Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Avery Lotz reports on Al Gore's latest reminder that the fossil fuel sector is far better at capturing politicians than carbon pollution. And Max Fawcett discusses how the UCP continues to make polluter-paid its primary operating principle in dealing with the oil and gas sector. 

- Marietje Scheeka points out the dangers of treating "innovation" (defined as corporate impunity) as the sole end to be pursued through economic policy. And Pauline Gerrard writes about the need to keep plastics out of our fresh water.  

- Alex Hemingway rightly questions why municipalities are banning small, liveable apartment buildings while complaining about a housing crisis. 

- Kendal David and Hannah Owczar note that Leah Gazan's basic income bill offers an immediate chance to move toward eradicating poverty in Canada. 

- Finally, Randy Robinson points out how the Ford PCs use big headline numbers to paper over real cuts to public services - and it's well worth noting the similar pattern of the Moe government as it pretends not to have starved Saskatchewan's health and education systems. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Jacob Stern asks whether the new normal is to blithely accept large numbers of avoidable COVID deaths - and sadly the answer to that question from everybody with the ability to avoid the outcome is a resounding "yes". But for those who haven't given up on the concept of respecting people's health and well-being, the University of Saskatchewan has developed a means of sampling wastewater on a building-level basis to identify outbreaks. And Eric Topol discusses the advantages of getting a booster vaccination in reducing infection and severe outcomes alike. 

- Meanwhile, Dean Baker offers a reminder that there's no need for governments to pay corporations over and over for the same work - including by providing them monopolies and large public payments for medications also researched and developed on the public dime. 

- Oliver Milman reports on the newly-revealed documents showing how the fossil fuel industry has lied to the public about both the climate crisis and its willingness to be anything but an obstacle to a health environment, while Natasha Bulowski exposes yet another "grassroots" campaign being exposed as funded by dirty energy. Nadeen Ebrahim discusses why petrostates can't afford to drink their own Kool-Aid in proclaiming that oil booms are here to stay. And Fiona Harvey reports on Oxfam's research showing how the countries most exposed to a climate breakdown are facing desperate shortages of food due to the carbon pollution we've spewed to date. 

- Gabriel Blanc writes that Pierre Poilievre is looking to undercut collective action against a climate crisis facing humanity as a whole. Leah Gazan points out the many shackles he plans to place on Canadians while claiming to stand for freedom, while Jim Stanford highlights the utter folly of his economic talking points. 

- Finally, the Globe and Mail's editorial board discusses the importance of building more - and more affordable - housing to meet growing needs. And Andy Crosby and Jacqueline Kennily offer a reminder that the roots of soaring rents can be traced to austerity and underinvestment since the 1990s. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Megan Ogilvie and Kenyon Wallace interview public health experts about the steps they're taking to stay safe as students return to school and another COVID wave crests. Dilshad Burman points out the increased risks to workers when isolation periods are eliminated, while Megan Molteni writes about the difficulties facing people whose access to health care is turned into a game of Russian roulette in the absence of making requirements. And even as current policy fails to account for the harms to health lasting far after an initial infection, David Axe discusses the perils of new mutations which could result in longer infections to begin with.  

- Simon Black observes that while workers have fought to stand their ground at times in the course of the pandemic, there's ample room to seek improvements in wages and working conditions. Kim Kelly makes the case for workers to push to unionize. Jim Stanford discusses both why the Bank of Canada should be pivoting away from interest rate hikes in the face of a slowing economy, and why it's all too likely to keep reducing employment in the name of fighting inflation caused by matters beyond its control. And Darren Shore points out that Canada is far behind many peer countries in implementing taxes on the wealthy which would both improve public balance sheets and reduce inflation from where it produces the most unfair consequences. 

- Trevor Melanson and David Colletto argue that the path to needed climate action is to highlight the connection between a just transition to clean energy and relief from high non-renewable energy prices. And Nick Gottlieb points out that Canada is falling far short of the mark in funding energy efficiency retrofits. 

- Molly Taft reports that the same Gulf of Mexico oil field which caught fire last year is now spewing methane into the atmosphere. And Bob Weber reports on a new lawsuit seeking to hold Alberta's government accountable for the cumulative environmental effects of the fossil fuel industry and other development. 

- Finally, Andy Kroll and Justin Elliott report on Barry Seid's "attack philanthropy" seeking to weaponize wealth to undermine social organization. Leah Gazan writes about the rise of far-right extremism in Canada as one of the offshoots of the cultivation of a fascist movement in the U.S. And Jeff Shantz calls attention to the horrors of vigilante violence against unhoused people. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Mickey Djuric writes about the rising COVID-19 hospitalization numbers driven by unvaccinated people - but lest anybody treat past shots as an excuse for complacency, Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating report on an increase in deaths among vaccinated people who are elderly and/or immunocompromised. Jason Moyer-Lee writes that there's no reason to celebrate the elimination of masking and other protections for people who will needlessly face avoidable disease and suffering. Adam Miller discusses what it might look like for COVID to become a more seasonal disease - while noting that we're still far short of the point of being able to predict its future waves. And Morgan Godfery calls out the right-wing attempts to diminish and criticize the successes of zero-COVID policies in New Zealand and elsewhere as more government simply abandon their constituents to the pandemic. 

- Austin Lee reports on a new study showing that a safe consumption site in Calgary resulted in savings of millions of dollars (to say nothing of the improved well-being of the people able to use it). And Zak Vescera reports that the federal government has gone so far as to invite Prairie Harm Reduction to apply for its funding directly for lack of any willingness by Scott Moe to make similar investments in health and safety in Saskatchewan.

- Drew Anderson highlights how refineries and other industrial polluters are doing untold damage to residents of Edmonton and surrounding areas. And the Canadian Press reports on the fine eventually issued to Husky for releasing harmful substances into a North Saskatchewan River tributary in 2018.

- Aryn Baker writes that the food supply crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine offers a deadly preview of what's in store as climate breakdown affects agriculture around the globe. And CBS News reports that California is already facing drought conditions long before its usual dry season.

- Finally, Leah Gazan and Kim Pate make the case for a guaranteed liveable basic income in the wake of a pale imitation thereof which nonetheless managed to reduce poverty and improve welfare in the midst of a pandemic.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- A group of doctors and scientists offers an open letter calling for a strategy of maximum COVID-19 suppression.

- Matt Gurney writes about the latest report documenting the utter failure of Ontario's long-term care system. PressProgress notes that tens of thousands of violations of health and safety standards by Ontario employers in the midst of a pandemic gave rise to a paltry 24 stoppages of work. And Lynn Giesbrecht reports on the danger that the fallout from COVID may include an exodus of teachers (among other vital workers who have largely been abandoned by their governments).

- Rob Carrick highlights how soaring housing prices are making a small number of homeowners wealthy while pricing the necessities of life out of the reach of many people (and particularly younger workers). 

- The Canadian Press reports on the supply agreement reached between the NDP and the Libs in the Yukon - featuring a cap on rent increases, a public dental insurance plan and a minimum wage increase among other much-needed supports for citizens. 

- Finally, Leah Gazan discusses the importance of controlling the narrative around a basic income, and particularly the opportunity to treat it as a way of ensuring the protection of everybody's rights rather than an excuse for failing to do so.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Geoff Dembicki interviews Leah Gazan about the need to put people over corporate profits in our political system.

- Dale Eisler writes about the need for our conversation around climate change to focus on an honest appraisal as to how we can rein in carbon emissions. But Jason Markusoff points out how petro-jingoism is drowning out any willingness to consider the massive costs of continued fossil fuel extraction. And Paul Willcocks highlights the glaring partisan divide which has seen conservative parties tamp down any interest in acting to avert a climate crisis.

- Meanwhile, Andrew Leach observes that the right-wing strategy of opposing consumer-level pricing and incentives only figures to ensure that more of the cost of any action will be incurred by the extraction industry and other major emitters.

- Ian Austen looks back at the causes of the Lac-Mégantic explosion - and the minimal regulatory response so far.

- Finally, Ricardo Tranjan calls out the Ford government's stinginess in slashing funding for a seniors' transit tax credit. And Leyland Cecco discusses Innisfil's disastrous experiment replacing public transit with ride-sharing which has increased both costs and pollution.