Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Nicole Mortillaro notes that the reduction in pollution due to COVID-19-related shutdowns isn't keeping 2020 from being either the hottest or second-hottest year on record. Nina Chestney reports on new research showing that our current fossil fuel economy is utterly incompatible with any hope of limiting climate change even to 2 degrees. And Mariana Mazzucato discusses what we'll need to do in order to avoid climate lockdowns in the not-so-distant future:

(C)limate change will exacerbate the social and economic problems highlighted by the pandemic. These include governments’ diminishing capacity to address public-health crises, the private sector’s limited ability to withstand sustained economic disruption, and pervasive social inequality. 

These shortcomings reflect the distorted values underlying our priorities. For example, we demand the most from “essential workers” (including nurses, supermarket workers, and delivery drivers) while paying them the least. Without fundamental change, climate change will worsen such problems.

The climate crisis is also a public-health crisis. Global warming will cause drinking water to degrade and enable pollution-linked respiratory diseases to thrive. According to some projections, 3.5 billion people globally will live in unbearable heat by 2070.

Addressing this triple crisis requires reorienting corporate governance, finance, policy, and energy systems toward a green economic transformation. To achieve this, three obstacles must be removed: business that is shareholder-driven instead of stakeholder-driven, finance that is used in inadequate and inappropriate ways, and government that is based on outdated economic thinking and faulty assumptions.

- Caroline Evans points out how Alberta is seeing substantial expansion of wind and solar power despite the recalcitrance of the Kenney UCP. And CBC News reports on new polling showing strong support for a transition to green energy in Regina.

- Elizabeth Renzetti writes that we won't see a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic until women are able to return to work. And Armine Yalnizyan and Kerry McCuaig take note of the opportunity to finally establish a national child care system.

- Jordan Press reports on the added stress and anxiety lower-income Canadians have faced due to the Libs' perpetual hemming and hawing over the continuation of coronavirus relief. And Alex MacPherson discusses how CERB recipients face the risk of being excluded from Saskatchewan's Legal Aid system due to a temporary shift to a slightly more liveable income level - highlighting just how many people are cut off from basic legal services. 

- But finally, on the bright side, John Paul Tasker reports on the federal government's plan to send out free automatic tax returns in order to ensure people receive the benefits available to them.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Tom Blackburn writes about the UK's rare opportunity to elect a government which is actually committed to empowering workers.

- Don Pittis writes that an effective transition toward a clean energy economy will result in far superior outcomes for workers than an insistence on propping up a dying fossil fuel sector. But Wal van Lierop points out the immense amount of lobbying the oil industry carries out to ensure it receives handouts and policy privileges over sustainable alternatives. 

- Gary Mason discusses the dangers of putting the health and well-being of seniors in care in the hands of distant foreign corporations. 

- Dina Al-Shabeeb highlights the growing number of working people struggling to survive poverty in Vaughan (and elsewhere). And Michael Spratt points out how cuts to Legal Aid systems leave everybody worse off by denying access to justice to the people who need it most.

- Finally, Graham Thomson points out both Jason Kenney's desire to create a political environment of perpetual conflict, and his utter inability to handle any punishment of his own a once he gets his wish.

Wednesday Evening Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Diane Cardwell points out how carbon politics are threatening renewable energy just at the point where it would win a fair fight against fossil fuels. And J. David Hughes finds that any case for Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline falls apart in the face of realistic assumptions about oil prices.

- Meanwhile, Emma Gilchrist digs into the many environmental positives of the B.C. governance agreement signed between the NDP and the Greens.

- Laurie Monsebraaten reports on the sale of a large chain of child care centres to a foreign parent which figures to result in lobbying for lowered standards and higher profits. And CBC News reveals that KPMG-linked foreign entities saw fit to destroy the evidence which could have allowed the Canada Revenue Agency to track down tax cheats.

- Taylor Bendig discusses the end of the line for the Saskatchewan Transportation Company, while Erin Weir highlights the fact that Brad Wall's desire to shut down province-wide public transportation had nothing to do with funding and everything to do with ideology - as evidenced by his refusal to see whether federal funding could help to maintain services.

- Murray Mandryk writes about Wall's complete lack of accountability surrounding the Global Transportation Hub fiasco.

- Finally, Nancy Merrill argues that sufficient legal aid funding is an essential part of a just society.