Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Saima Iqbal discusses new research showing how much of the COVID-19 virus people emit while contagious. And Erica Edwards reports on the development of blood tests to help confirm the biological basis of long COVID. 

- Emile Torres warns that the chaotic and catastrophic summer of 2023 may seem mild compared to the climate effects we'll experience in the years to come. And Katharine Sanderson reports on temperature monitoring which shows that we've likely already exceeded the 1.5 degree barrier which the Paris accord was intended to avoid breaching. 

- Gordon Brown points out the obvious reality that fossil fuel extractors rolling in windfall profits need to be contributing to the cost of fighting the climate crisis. But Valeri Volcovici reports on Antonio Guterres' recognition that their naked greed is what's gotten us into the mess in the first place, while Natasha Bulowski reports on the rare call for Suncor's CEO to answer for his plan to push dirty tar sands developments even as the planet burns.  

- Lucas Powers reports that Doug Ford's promise that deregulation and the elimination of rent controls would somehow make affordable housing more available has predictably proven false. 

- Finally, David Prisciak reports on the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission's finding that actual vulnerable children are being utterly neglected by the Moe government when it comes to providing resources to address reading disabilities. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Bruce Arthur discusses how last week's rallies for bigotry are reflective of a broader social illness which is being encouraged by right-wing parties and politicians. And Charlie Angus writes about his experience on the receiving end of violent authoritarian rhetoric and personal threats.  

- John Lorinc points out that the corruption behind Doug Ford's plans to turn Ontario Place into a spa (and ultimately a casino) includes massive public costs for water and wastewater infrastructure to pump money into the pockets of Ford's buddies. And Lulu Ramadan reports on Boeing's attempts to escape any responsibility to clean up the Duwamish River in Seattle after consistently claiming it as a free dumping ground for chemicals. 

- Taylor Noakes discusses CAPP's utterly misleading spin which claims the oil sector will cut emissions while ignoring its plans to release the tar sands carbon bomb. And the Mercator Research Institute studies how solar energy and storage are both plummeting in price, making a clean energy supply more affordable than dirty fossil fuels even if we weren't going to account for the environmental costs of carbon dumping. 

- Cory Doctorow examines how Apple has blocked users from repairing their devices in order to ensure a continued market based on mandated obsolescence. 

- Finally, Kevin Drum highlights the drastic difference in pay and benefits between unionized and non-unionized workforces in the U.S.' private sector. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Stephanie Soucheray discusses new research showing how people with existing health problems are at substantially higher risk of long COVID. And Helen Floersh points out a new study on how different COVID-19 variants are adapting to evade immunity. 

- George Monbiot writes about the oil industry's constant lobbying and propaganda aimed at keeping us addicted to fossil fuels even as they poison us and destroy our living environment. And Gary Fuller points out how the trend toward larger vehicles results in more pollution and more dangerous roads. 

- Bryan Walsh notes that on a global scale, any gains against extreme poverty have slowed to a crawl (even as the top-end wealth accumulation which is spun as helping the cause of raising lower-level incomes continues to accelerate). 

- Oshan Jarow highlights how the US was able to put a massive dent in child poverty in the midst of a pandemic by lifting restrictions on access to social benefits - only to push children back into deprivation at the first available opportunity. And Connie Mason and Leah Hamilton examine the roots of the "parents' rights" language being used as a pretext for attacking and outing vulnerable children. 

- Finally, Thomas Zimmer discusses how a "polarization" frame gives cover to the cultivation of violent extremism on the right. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Adele Waters writes about the large numbers of UK doctors who are suffering from long COVID as a result of their efforts to care for patients - but who have been abandoned to financial ruin as a result. Elizabeth Cooney examines the likelihood of long COVID as the result of a repeat infection. Thanarath Imsuwansri et al. study the safety and effectiveness of nasal spray in neutralizing the spread of COVID.  And Alexander Tin reports on the Biden administration's decision to resume providing free COVID tests, rather than treating a continuing public health crisis primarily as a profit centre. 

- Meanwhile, Andrew Nikiforuk discusses how the e. coli breakout in Calgary daycare centres can be traced to both the specific unsanitary conditions at a single outsourced kitchen, and factory food production in general.  

- Andrea Houston asks whether the U.S. and Canada are headed toward a genocide against LGBTQ+ people, as anti-trans bigots consider themselves empowered to use the language of eradication due in no small part to their legitimization by conservative parties. Gil McGowan discusses how the wording comes directly from the fascist playbook. And Jackie Wong makes clear that nothing about the attack on trans people has anything to do with making children safer.  

- Finally, Max Fawcett examines the role of Stephen Harper and the increasingly anti-democratic IDU in discussing why the Cons have such an affinity for Narendra Modi and other fascist governments. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Chris Hedges interviews Matt Kennard about the hostile corporate takeover of democracy. And Adam King highlights how Canada's oil industry is profiteering at public expense while using the harm done by their own greed to promote the right-wing politicians in their pocket. 

- Jennifer Henderson reports on Nova Scotia's decision to remove maps showing the locations of glyphosate spraying in order to prevent the public from responding to known risks where the result might be some accountability for the polluters involved. And Tim Bousquet notes that Nova Scotia's supposed plan for housing is based entirely on funneling federal money to private developers. 

- Nina Lakhani reports on new research showing how the largest carbon offset schemes do nothing to actually limit carbon pollution. And in stark contrast, Allyson Chiu points out that one of the incidental benefits of remote work is a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - meaning that the effects of forcing people back into the office in the midst of a pandemic are as harmful for the environment as for public health. 

- Stanford University examines how the ecological damage from the anthropocene age isn't limited to particular species, but includes the elimination of entire branches of the tree of life. 

- Finally, Luke LeBrun offers an important look at the bigotry behind the "one million march for children" being pushed by the alt-right in Canada. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Exhausted cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Peter Borg discusses how the climate breakdown is compressing planetary changes which would normally take millions of years into individual lifetimes - even as petropoliticians seek to increase the damage we're doing to our living environment. And Edna Mohamed writes that climate refugees are already a major factor in global migration patterns. 

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera writes about the woefully inadequate housing being endured by migrant farmworkers in British Columbia. 

- Christopher Matthews and Collin Eaton offer an inside look at Exxon's misinformation campaign to keep carbon pollution spewing. And CBC News talks to Peter Hotez about the harm being done to even the most basic public health protections by the anti-science forces built up to cast doubt about climate change. 

- Penny Daflos reports on the massive amounts of money being siphoned out of public health care in B.C. (and elsewhere) by temp agencies.

- Finally, Linda McQuaig discusses why Canada needs an online ecosystem which isn't controlled by big tech - while noting that the fight over payments for corporate media content is just a small part of the picture. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Will Stone discusses what's still a limited state of knowledge around long COVID even as it continues to strike - and cause devastating effects - for ever more people. And CBC News reports on Evan Abene's advocacy for continued masking to limit the COVID-19 transmission that's been allowed to run wild. 

- Cory Doctorow writes about Canada's climate greenwashing which has resulted in the planting of monocultural tree farms which have turned into a tinderbox for constant wildfires. And Rachel DuRose points out that many of the few known ways to reduce the temperature increases caused by dirty energy involve other forms of pollution with their own toxic effects. 

- Meanwhile, Louis Sagahun reports on Calfornia's lawsuit seeking to at least make the oil industry pay for the direct environmental damage caused by its climate deception. 

- Ximene Gonzalez reports on the spate of rent hikes and renovictions in Calgary which is driving tenants into homelessness. And Zak Vescera reports on BCGEU's push to ensure that the end of a single tenancy doesn't mean that a needed housing unit loses rent controls and tenant protections.

- Finally, Torsten Bell highlights new research into the effect of populist governments - with the unsurprising conclusion being that those who take government based on resentment tend to produce poor outcomes by any measure other than clinging to power. 

Musical interlude

Dayseeker - Homesick

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Damian Carrington reports on a "scientific health check" showing that Earth's life support systems are well outside what's safe for humanity. But Jonathan Cook discusses how an obsession with growth over health and well-being is preventing us from taking any meaningful steps to reverse the damage. 

- Of course, it doesn't help that a secretive but massively-funded campaign by a shadowy network of conservatives is vilifying climate activists - as Amy Westeveldt and Geoff Dembicki report. 

- Drew Anderson writes about the fallout from the Danielle Smith UCP's decision to ban renewable development in order to keep Alberta's energy system hooked on dirty fossil fuels. And Isaac Phan Nay reports on the B.C. communities working on building a case against the oil industry for its contribution to the climate breakdown. 

- Gary Fuller discusses how the trend toward increasingly large vehicles is exacerbating pollution and other risks to health and safety. 

- Finally, Joshua Hill writes about the reality that the wealthiest few are willing (if not eager) to make life miserable for the majority of the population to enable them to consolidate wealth and control - as a property developer let slip in the course of a public appearance. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Mary Van Beusekom discusses new research showing that a quarter of COVID-19 survivors are still facing impaired lung function (among other health problems) a year after infection. And Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write about the CDC's approval of new vaccines better targeted toward current variants, while Beth Mole reports on its concurrent recommendation that everybody get a booster this fall. 

- Scott Denning makes the point that we shouldn't call a broken climate a "new normal" when we have no idea how to navigate it, while Al Jazeera reports on Volker Turk's warning that a dystopian future is already here. And Thora Tenbrink discusses how perceptions of the climate threat vary from place to place - particularly in a rural-urban divide. 

- Meanwhile, Michael Keller reports on a new research tool showing the consistent acidification of oceans as another example of the degradation of vital environmental systems. 

- Penny Daflos exposes the parasitic extraction of health funding by private staffing agencies. And Dayne Patterson reports on the Moe government's refusal to accept a donation of money to buy an MRI machine to operate in Estevan - presumably in large part because resources allowing essential services to be publicly performed would limit the ability of Sask Party donors to profit from them. 

- Finally, Doug Cuthand calls out the Moe government for trying to reduce access to sex education and inclusive learning in a province which desperately needs to work on improving both. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Surfaced cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- John Woodside weighs in on the UN's recognition of the need to stop our dependence on dirty energy. And Jillian Ambrose reports on the International Energy Agency's projections which foresee the beginning of the end of fossil fuel use. 

- Leo Collis points out how steps to disincentivize combustion commuter vehicles produce safer communities on multiple levels. And Kevin Krizek writes that ever-larger vehicles are creating readily-avoidable safety hazards for pedestrians and road users. 

-  Lauren Kirschman interviews Allison Russell about the connection between the climate crisis and the information crisis - and Markham Hislop discusses how the UCP is directing tens of millions more public dollars toward polluting minds in order to enable further carbon pollution. Amanda Follett Hosgood exposes how the RCMP is burning millions of dollars protecting pipelines at the expense of people. And Natalie Alcoba reports on the massive amounts of money being poured into expanding greenhouse gas emissions compared to the pittance going to mitigation and transition measures. 

- Meanwhile, Nick Gottlieb discusses how the mining industry generally is exploiting legal loopholes in order to avoid cleaning up its toxic messes. 

- Finally, Andre Picard highlights how the poisoning of hundreds of Calgary children due to corporatized food supplies reflects the breakdown of public health as a priority in Canada. And Martin Lukacs notes that the takeover of the Cons' internal party apparatus by corporate lobbyists signals the intention to exploit the public and disregard people's well-being even more. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- The Star's editorial board writes that there's still every reason to take precautions to avoid the spread of COVID-19, while Frances Ryan points out how disabled and vulnerable people haven't been so privileged as to be able to pretend it's ever gone away. And Marija Lugar et al. study the connection between COVID and the development of type 1 diabetes in children, while Abhimanyu Agarwal et al. review the extensive research showing how COVID can harm the heart and the brain.  

- Rebecca Leber and Umain Irfan discuss the UN's first global stocktake on the climate crisis, including its recognition that continued fossil fuel development is utterly incompatible with a liveable environment. David Spratt highlights the folly of risking the future of humanity in order to avoid meaningful emission reductions today.  And Tatyana Woodall writes about new research showing that existing assumptions may have vastly overestimated the thickness and stability of the Antarctic ice shelf - raising yet another risk of a climate breakdown producing a more severe cycle of harm than previously anticipated. 

- Alex Cosh calls out the capital-serving politicians looking to blame a shortage of student housing on a small number of international students, rather than governments refusing to address either the quantity or affordability of available homes. And Noah Fry points out how trade agreements are preventing governments from using public dollars to accomplish anything for anybody other than foreign shareholders. 

- Meanwhile, Nora Loreto writes that the Poilievre Cons' aversion to social policy means they aren't offering any answers to the financial insecurity they're using as the centerpiece of their spin. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow is hopeful that tech workers are organizing and bringing collective action into some of the key workplaces for future development. 

Musical interlude

Emma Hewitt X Orjan Nilsen - Warrior

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Rebecca Leber highlights how drilling in the Arctic and other high-cost fossil fuel extraction plans are based on a sociopathic bet against any prospect of limiting the harm from a climate breakdown. Carl Meyer reports on new research showing that 90% of Saskatchewan's heavy oil sites aren't bothering to measure methane emissions, instead taking license to spew as much carbon pollution as they can get away with while launching vicious attacks on anybody who suggests they might have some responsibility to humanity at large. And Nina Lakhani discusses how private equity is seeking to extracts profits both from dirty energy, and from cleaning up the damage it causes. 

- Meanwhile, Martin Bush discusses why we need to be focused on renewable energy and power storage, rather than buying into the high cost and massive delay involved in nuclear power. 

- Tatiana Walk-Morris writes about the latest financial industry scam of "earned wage access", in which employers team up with corporations to force people to pay to receive the wages they've earned. 

- Martin Regg Cohn notes that the Greenbelt scandal represents a new low even for a Ford government steeped in corruption and cronyism.

- Finally, Jonathan Sas offers a warning about the politics of resentment and abandonment being pushed by Pierre Poilievre and his party. And Nick Seebruch points out how the Cons are taking a brief break from claiming to be free speech warriors to threaten journalists with jail time for daring to report on their convention. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Tess Finch Lee writes about the importance of doing everything we can to protect children (and indeed the general population) from COVID-19. But Thomas Piggott laments that instead of taking a lesson in interdependence and the need for social care, we've been pushed to avoid learning anything from the pandemic. 

-  Meanwhile, Isaac Callan and Colin D'Mello report on the Ontario health care facilities which are being left to crumble while the Ford government focuses on handing out riches to developers. 

- Erika Shaker points out how the cruel and coordinated conservative attacks on trans students also serve as an assault on public education generally. And Michael Harris discusses Mike Roman's place in the importation of Republican fascist politics and anti-democratic activity into Canada's right-wing parties. 

- Tyler Austin Harper and Leif Weatherby highlight how billionaires determined to sacrifice a liveable environment to the pursuit of short-term wealth hoarding are the ultimate existential threat to human survival. And The Juice Media offers a an Honest Government Ad from the government of Canada on its complete subserviance to fossil fuel tycoons in particular:

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- Finally, Yvette D'Etremont reports that half of Nova Scotia's working-age population is strugging to get by on less than a living wage. And Cory Doctorow writes about the prospects of the U.S. labour movement being strengthened by a restored precedent from the National Labor Relations Board which ensures that employers can't cheat their way to union avoidance. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jamey Keaten and Seth Borenstein report on the World Meteorological Association's finding that we've just had the hottest summer in recorded history. And Chelsey Harvey highlights how the combination of extreme heat and other climate calamities looks to be a harbinger of worse to come rather than an outlier. 

- Which naturally means that the UCP is echoing Steve Bannon's talking points in order to promote carbon pollution, while also pouring tens of millions more public dollars into the unaccountable war room for advertising campaigns to peddle dirty energy. 

- Matthew Black reports on Alberta's continued pattern of losing hundreds of residents to drug poisoning deaths every month. 

- Nicholas Keung reports on the Moe government's decision to prioritize primarily-white source countries for immigration as part of the Saskatchewan Party's idea of sovereignty. 

- Finally, Kathleen Hilchey writes about the need for trans students to find care and support rather than  systematic bigotry in schools. And John Ibbitson calls out Scott Moe, Blaine Higgs and other right-wing governments for fomenting hate rather than ensuring children have a safe educational experience. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Angular cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Dawn Bowdish and Andrew Costa provide a reminder as to how to stay as safe as possible from COVID-19 (even as governments have abandoned any attempt to limit the spread of a dangerous disease). 

- Ryan Meili writes about the connection between the climate breakdown and increasing risks to health. Charles Stanier, Gregory Carmichael and Peter Thorne discuss how the severe wildfires and stifling smoke we've seen in 2023 is just the beginning of what's to come, while Ben Nesbit talks to experts about how this year's wildfires may be followed by flooding and other disasters. And Paula Duhatschek and Dan McGarvey discuss what the melting of glaciers in the Rocky Mountains means for the long-term water supply of much of Western Canada.  

- Stewart Lansley writes about the inescapable connection between worsening poverty in the UK and increasing wealth concentration among the most privileged few. Robert Reich offers a reminder of the deliberate effort of corporate tyrants to ensure that decision-making is based on no considerations other than short-term profits for capitalist. And Jason Linkins points out the propaganda campaign around shoplifting which serves to distract from the far more widespread scourge of wage theft. 

- Finally, Justin Ling and Public Policy Forum examine what they view as polarization in Canadian politics - though it's worth noting the inevitable determination to bothsides what's largely an issue of right-wing cult formation. 

Musical interlude

Jax Jones, Au/Ra - I Miss U

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Amy Goodman interviews Peter Kalmus about the need to start treating the climate breakdown as an emergency, while Joelle Gergis points out that the extreme destruction from catastrophic climate-caused events in the summer of 2023 represents just a taste of what we can expect for decades to come. And James MacCarthy et al. discuss their new findings showing that wildfires are getting worse, while Ryan Allen and Stephanie Cleland offer some advice as to how to avoid the worst effects of wildfire smoke. 

- Colin Woodard examines how life expectancy follows distinct geographic patterns in the U.S. - with location by region serving as a more significant factor in life expectancy than income, education, race or other indicators. 

- Emily Fagan discusses warnings from experts about the growing humanitarian crisis of homelessness in Canada. And Jeremy Simes reports on the Saskatchewan Party's contribution to the problem as it allows needed social housing to deteriorate and sit vacant. 

- Brendan Kennedy points out how glaring loopholes allowed the Ford government to keep its meetings with lobbyists off of any registry as it plotted the giveaway of environmentally sensitive public land to rapacious developers. 

- Finally, Scott Martin writes about the coordinated attacks by right-wing provincial governments against trans children. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Michael Klare writes about the growing indications that the climate breakdown is pushing us toward a civilizational collapse. Jeff Renaud discusses new research showing that climate change could cause over a billion deaths over the next century, while William Skipworth reports on research confirming the link between global warming and the deaths of polar bears. And Parker MacKenzie reports on a new study showing that Australia (like most other jurisdictions) is completely unprepared for the impacts of climate change. 

- Meanwhile, Climate & Capital Media offers a list of the false "solutions" which serve only to obfuscate and delay against action which could actually reduce the harm we're inflicting on our living environment. And Emiko Newman and Erin Blondeau make the case for a Youth Climate Corps.

- Alex Hemingway points out how British Columbia could turn soaring property values into revenue to improve human welfare, rather than merely allowing it to collect in the hands of the wealthiest few. And Leyland Cecco reports on new research confirming that money provided to the people who need it most tends to be applied to basic needs. 

- Finally, Jason Stanley writes about the fascist ideology underlying Florida's latest mass shooting - and the lengths much of the U.S. establishment has gone to in normalizing it. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Sascha Pare reports on the growing recognition that methane emissions could trigger "termination" events which see tundra turn into tropical savannah. And Robson Fletcher reports on a drop in wheat production caused by drought which may make staple foods far more expensive. 

- Dharna Noor reports on Fossil Free Future's work to point out how the oil industry continues to push us toward civilizational catastrophe in the name of an insatiable addiction to short-term profit. But Simon Black, Ian Parry and Nate Verson chart how dirty energy subsidies are hitting record levels even as the consequences of a climate breakdown become increasingly clear. 

- Arya Rao and Shira Hornstein point out the related effects of climate change and poor housing on public health. Stephanie Swensrude reports on the City of Edmonton's recognition that suburban sprawl is worse for citizens from the standpoint of direct cost as well as health and community. And Michael Gorman reports on a review of Nova Scotia's housing situation which has flagged the need to enforce landlord compliance - which has apparently been buried for reaching that inconvenient conclusion. 

- April Short discusses how models based on free and shared goods are surviving and thriving, even as public policy is oriented solely at favouring conspicuous consumption and corporate profits. 

- Finally, David Climenhaga examines how social conservatives are pushing to take over Alberta's education system (which is of course mirrored across Canada). And Emma Brown and Peter Jamison report on the U.S.' experience with "parental rights" being used by socons to take over and destroy public education. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Cats amid chaos.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Michelle Gamage and Katie Hyslop report on the grassroots push for better anti-COVID-19 planning in British Columbia schools. And in case there's any doubt what's at stake, Brenda Goodman reports on new research finding that long COVID may cause a greater disability burden than cancer or heart disease, while the San Diego Union-Tribune warns about the immense social damage which would result from continued spread without massive improvements in treatments and therapies.  

- Damian Carrington et al. write about the growing indicators that humanity has already fundamentally broken our climate. And while Katharine Hayhoe makes the case to respond with determination rather than resignation, it's worth noting the powerful interest aligned against any effort to meaningfully avert a total breakdown - including a fossil fuel sector talking openly about its plan to continue to spew carbon pollution for generations to come, and a sketchy carbon offset system which is claiming credit for  the false promise of protection of forests which are themselves turning into carbon bombs. 

- Meanwhile, David Climenhaga points out how the UCP is putting its thumb on the scale to prevent clean energy development generally, while Clayton Keim writes about the Peace Energy Cooperative solar project as a stark example of the progress that's been shut down in order to keep Albertans hooked on dirty fossil fuels. 

- Finally, Rebecca Zandbergen examines the enduring consequences of the Canadian federal government's decision to stop funding social housing. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Apoora Mandavilli writes that cleaner air is essential to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Elizabeth Hlavinka discusses the severe impact of long COVID on children and the lack of resources to treat it. And Helen McArdle reports that hundreds of Scottish hospital wards have been forced to close due to COVID-19 so far in 2023, while Sissi De Flaviis reports on yet another surge in COVID hospitalizations in Canada. 

- Oliver Milman reports on the likelihood that next year (and all foreseeable future years) will be even worse than this year for extreme heat, wildfires and other calamitous climate impacts. Matthew Rozsa writes about the uber-wealthy and connected "super-emitters" who are contributing disproportionately to a climate breakdown while seeking to cast blame on everybody else. Kaamil Ahmed discusses how rich countries are trying to trap poorer ones into using dirty energy. And the Yale School of the Environment points out the Canadian oil sector's plans to increase how much pollution gets dumped into an already-precarious atmosphere, while Sarah Cox investigates how Canadian taxpayers are subsidizing both fossil fuel expansion and obscene corporate profits.  

- Meanwhile, Colin McCarter and Mike Waddington discuss how wetlands are already becoming carbon time bombs, while Daniel Grossman writes about the similar effect in the Amazon rainforest. 

- Josh Funk reports on the demand by U.S. railroads that a safety hotline serve primarily to allow them to punish workers who dare to report issues. 

- Colette Derworiz writes about the lack of available housing for university students. And Sawdah Bhaimiya reports on New York City's initiative to turn empty office space into homes, rather than pretending that the construction of expensive, sprawling suburbs is any solution to a housing crisis. 

- Finally, the Canadian Press examines how under Pierre Poilievre, the Cons have abandoned even the slightest nod to reality and become a vessel for the most deranged of conspiracy theories. 

Musical interlude

Kx5 feat. Hayla - Escape

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- The Honest Sorceror points out the obvious unsustainability of exponential growth in resource extraction when the mass of inanimate man-made objects already exceeds that of life on Earth. And Andy Thanatogenos discusses how to live with the knowledge that we're on a doomed trajectory, while Ajit Niranjan reports on research showing that anger is the emotion most likely to spur action to try to avert an ecological breakdown. 

- Jane Braxton Little writes that many communities which may consider themselves immune from urban wildfires are in fact at substantial risk due to flammable vegetation and the prospect of "flash drought". And Whizy Kim and Kenny Torrella point out how the effect of extreme heat on workers looks to be one of the major workplace health and safety issues for decades to come.

- Cailinn Klingbeil writes about the UCP's assault on post-secondary education in Alberta. And Adam Hunter reports on the effort by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association to protect trans and gender-diverse Saskatchewan students from mandatory outing and systemic discrimination at the hands of the bigoted Moe government. 

- Finally, Helen Branswell discusses how COVID-19 has continued to surge in more frequent and severe waves than normal seasonal illnesses - no matter how determined governments have been to say it's now part of that grouping to justify a lack of mitigation. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The Associated Press reports on how the climate breakdown is producing every form of extreme weather everywhere all at once, while E.M. Fischer et al. study how even more intense heat waves are an imminent possibility. And Brishti Basu points out how younger people are trying to cope with a future steeped in climate anxiety, while Kiffer George Card and Kalysha Closson warn of the problems with letting a climate calamity drive people apart. 

- Meanwhile, Michelle Woodhouse highlights how we don't need Line 5 and other dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure to meet our energy needs. 

- Erika Morris reports that every single developer in Montreal has chosen to pay a fee rather than meeting standards for affordable housing - signaling how futile it is to pretend that profit-motivated corporations are any part of the solution to the provision of human needs. Ximena Gonzalez writes about Calgary's failure to implement recommendations to encourage the supply of affordable homes. And Zane Woodford reports on the particularly callous comments from one Lower Sackville councillor that ending homelessness just isn't going to happen - though it's hard to see much distinction between that position and the policy choices of Regina and other municipalities. 

- Finally, Marcus Baram reports on the tens of millions of dollars in unpaid wage assessments in New York which are still outstanding due to a lack of enforcement capacity. And Zak Vescera reports on the B.C. government's choice to shut down its fair wage commission even in the face of strong recommendations that its work is far from done. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Tuckered-out cats.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Madeline Holcomb reports on new research showing that COVID-19 boosters are more effective when delivered to the same arm as previous vaccine doses. 

- Jessica Wildfire highlights how the war on remote work is the result of corporate landlords' determination to sacrifice human health and well-being in order to prop up real estate values. And Nojoud Al Mallees reports on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's warning that we're actually seeing a reduction in the construction of desperately-needed housing, while Marc Lee points out what we can learn from Singapore about the value of public-sector ownership of the provision of housing.  

- Mitchell Beer rightly warns against taking the word of Suncor's CEO on climate policy as he tries to lock in decades of extreme carbon pollution in order to keep extracting profits. And Geoff Dembicki takes a look at the oil industry-funded death cultists claiming credit for Danielle Smith's ban on clean energy. 

- Finally, Gary Marcus predicts that an already-enshittified Internet stands to get far worse as junk content from large language models crowds out accurate material. 

Musical interlude

Tame Impala - One More Year

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joseph Choi reports on new research showing that updated COVID-19 vaccines help build immunity against the Eris strain. And Keenan Sorokan reports on both Eris' spread into Saskatchewan, and the strong recommendation from the experts still interested in public health that people get boosted and take steps to avoid spread of the virus.

- Anne Shibata Casselman offers a grim look at what Canada will look like in a few decades if we can't reverse course from the current path toward climate breakdown. Dharna Noor reports on the juxtaposition of dirty energy conglomerates demanding to be let off the hook for the climate crisis in the wake of Maui's lethal wildfires. And Zack Budryk reports on new research showing that U.S. carbon pollution is increasingly caused by the richest households. 

- Phillip Inman reports that the UK is among the many countries seeing corporations rake in record profits while falsely pretending that price increases are the result of unavoidable inflation. 

- David Climenhaga rightly recognizes that the choice to use violence to remove the crises of homelessness and drug poisonings from public view does nothing to ameliorate the underlying problem. And Cory Johnston is duly critical of the City of Regina's refusal to recognize that reality in smashing communal encampments while doing nothing to ensure people have alternative housing. 

- Finally, Jessica Wildfire compares our current sociopolitical reality to a "behavioral sink", where conditions of relative abundance give way to needless waste and competition, and eventually the disintegration of any social cooperation. (And it's particularly worth highlighting her observation that in our case, that's the result of a deliberate choice by people with immense amounts of money and power to use their resources undercutting the very idea that wealth can be shared or community interests considered.) 

[Edit: fixed wording.]

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Margaret Walton-Roberts and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault highlight how plans to poach workers from abroad are bound to fall short of meeting our need for care providers (while also raising ethical concerns). And Benjamin Shingler discusses how extreme heat is putting an increasing number of workers at risk. 

- Tom Burton eulogizes Mary-Louise McLaws by noting that she was among the few voices calling for people to avert avoidable deaths and illness by recognizing how aerosolized ventilation is needed to limit the spread of COVID-19. And Luke LeBrun exposes the connection between the federal Cons and anti-public-health forces.

- Thom Hartmann discusses why the uber-wealthy few fund bigotry and hate - with the instigation of culture wars serving to distract from class-based extraction. 

- Cory Doctorow points out how selective complaints about privacy have served to create the U.S.' exploitative private surveillance apparatus, while lauding some much-needed steps toward public protection from corporate data brokers. 

- Finally, Robin Urevich and Pablo Sandoval expose how Los Angeles landlords have ignoring a requirement to preserve housing for low-income residents and instead marketing protected units to tourists. And Christopher Cheung reports on Burnaby's much-needed effort to build its own affordable homes, rather than relying on giveaways to private developers as the only option to increase the housing stock. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Crawford Kilian reviews two new books on the effects of an overheating planet. Damian Carrington reports on the science tracing unprecedented heat waves to climate change. And Jag Bhalla warns about the dangers of undue optimism about the state of our living environment - with the people with the least predictably standing to suffer the most.  

- Meanwhile, Elizabeth Rush describes the experience of arriving at a large glacier just in time to see it collapse. 

- Ari Pottens and Scott Seymour discuss the harm unmonitored methane releases are doing in exacerbating the climate breakdown. And David Thurton reports on the double-counting and general trickery behind the Libs' self-congratulation over tree-planting.  

- Pete Evans reports on yet another hike in profits for Loblaws, while the Canadian Press reports on the same as Metro even as it withholds reasonable wages from employees. 

- Finally, Jeff Ernsthausen exposes how the ultra-wealthy use "charitable" foundations to claim massive tax credits and avoid paying their fair share for a functional society. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Rubbernecking cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Ekaterina Pesheva writes about the continued uncertainty as to the driving mechanism behind long COVID even as large numbers of people suffer from it. Eric Berger notes that experts are cautioning Americans to keep a close eye on COVID exposure as new variants develop, while Andre Picard discusses how a summer spike in cases serve to remind us we're still in the middle of a pandemic. And Janice Brown laments that government policy rooted in a "let-'er-rip" philosophy seems to be designed to fail from the standpoint of public health protection. 

- Euan Nisbet warns that sharp increases in atmospheric methane represent both a cause and effect of the climate crisis - and that the elevated levels now reflect those from previous climate shocks. 

- Kevin Krizek discusses how larger vehicles offer the illusion of protection for drivers at the expense of grave and avoidable risks for pedestrians and others. 

- Finally, Phoebe Fuller reports on the work unions are doing to protect Canadians from weaponized hate - even as the Cons and their allies stoke it at every opportunity. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Arianna Johnson reports on new research showing how COVID-19 can continue to affect organ function long after the lungs have healed. Philip Finkelstein calls out the lack of any effective response to the widespread and continuing risk of long COVID. Erin Prater examines what we can expect as new variants create another wave this fall. And Tania Bubela, Kimberlyn McGrail and Sharmistha Mishra argue that Canada needs a national inquiry into our COVID response. 

- Fiona Harvey reports on warnings from the UN's desertification conference that global food supplies are at risk even before we reach 1.5 degrees of warming. And Cabin Radio reports on the Northwest Territories' evacuations due to wildfires, while Maanvi Singh, Andrew Witherspoon and Bryony Moore document the devastation of Maui. 

- Robson Fletcher discusses how Alberta (like Saskatchewan) is an extreme outlier in insisting on continuing to use fossil fuel-generated power out of fealty to the oil and gas sector when there are cleaner and more affordable options available. And David Climenhaga points out that the result is nothing but embarrassment on the world stage. 

- David Moscrop writes that the Ontario Auditor General's report on the Greenbelt giveaway proves that the Ford PCs are corrupt - and it's worth noting that Doug Ford's response refusing to review or reverse the handout to donors and cronies only shows that his primary goal is to ensure the spoils of that corruption outlast any investigation or protest. 

- Finally, Shannon Proudfoot points out Pierre Poilievre's laughable attempt at class tourism. 

Musical interlude

Metric - Speed the Collapse

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Rachel DuRose writes about the rise of the Eris COVID-19 variant, while Esther Choo notes that health care workers are bracing for another fall wave even as the ongoing risks have been disappeared from any public attention by authorities looking to squelch any mitigation efforts which might affect immediate profit-seeking. And Madeline Miller offers a personal warning as to the devastating effects of long COVID. 

- Gergana Krasteva reports on Antonio Guterres' stark warning that we're reaching an era of global boiling, while Catrin Einhorn discusses how coral is being exterminated by unprecedented ocean temperatures. And Justine Calma offers a reminder that promises to suck carbon pollution out of the air at some unspecified point in the future based on nonexistent technology will do nothing to ameliorate the damage that's already been done to our living environment. 

- Meanwhile, Todd Miller reports on new research showing that the effects of exposure to small particulate air pollution include increased risks of heart disease. 

- Trillian Reynoldson reports that Regina's food bank usage has reached another all-time high as people's real-world deprivation and stress continues to stand in stark contrast to the Sask Party's obstinate denial of reality. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses the value of interoperability as a counter to the systematic enshittification of social media. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jennifer La Grassa reports on the impending wave of the EG.5 COVID-19 variant, even as Phil Hahn warns that what little and belated data we have on COVID infections in the form of wastewater analysis may soon be cut off. And Ed Yong writes about the difference between ordinary tiredness and the fatigue triggered by long COVID.  

- Matthew Rosza discusses the reality that July was the hottest month in recorded human history. The Guardian publishes accounts from climate experts about the fact that where we stand now is both predictable and disastrous, while Andrew Mitrovica recognizes that future generations should see our destruction of our living environment as unforgivable. And Dimitris Dimitriadis, Joey Grostern and Sam Bright report that fossil fuel corporations are predictably using new social media to keep up their longstanding pattern of disinformation to enable continued carbon pollution. 

- Giulia Carbonaro examines how work may change in the course of a climate breakdown. And Vanessa Balintec reports on the success of four-day work week which has led many employers who tried it as a pilot project to make it a permanent feature. 

- Liam O'Connor writes about the history of streetcars in Saskatchewan, along with the prospect that a similar model could be a key element of future development. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow highlights how fighting junk fees and abusive corporate practices should be a key element of the progressive political project. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Floored cats.