- The 1972 report The Limits to Growth, commissioned by the Club of Rome, predicted that unfettered economic growth without sufficient regard for the environment would eventually lead to "the total stagnation of industrial growth and a significant decline in human welfare". Unfortunately, the report's predictions have been holding up pretty well so far.
- Justin Trudeau has appointed two new Senators to fill vacancies in the upper house, including journalist Charles Adler. The latter pick is not going over well with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who are requesting that the appointment be rescinded owing to on-air comments he made about First Nations leaders in 1999 while a broadcaster for CJOB, for which the AMC filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. Even Dan Vandal, a member of Trudeau's cabinet, expressed concerns about the appointment. Admittedly, Adler says that his political views have moderated in recent years and that he no longer considers himself a conservative, though I don't know if he has ever apologized for the specific comments he made in 1999.
- The controversy over Plan 20-50, the regional growth plan for the Winnipeg metro area, is not limited to the lunatic fringe. The City of Selkirk, the Town of Niverville and the RMs of St. Andrews, East St. Paul, and Headingley are expressing concerns about the plan, fearing a loss of control over local land-use decisions. Those concerns are certainly easier to sympathize with than the absurd idea that this is some sinister plot to lock people into their neighbourhoods, but it has to be noted that some land use decisions made by suburban and exurban municipalities have a significant effect on their neighbours. In particular, when they build huge suburban developments to house people who want to benefit from the jobs in Winnipeg and subject the city to the increased traffic and the resulting wear and tear on the streets, but don't want to pay taxes to support the city's people and infrastructure, their land use decisions should not be solely their decision.
- Ontario premier Doug Ford, who a few years ago cancelled over $230 million worth of wind power contracts in order to satisfy his rural base, has changed his tune somewhat; his government has presented plans to more than double the province's current wind power installations by 2034. Ford may be a scumbag, but he's no fool, and he knows he has to win some of the non-crazy vote in order to secure reelection.
- Efforts to control pollution from plastics have lead to negotiations for a global treaty on the issue. The negotiations began earlier this year; while some countries (among them Canada, the EU, South Korea, Rwanda, and Peru) want a global cap on production, other countries (such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, and until recently the US) have opposed this, saying that the issue should be managed solely by recycling more. However, the Americans, perhaps not wanting to be in such company, seem to be changing their tune and have expressed willingness to impose a cap.
- When Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan, went to a restaurant at Walt Disney World with her husband and her mother-in-law last year, they warned staff of her serious food allergies and asked repeatedly for them to be accommodated. Unfortunately, whatever accommodations were made weren't enough - she suffered a severe allergic reaction and died shortly afterwards. Her husband launched a lawsuit, and Disney attempted to have the suit dismissed on the grounds that when he clicked on the terms and conditions of his Disney+ account years previously, he had agreed to binding arbitration for "any dispute between you and us, except for small claims". Of course, once it hit the news clearer heads prevailed in Duckburg and they withdrew the request.
- San Francisco's city attorney's office has filed a motion in a state court to shut down 16 websites that "nudify" pictures of people. The sites use AI that is trained using porn, reportly including child porn. In a reasonable world that alone should be grounds for taking action, though I don't know the fine-grained legalities of that, especially in a country whose courts often label such activities as "speech" that is protected by free speech laws.
