- Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom has won a plurality of seats in the Netherlands' parliament, though it remains to be seen whether or not he'll be able to cobble together a workable coalition. One hopes the non-crazy parties will be able to put aside enough of their differences to keep him from the levers of power, but you can't necessarily count on that in these times.
- Point Douglas MLA Bernadette Smith (my own MLA) has been included in a BBC list of 100 inspiring and influential women worldwide (the only Canadian on the list), for her tireless MMWIG advocacy. The full list is here.
- The government has introduced legislation to recognize Louis Riel as the honourary first Premier of Manitoba.
- The closure of the Arlington Bridge is expected to exacerbate traffic problems in the area. The blame game for the mess is in full swing. Some information about the history of the bridge may be found here.
- A Canadian senator, Bernadette Clement, received a torrent of threats and abuse after former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer tweeted a "wanted poster" accusing her of shutting down debate on a Tory bill to exempt farmers from the carbon tax. Much of the abuse was related to her race and/or gender, but I guess that's par for the course with those hillbillies.
- Edmonton has passed significant zoning reforms that allow more mixed use, infill, and multi-family housing.
- The US has reportedly foiled a plot to assassinate Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen, on American soil. Notably he is a friend of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in Surrey earlier this year.
- One of the things that protect permafrost from melting is the insulating effect of plant litter and moss. In Alaska, wildfires have burned this layer away in places, releasing substantial amounts of methane. This worsens the very warming that made the wildfires so bad in the first place.
- The US Forest Service is proposing to allow carbon capture and storage projects to use national forests and other federal lands. This would involve piping CO2 in from afar, and is raising concerns about what would happen if there's a major leak; CO2 is heavier than air and could displace oxygen from low-lying areas, which is problematic to say the least in areas people use for recreation. In any case, the International Energy Agency is pouring cold water on the idea that CC&S is a viable solution to the problem, especially as energy companies are still investing far too much in fossil fuels. A better way to use forests for carbon storage is to not cut them down.
- The World Economic Forum is concerned that short-term concerns over the cost of living may limit governments' abilities to adequately deal with the climate crisis. This is a very real concern; it's enough to make a person wish that the WEF was as powerful as the conspiracy nuts believe it to be so that it could just get things done regardless of what the public thinks. In the real world, of course, leaders have to answer to their people, and as their latest report says, these short term concerns "have exposed a gap between what is scientifically necessary and politically palatable". Or, as former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said, in a different context, "We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it." For a possible way out of this, noted French economist Thomas Piketty suggests that in order to win over the public for the sacrifices that will need to be made in order to limit the scale of climate disaster, it will be necessary to seriously go after the rich. He advocates a progressive carbon tax, which would allow everyone a free emissions allowance to cover actual needs, but slap much higher taxes on luxuries such as frequent holiday flights and large vehicles. As for such extravagances as private jets and short haul flights, he advocates prohibiting them entirely.
- In New Zealand, notwithstanding the swing to the right on the national level, Wellington has been quite successful in quickly rolling out an extensive cycling network. And one of the largest "carbon certifiers" in the country has announced that they will no longer accept carbon credits as a measure of carbon neutrality.
- Latest developments in the Israel-Gaza war: The announced ceasefire will not begin until Friday; meanwhile the director of the Al-Shifa Hospital has been detained for questioning by Israeli forces. Meanwhile the president of the Nursing Students' Association at the University of Manitoba has reportedly been suspended for social media posts related to the conflict; unfortunately I have found very little in the way of details so far. And in the UK, several BBC journalists are accusing the corporation of excessive bias in the coverage of the conflict.
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