- Yet another public sector strike is looming. One would expect (and hope) that the citizens of Manitoba outside the Tory base would punish the government for this; we'll know more in just over a month. They aren't looking too good on the environmental front either (surprise surprise). Meanwhile, as regards the MPI strike, the corporation is trying to minimize the coming backlog of driver's tests by allowing those who have completed a certified driver training course to get their license (provisionally) without taking a road test. I daresay that doesn't sound like a good idea.
- Ukraine appears to have again struck targets deep in Russian territory. The thing is, it's hard to know how Russia will handle this. Anatol Lieven seems concerned about the possible consequences of defeating a country whose population might be unwilling to accept defeat. The implication Lieven raises is that this would destabilize Russia and potentially put its large nuclear arsenal in the hands of someone more reckless than Putin. See also these recently mentioned articles. The sad thing is, Ukraine might well be thrown under the bus by the West, not out of malice but out of fear of a worse consequence. Just another awful choice that policymakers have to make in these times.
- Many younger environmentalists are less opposed to nuclear energy than in the past. Now the thing is, if you're talking about existing
nuclear power plants, I agree entirely. Maybe once you've shut down
every single coal, oil, and natural gas plant in the entire grid you can
think about phasing out nuclear power, but right now, doing away with
existing nuclear plants means burning a lot more fossil fuels in the
short run, which is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.
That said, building new nuclear plants is more problematic, but
the main reason for this is not safety, or even the waste (though that
is also very much a consideration) but the time taken to build them. It
takes a decade or more to build a new nuclear plant, and the amount of
solar and wind capacity you could add to the grid in that time would
greatly outweigh the nuclear plant, at a lower cost.
- Hurricane Idalia has hit Florida and cut across to South Carolina (though having been downgraded to a tropical storm by the latter point).
- Danielle Smith thinks that the federal environment minister criticizing an oil company constitutes "utter contempt" for Alberta as a whole. Bit of a stretch, and moreover even if it were true, contempt for an electorate that just reelected Danielle Smith's government would not be unjustified.
- The federal NDP hopes to take advantage of their leverage over the Liberals over the remainder of this minority parliament. The trouble is, in order to exercise that leverage, they'll have to be prepared to risk a Tory government, and the Liberals know that. We'll have to see.
- Now I would totally agree that having a telecom employee relieve himself on your property would be undesirable. One could quite justifiably be pissed off with having your property pissed on. At first blush, suing for $5M seems like overkill, but it's freaking Rogers, so I wish this guy luck. To have a bit "too much" money taken off them for once would be a nice reversal.
- In the States, a majority of dog owners are now suspicious of rabies vaccines. I can't see this ending well.
- China's consumption of gasoline has reportedly peaked. If true this is very good news indeed. Also good news is that Denmark is seriously considering taxing beef for its disproportionate impact on the environment.
- Australia's new government has admitted in a court settlement that the pricing of government bonds was deceptive due to failure to factor in climate risk.
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