruin. Hannah Osborne examines some of the grim impacts of the climate breakdown in 2024 (which only figure to get worse as action is delayed), while Julia Jacobo reports on the multi-trillion-dollar cost of climate disasters in a single year. But then Mark Olalde exposes how fossil fuel giants are determined to avoid paying any of the environmental costs they're creating for everybody else.
- Oliver Milman reports on a new study showing the connection between car dependency and unhappiness in the U.S. David Zipper discusses how the U.S. is exporting its propensity for needlessly large and heavy vehicles. And Ricky Leong points out some recent Calgary examples as to how cities designed to privilege drivers over anybody else can be catastrophic for pedestrians.
- Rob Csernyik reports on the rapid expansion of gambling in Canada - as governments consistently accept easily-foreseen social damage in exchange for their own hit of short-term revenue.
- Jason Sattler offers a reminder that whatever other schisms might appear in the Musk-Trump administration, their shared hatred of workers will serve as a consistent organizing principle. And Annie Lowrey discusses the challenges facing parties confronted with anti-labour populism which speaks to grievances and false promises rather than any interest in workers' well-being.
- Finally, Christopher Holcroft writes that the ultimate question in the 2025 federal election is whether Canada will be able to hold off an invasion by U.S. oligarchs.
