Saturday, March 26, 2022

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- David Wallace-Wells examines the massive global toll of excess deaths from COVID-19 (likely far exceeding even the already-alarming official counts). Nele Brusselaers et al. examine how Sweden's choice to ignore science in favour of wishcasting and a strategy of deliberate infection resulted in avoidable tragedy, while Heidi Ledford looks at the possibilities and uncertainties in trying to medicate our way around long COVID. And Dr. Thomas Piggott discusses why he's still making sure to mask up to avoid not only illness for himself, but potentially deadly consequences for people who can't protect themselves. 

- Stewart Lansley examines the causes and consequences of the UK's model of extractive capitalism - with the predictable result being the concentration of wealth and power in a lucky few while everybody else faces perpetually more precarity. And Erica Pandey notes that the executive class is far more eager to force employees back to the office in person than workers are to take avoidable risks in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.

- Meanwhile, Laura Chinchilla and Maria Fernanda Espinosa discuss the importance of ensuring that the women who stand to bear the brunt of climate change are at the table in determining how best to avert and adapt to it, while Jeremy Appel writes that we can't afford to doom ourselves to a climate breakdown as part of a toxic masculinity contest with Vladimir Putin. And Donna Lu reports on satellite data showing that Antarctica's Conger ice shelf has collapsed. 

- David Moscrop writes about the hopeful prospect that the NDP-Lib supply and confidence agreement will lay the groundwork for a universal drug plan. And Jacques Gallant reports on the Libs' recognition that increased health care investment needs to be tied to specific priorities and outcomes, rather than being redirected to suit the political purposes of premiers. 

- Finally, Scott Schmidt examines the constant internal bickering and backstabbing within conservative parties which seems to have completely overtaken any interest in discussing policy choices. Graham Thomson reminds us that Jason Kenney has spent his entire time in Alberta politics courting the lunatics he now claims to need to control. And Taylor Lambert reports on the background to Jason Nixon's ascent to environment minister - featuring one of the UCP's trademark appointments of the person with the absolute worst combination of qualifications and suitability to oversee a government department. 

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