Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus examines how long COVID is producing disastrous social and economic effects. Helena Perez Valle interviews Deepti Gurdasani about the lessons we should be learning both to address the continued spread of COVID-19 and to prepare for future pandemics, while David Wallace-Wells discusses the need for more compelling stories about the continued toll of COVID in order to make the case for the public health measures needed to keep people safe. And Nergis Fertina explores how COVID itself may be changing people's personalities to be more aggressive and less engaged. 

- Glorie Dickie reports on new research showing that the Earth's wildlife population has dropped by more than two-thirds in just the last half century. Emily Hofstaeder reports on the grossly one-sided relationship between pharmaceutical manufacturers which have been devastating Puerto Rico's environment by dumping pollutants and using limited water resources, and the public which has subsidized that harm. And Camilla Hodgson discusses how "loss and damage" funding for developing countries looms as the next major issue in global climate talks. 

- Meanwhile, the Alberta Federation of Labour has offered a blueprint (PDF) for economic development which accounts for the need to transition to the economy of the future - rather than continuing to operate in denial as the UCP and Saskatchewan Party are both determined to do. 

- Josh O'Kane reports on a new study showing how Microsoft has evaded even more taxes than previously known by shifting profits between jurisdictions. 

- Finally, Mitchell Thompson highlights how inflation is being used as an excuse to suppress real wages in Canada while big business goes unquestioned about its increased profit share. Robert Reich discusses the need for a bottom-up economy rather than the trickle-down model which benefits only those at the top. And Juliana Kaplan and Madison Hoff report on new research showing that union membership can boost a worker's lifetime income by over a million dollars - offering as much of a boost to earnings as a college degree.