Musical interlude

Phantogram - Running Through Colors

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Gloria Dickie reports on the UN's latest Emissions Gap report which shows that we're headed for a climate disturbance of 3.1 degrees Celsius by the end of the century based on our current policy trajectory. Madeleine Cuff points out the reality that carbon pollution is now increasing more than it was before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while John Timmer notes that we're a mere four years away from breaching the Paris temperature target. 

- Meanwhile, Jonathan Watts discusses the conflicting options in trying to motivate people to action - with distress seeming to serve as a better motivator than (implausible) hope. 

- Emma McIntosh explains how Doug Ford is planning to rush massive highway developments while destroying bike infrastructure, while Max Fawcett points out the absolute idiocy of doing so. And Alex Himelfarb discusses how the right's "common sense" con is intended to avoid any application of logic or evidence to antisocial policy positions which would never survive reasonable analysis. 

- Cloe Logan writes about the reality that consumer products are getting less durable and sustainable due to manufacturers' incentive to keep people replacing them - while pointing out that better information would at least allow people to determine how long their purchases will last. 

- Finally, DT Cochrane discusses how Canada's discussion of inflation (and the Bank of Canada's means of addressing it) has almost completely missed the cause and effect arising from corporate profiteering - meaning that even the lowering of interest rates now will leave people with eroded purchasing power. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Ian Welsh discusses how austerity doesn't offer a roadmap to economic development, but instead serves as a means of ensuring that the burden of economic failure is borne by the working class in the form of service and wage reductions, rather than the ownership class through the devaluation of capital. And Tannara Yelland highlights how it's investors rather than immigrants who are responsible for Canada's housing crisis. 

- Alex Himelfarb writes that the only defence against authoritarian demagoguery is a plausible path to ensure our public institutions actually work for people's benefit. 

- Keith Stewart juxtaposes Pierre Poilievre's anti-lobbyist rhetoric with his eagerness to convert oil industry donations into even more extreme forms of petropolitics. And Andrew Nikiforuk notes that British Columbia's election may have produced the only result which doesn't result in a full term of absolute capture by the fossil gas industry.

- Drew Anderson examines the respective platforms of the Saskatchewan NDP and Sask Party on the environment - again with little indication that either is prepared to wrestle with the scope of the climate crisis, but with the former recognizing the need to build clean energy and maintain healthy land and water where the latter offers nothing but destruction. 

- Finally, Saniya Ghaledhar writes about the dangers of bigoted populism focused on punishing minority groups. Aastha Shetty reports on sentencing submissions indicating that a stabbing rampage at the University of Waterloo was based on a deliberate intention to instil fear which right-wing purveyors of "tough on crime" spin seem to have no interest in counteracting. And Peter Smith warns that post-truth conspiracism no longer seems to be even a hindrance - let alone a disqualifying factor - for conservative political leaders in Canada. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Trevor Memmot and Christian Weller write about the long road to recovery from the trauma of hurricanes and other climate change-induced environmental disasters. Jack Peat reports on the torrential flooding hitting Bologna, Italy just after it hosted a climate change conference. And Chae Yeon Park et al. find that thousands of people have died from the added pollution caused by climate crisis-related wildfires. 

- Kate Dooley et al. examine how existing net-zero emission promises (which are already being discarded at an alarming rate) depend on overreliance on land and forestry plans which aren't likely to produce the assumed level of carbon removal, while Ayesha Tandon points out that the gains from past land use improvements have been effectively wiped out by increased fire activity resulting from hotter and drier conditions. 

- Meanwhile, Tim Smedley discusses the false promise of "waste-to-energy" schemes which ultimately amount to little more than a baseless excuse to keep expanding the production of fossil fuel-based products. And Esme Stallard, Matt McGrath, Patrick Clahane and Paul Lynch report on the UK's wholesale adoption of waste burning as a substitute for coal power even when it's no better from an environmental standpoint.

- Finally, Abbas Almulla et al. study the long-term effects of long COVID infections on the liver, and find that it tends to correlate with liver damage. Sabra Gibbens rightly questions how much of the medical community is determinedly ignoring COVID-19 as a continuing risk and health condition. And Canada's expert panel review of the initial COVID response includes plenty of recognition of the need to be better prepared, and more aware of social and cultural factors in addressing a public health emergency.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Feline outreach.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Will Hutton discusses how the growing gap between the rich and everybody else is eating away at Britain's collective well-being, while Phillip Inman warns the new Labour government of the problems with serving the business sector at the expense of the general public. And 350.org responds to the Cons' sloganeering with a campaign to stop allowing wealthy oil companies from dictating Canadian public policy. 

- Euan Thomson warns that a punitive approach to addictions and mental health is now being treated as received wisdom by right-wing parties across Canada - though there's some reason for optimism that voters are rejecting it along with other elements of the conservative culture war. Nik Barry-Shaw notes that Pierre Poilievre is parroting the talking points of big pharma in seeking to deny people access to affordable medication through pharmacare. Adam King points out how more and more health resources are being diverted to for-profit nursing agencies. And Kristina Olson, G.F. Raber and Natalie Gallagher study the results of gender-affirming medical care and find overwhelmingly positive outcomes. 

- Lora Kelley interviews Elaine Godfrey about the conditions which have facilitated the spread of election conspiracy theories. And Dave Karpf writes that Elon Musk's strategy as the outsourced voter turnout director for Donald Trump is to blatantly commit crimes such as making cash payments to voters - with what seems to be an entirely correct expectation that he'll never face any consequences. 

- Finally, David Angus Ness makes the case to build based on the principle of sufficiency which ensures that people have enough of what they need.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Jessica Glenza reports on a new survey showing that the overwhelming majority of U.S. youth are (rightly) worried about the climate crisis. Pamela Swanigan argues that an imminent existential threat needs to be met with a campaign of courage, rather than a mere invocation of hope. And Adam Hanieh reminds us that any effort to mitigate the climate breakdown in progress will be met with the accumulated wealth and clout of one of the most powerful industries on the planet - which is determined to keep up carbon pollution as usual regardless of the human cost. 

- Carl Meyer reports that Canada's federal government is set to meet its schedule in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its own assets - making it all the more damning that private action continues to keep the country as a whole far behind schedule. And Felicity Bradstock discusses the rightful outcry against the UCP's determination to stifle clean energy. 

- Drew Anderson takes a look at the Moe government's plans to pour money into a Lake Diefenbaker irrigation scheme based solely on wishful thinking about the value of corporate giveaways (coupled with absolute denial that clean water or a healthy environment matter at all). And Geoff Leo exposes how Jeremy Harrison and the Saskatchewan Party purged a Crown corporation of whistleblowers in order to allow cronies to take it over for their own profit while neglecting to mention their multiple conflicts of interest. 

- Sheila Regehr and Ben Earle highlight the ample data showing that a basic income helps improve people's health and well-being without reducing their efforts to find work. But Kenan Malik is rightly aghast that multiple UK governments have shown more interest in pumping drugs into unemployed people in the hope it'll push them back to work than in recognizing even an ounce of human dignity. 

- Finally, Gerry McGovern is justifiably frustrated with the proliferation of junk data, while Zachary Basu points out the deliberate spreading of disinformation from Elon Musk and the rest of the alt-right. And Julia Angwin decries the TikTokification of social media as people have lost the ability to see what they value rather than what tech giants want to serve up, while Geoffrey Fowler calls out Instagram and other platforms for stifling personal political messages.