Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Mitchell Beer writes about the Canada Energy Regulator's recognition that the future will involve far less fossil fuel use than the oil industry and its spokespuppets want us to believe. And Marc Fawcett-Atkinson discusses how biomethane is just another distraction intended to turn the focus away from actual solutions. 

- Rob Thubron reports on Antonio Guterres' latest warning that continued dependence on fossil fuels is incompatible with a liveable planet, while Fiona Harvey reports on Avinash Persaud's call for far more support for developing countries facing the brunt of the damage of a climate breakdown so far. And Yale Climate Connections points out that there's strong public support for strong action to stop carbon pollution - even as people demanding action wrongly believe they're in the minority due to the cacophony of paid fossil fuel shills dominating any public discussion. 

- Tina Reed discusses how scientists seeking to provide people with accurate information within their disciplines are being harassed off of Twitter (and out of other public spaces) as the violent, anti-knowledge right is being deliberately legitimized by wealthy conservatives. And Cory Doctorow writes about the importance of presenting and defending an alternative to the corporatism and fascism - rather than presuming that the only option is to compromise on everything while satisfying nobody. 

- Omar Mosleh reports on Barrie's appalling proposal to outlaw any assistance to unhoused people. And Clara Pasieka reports on the movement pushing back against that naked cruelty. 

- Finally, Michael Sainato reports on the tens of billions of dollars being stolen from workers by employers every year in the U.S.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Outstretched cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Nippon.com discusses a new survey indicating that a large majority of people in Japan continue to mask regularly to protect their own health and that of others. But Richard Woodbury reports that Nova Scotia (like other Canadian jurisdictions) is seeing significant unexplained excess mortality now that it's stopped making any effort to limit or track the spread of COVID-19. 

- Martha Bailey et al. study how investments in the social safety net pay for themselves dozens of times over. But Patrick Butler discusses how the UK has chosen to provide minimal cost of living supports which fall far short of providing a stable financial base. And Michael Casey and R.J. Rico write about the escalating rate of evictions in the U.S. as landlords push people out of their homes to pursue higher rents.  

- Tzeporah Berman highlights how the oil sector is the arsonist responsible for setting much of Canada on fire. Luke Barratt discusses how existing carbon offsets are generally fictitious rather than representing any true reduction in carbon pollution. And Jamie Swift writes about the need for a political movement to work on averting a climate breakdown. 

- Florian Dietrich et al. find that the climate harm caused by fossil gas is far more severe than assumed in existing policies. And Zoë Yunker examines how one carbon-fueled disaster can cause another, particularly as fires make land more vulnerable to flooding. 

- Finally, Andrew Hawthorn rightly argues that "thinking of the children" shouldn't be taken as an excuse for bigotry or violence. And Jae Puckett points out how the anti-social right's attacks on LGBTQ+ people are imposing new burdens and stresses on people who aren't asking for anything more than to be able to live life as themselves. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Eyal Press writes about the problems with the U.S.' health care system which forces medical workers to subordinate the health of their patients to the demands of corporate investors. And Andre Picard points out that the largest problems with Canada's health care system come from the areas where it's the least universal and most profit-oriented. 

- The Economist discusses the extreme wildfires which have already torn through massive swaths of Canada before we even reach summer. And Mitchell Thompson offers a reminder that in addition to insisting on spewing the carbon pollution that's driving a climate breakdown, right-wing governments have also systematically destroyed the firefighting response needed to try to limit the damage. 

- Meanwhile, Sam Meredith reports on Europe's recognition that it faces a water crisis - which sadly places it far ahead of Canada in at least attempting to plan ahead rather than merely reacting to disasters as they occur. 

- Andrew MacLeod writes about the significance of global shipping as a driver of climate change - which is particularly important in light of the perpetual push by the dirty energy industry to ship oil and gas offshore and move carbon emissions off of Canada's balance sheet. 

- Emily Chung and Alice Hopton report on the reality that environmentally-friendly housing is often more affordable - as long as it's being built and operated by groups focused on meeting needs rather than banking profits. 

- Finally, Roy E. Bahat, Thomas A. Kochan, and Liba Wenig Rubenstein make the case for employers to start working with organized labour rather than seeking to undermine it at every opportunity. And Zachary Carter discusses Isabella Weber's compelling argument that controls on corporate profiteering are a needed answer to exploitative inflation. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Andrew Perez highlight how Suncor and other dirty energy giants have poured loads of windfall profits into stock buybacks while simultaneously repudiating their environmental promises and obligations.

- Jonathan Barrett discusses how Australia has seen the same spate of "shrinkflation" that's similarly resulted in the corporate sector goosing its profits at consumer expense elsewhere. And Paul Krugman points out how a focus on current measures of core inflation results in a misleading picture of household expenses.

- Meanwhile, Michelle Cyca discusses how Canadian public policy has gone astray due to the impossible promise that homeownership can paper over growing structural inequality. 

- Finally, Luke LeBrun reports on the bigoted right's attempts to take over Canada's schools and public spaces. And Jeremy Appel discusses how the Alberta NDP unfortunately kept that mindset in power by seeking to placate a right-wing view assumed to be shared by persuadable voters while offering only to be less hateful and corrupt in implementing it.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Alexander Haro reports on the scientific recognition that 2023 stands to be by far the hottest year in recorded human history (even compared to the elevated temperatures of other recent years). And Kate Aronoff wonders when the general public will start waking up to the glaring climate risks that are rendering massive amounts of land uninsurable. 

- Meanwhile, Nathasha Bulowski discusses how the federal sustainable jobs bill will would give labour some voice in the future of Canadian work - which represents one of the main reasons why the Cons and their provincial allies are determined to block it.

- Katherine Scott and Trish Hennessy examine how the low-barrier income provided through the CERB served not only as a temporary source of income, but also as a means for workers to improve their work circumstances. And Malone Mullin reports on Food First N.L.'s call for people to have the income they need to ensure a reasonable standard of living, rather than being forced to rely on food banks and other charities.

- Finally, Andre Picard discusses how the price of inaction and dithering in Canada's health care system is a deep decay. And the Canadian Health Coalition highlights why the NDP's push for pharmacare legislation is needed to ensure people don't face barriers to access to medicine.

Musical interlude

Flight Facilities feat. Grosvenor - With You

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Scott Dance reports on the scientific recognition that the Earth's oceans are warming far faster than previously feared, while Sid Perkins discusses the particularly large temperature increases in parts of the north Atlantic. And the American Geophysical Union points out that humanity's unanticipated effects on the planet include pumping so much groundwater as to have altered the Earth's rotational axis. 

- Damian Carrington reports on the World Bank's recognition that massive fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies are major contributors to environmental damage. And George Monbiot writes about the connection between fascist politics and climate change denial.

- But lest anybody think the problem lies solely in right-wing parties, Alex Ballingall reports on how the Trudeau Libs have failed to spend billions in promised climate funding. And Markham Hislop laments the state of Alberta's climate politics on all sides, while Martin Lukacs points out how fossil fuel lobbyists are largely dictating the direction of the provincial NDP in multiple provinces. 

- David Moscrop discusses how the Ford government is using glaringly inaccurate budget estimates to justify a failure to fund public services. 

- Lauren Weber, Caitlin Gilbert and Taylor Lorenz report on the systematic development of astroturf groups intended to establish naked reactionary bigotry as the basis for health policy. 

- Finally, Anand Giridharadas' commencement speech to Sidwell Friends School offers a compelling call to young people to work on fixing the institutions which are so profoundly broken. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Stephanie Soucheray discusses how many patients whose senses of taste and smell have been affected by COVID-19 never fully recover, while the University of Waterloo finds new evidence of lasting impact on the brain. And Carolyn Bramante et al. study how metformin can reduce the severity of COVID infection.  

- Mike Bebernes wonders whether the combination of COVID and wildfires could prompt advances in indoor air safety. But that will require the current generation of adults to take ownership of responsibility for improving matters, rather than planning to leave a smoking husk of a world to today's children.  

- George Takei interviews Robert Reich about the need to fundamentally change the balance of power which currently lies solely with the robber baron class. And Cory Doctorow points out how the largest corporations are as fervently opposed to competition and market factors as anybody when they have the opportunity to extract profits from monopolies. 

- Meanwhile, Junaid Jahangir discusses the need to rein in inequality, including by recognizing corporate taxes as a valuable tool both to bring in public revenue and to eliminate incentives for profiteering. And Richard Barnthaler and Ian Gough discuss the prospect of an economy based on sufficiency rather than excess. 

- Finally, Michael Kan reports that instead of looking to protect people's privacy from corporate manipulation, the U.S. government is buying up (and re-identifying) personal information for itself. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Fiona Harvey reports on Greta Thunberg's warning that a failure to stop burning fossil fuels amounts to a death sentence for people living in poverty - which would be a much more powerful message if the denial of environmental disaster and devaluation of human life weren't core principles of our corporatist governance model. Andrew Fanning and Jason Hickey model what climate reparations would look like if the wealthiest countries compensated the rest of the world for the cost of their carbon pollution. And Gary Mason discusses how Canada's response to the climate crisis would be different if we had any notion of sacrifice. 

- Geoffrey Lean is hopeful that a new treaty being reached by governments and backed by some business interests will result in an end to plastic pollution. But we should be wary of temporary corporate concessions intended to keep dirty business as usual going as long as possible - with Shell's reversal of plans for even tiny fossil fuel production cuts serving as just the latest example. 

- John Quiggin points out how Australia's grocery store duopoly has used the cover of inflation to goose its profit margins. And Holly McKenzie-Sutter reports on the Bank of Canada's needed recognition that corporate pricing and exploitation are at the root of Canada's inflation as well - though as Jim Stanford notes, it isn't following that to its logical conclusion by using tools less focused on reducing work and wages. 

- Finally, the Center for Working-Class Politics discusses how it's possible to defeat the populist right by making a priority of genuinely challenging corporate power and meeting the needs of the working class. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Cats on parade.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Piers Forster reports on new research showing that both greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures continue to push past all recorded records. Andrew Freedman adds sea surface temperatures to the list of indicators setting off alarm bells for anybody bothering to pay attention. And Shannon Osaka, Michael Miller and Beatrice Rios write about the danger that we're sleepwalking into a "fire age" even as our corporate overlords command us to keep burning things. 

- Bryan Owens writes about the causes of what may be an entire season of wildfire in Canada, while  David Ball reports that British Columbia is among the provinces facing the prospect of a devastating drought. Caroline Mimbs Nice connects California's recent spate of fires to the effects of climate change. Justine McDaniel writes about the possibility that direct experience of the consequences of a climate breakdown will make people more eager to push for action - along with the risk that it will be minimized and memory-holed at the first opportunity. 

- Frank Jordan comments on the glaring gap between the corporate sector's empty "net zero" pledges, and its willingness to follow up in any meaningful way. 

- Vanmala Subramaniam discusses how temporary CERB benefits provided workers with a modicum of opportunity to seek out better positions - which explains why it was discontinued so quickly and has been attacked with such vitriol by the Cons and their anti-social base. And Nicholas Hune-Brown discusses how libraries have been turned into the social service provider of last resort and singular cost-free public space (without having been provided with the resources needed to fill those roles). 

- Finally, Chris Pepin-Neff points out how the bigoted right's anti-trans campaign fits into the history of violent moral panics. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Katrina vanden Heuvel writes that the same plutocrats who have chosen to value the lives of most of humanity at nil are pouring massive amounts of money into bizarre and expensive longevity treatments for themselves.  

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board deigns to point out that much of Canada is on fire, while Rebecca Falconer reports on warnings that that reality may last all summer. And Carolyn Kury de Castillo discusses how farmers in Alberta are looking at zero production due to the dry and pest-infested spring. 

- Matthew Yglesias points out that the effect of the wildfires has been to reverse hard-won (if apparently-forgotten) progress in reducing air pollution. And Will Bunch wonders whether a continent-wide blanket of smoke will serve as any more of a wakeup call than so many other disastrous effects of a climate breakdown, while John Vaillant isn't optimistic. 

- Robson Fletcher writes about the dehumanizing experience facing renters trying to find a home in Calgary. 

- Finally, Rachel Tompa discusses new research finding a connection between long COVID and persistent inflammation. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The Canadian Press reports that the Ford PCs' COVID negligence includes shutting down a rapid test program still distributing hundreds of thousands of tests each week.

- Denise Balkissoon writes about the need for Toronto (like other cities) to elect representatives who recognize the severity of the climate crisis, while lamenting that most of its mayoral candidates are barely paying lip service to the great challenge of our time. And Imperial College London warns that we can't meet our climate goals without all current net-zero pledges being met in full - even as 90% appear to be based on little more than wishcasting.

- Irina Ivanova reports on new research showing how a climate breakdown is driving up the cost of food. Michelle Gamage discusses how wildfire smoke is making people sick. And the University of Reading explores how climate change is also causing increased airplane turbulence - in case mild inconvenience for the wealthy is a better driver of motivation to change than loss of the necessities of life for everybody else.

- P.E. Moskovitz discusses how the suburbanization of the U.S. has proven to be a breeding ground for fascism in taking away community venues while encouraging messages about excluding outsiders from isolated communities.

- Finally, Beth Mole reports on new research estimating the death count from just three of the U.S. Supreme Court's more antisocial decisions - with a conservative estimate suggesting that the partisan actions of half a dozen Republican hacks will personally cause 6,000 deaths over the next decade.

Musical interlude

Andain - Much Too Much (Zetandel Chill Remix)

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Umair Haque discusses the absurdity (and manufactured idiocy) that results in us continuing with extractive business as usual as we enter a palpable age of extinction. And Richard Eskow writes about the reasons why billionaires can't tolerate the prospect that most people would enjoy even a modicum of security and well-being. 

- Meanwhile, both Dharna Noor and Zeeshan Aleem discuss how the wildfire smoke blanketing the U.S. is just part of the new, broken-down climate we'll be living with thanks to oil barons continuing to dictate our social choices. 

- On that front, Fiona Harvey reports that the fossil fuel peddlers put in charge of the next major global climate talks are refusing to even talk about limiting dirty energy. Carl Meyer exposes how Suncor is being allowed to dictate Canadian federal climate policy (even as the official opposition spends its time complaining that such a thing even exists). And Mark Sweney reports on the UK Advertising Standards Authority's determination that Shell's greenwashing is "likely to mislead" the public about the harm it's causing to our planet.

- Finally, Harvey also reports on new data showing that greenhouse gas emissions continue to reach record highs. And Yvonne Gordon reports on the discovery of microplastics in even the most remote of ocean environments as we continue to use the Earth as a dumping ground.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Caitlin Johnstone offers a grim but fair evaluation of the barely-existent left in the U.S. and elsewhere - while recognizing that the obvious implication is the need to build capacity to demand systemic change. And David Suzuki discusses how an obsession with perpetually consuming more stuff - particular when linked to the fetishization of dirty energy sources - produces both personal dissatisfaction and disastrous environmental consequences. 

- Damian Carrington reports on new research which concludes the climate breakdown has reached the point where there's no longer any prospect of saving Arctic ice in the summer (with more extreme weather expected to result from its loss). 

- Aaron Wherry writes that Canada's Parliament is largely fiddling as the country burns, while Greg Pyle discusses how the UCP is determined to make matters even worse in order to keep short-term profits flowing to its oil backers. And Jacob Knutson discusses how Canadian wildfires are resulting in dangerous levels of air pollution in large swaths of the U.S. 

- Mary Vallis offers an explainer on rent strikes as organized tenant resistance is becoming more common in the face of intolerable rent extraction. 

- Finally, Angela Satni explores the roots of patriarchy - along with the anecdotes and debunked theories used to try to present it as an inevitability. And Tandeep Sidhu writes that the militarization of Canadian police is destroying public trust and making everybody less safe. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Floored cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Thom Hartmann offers a reminder of the broad-based growth and social progress which is possible when capitalists are required to pay reasonable tax rates. And conversely, Cory Doctorow examines the utterly destructive practices of private equity - which is being catered to with a business model of taking windfall profits at the expense of workers, infrastructure and business sustainability. 

- Meanwhile, Fiona Harvey reports on new Oxfam research showing how wealthy and polluting countries are trying to profit off the damage wrought through the climate breakdown. Benjamin Shinger reports on the difficulty and complexity people are facing trying to get insurance as insurers account for increasing climate risk. And Francesca Fionda discusses what's needed to ensure the victims of climate disaster have an opportunity to heal and rebuild. 

- Andrew Nikiforuk discusses the lie of "clean" tar sands production, as environmental standards have been regularly degraded and ignored in order to keep money flowing to oil barons. And Joseph Winters points out how we need a massive reduction in our reliance on plastics as part of any effective climate plan. 

- Kyle Bakx reports on Suncor's slashing of 1,500 jobs within days after the UCP bamboozled voters into believing their hold on power could maintain oil jobs. And David Climenhaga writes that it similarly took Danielle Smith no time at all to start undermining any pretense of democracy after securing her own re-election. 

- Finally, Jonathan Montpetit reports on the fundamentalists looking to mimic the U.S.' imposition of extreme religious views through the political system. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Laura O'Callaghan writes about new research showing how the NHS (like other health systems) is facing staff shortages based in part on the loss of thousands of workers to long COVID. And Mary Van Beusekom discusses a study finding that 40% of foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. can be traced back to worker illness. 

- David Spratt writes about new research from James Hansen and others warning that we may be operating based on gross underestimates of both climate sensitivity to changes in temperature and greenhouse gases, and the consequences of failing to reverse the feedback loops already in operation. And Thom Hartmann asks why we're not seeking to hold accountable the fossil fuel industry responsible for defrauding the public and endangering our living environment in order to accumulate short-term profits. 

- Steve Lafleur points out that the only solution to traffic congestion is to make it possible for people to function without constantly needing to drive personal vehicles. And Megan Robinson notes that an increase in greenwashing as part of marketing clothing can't hide the reality that the best way to reduce the environmental impact of what we wear is to ensure that it lasts rather than requiring constant replacement.

- Finally, Andrew Nikiforuk asks how much damage we can expect from another term of the UCP's petrostate populism. But in case anybody is tempted to draw the lesson that there's no alternative but to give into the constant demands of exploitative capital, Cory Doctorow points out that Washington state has offered a valuable example of how a capital gains tax can reduce inequality and fund public services.