Links
Miscellaneous
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the 2020 Presidential Race and Trump’s Crisis at the Border, by David Remnick, The New Yorker
- The New Suits of Capitalist Developmentalism: The New Green Period of Capitalism and its Ecological and Citizen Avant-garde, by Miquel Amorós, Wrong Kind of Green
I'm not sure how well this one survived translation from the original Spanish, but this fellow does make some good points... - Americans Shouldn’t Have to Drive, but the Law Insists on It, by Gregory H. Shill, The Atlantic
"The automobile took over because the legal system helped squeeze out the alternatives."
Fascism
- What Americans (Still) Don’t Understand About Fascism, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudainmonia
"Or, The 3 Myths of America’s Fascist Collapse"
Collapse
- Are We Doomed? Let’s Have a Conversation, by Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute
- The Age of Denial, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia & Co
I certainly agree with most of what Umair is saying, especially the part about the present day rise of fascism. But I would add resource depletion to his list of problems, and instead of "stagnation", I'd say our economic problem is a system that works well only when it's growing, when we need an economy that can handle degrowth with a minimum of disastrous consequences.
Anyway, his closing paragraph is brilliant: "Let us all learn the lesson, my friends. Denial has already broken the mightiest nations on earth today — like twigs. It has made them laughingstocks, pariahs, jokes, and paupers. If it can do that to them — nobody is above being brought low this century, no matter how rich or powerful. Who will denial bring down next? Or will the rest of the world learn from the strange, sad story of the world’s two most powerful countries — whom denial made its newest collapsed ones? That part, I imagine, is up to you." - The Big Crash, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia & Co
"America is now a country of a tiny number of ultra rich, who effectively own everything, and one of something very much like neo serfs — the average American will die in debt, which means he’ll never (in net terms) own, earn, or save anything. Anything." - ‘High likelihood of human civilization coming to end’ by 2050, report finds, by Harry Cockburn, The Independent
Peak Oil
- Canada, the fourth biggest oil nation, may be the world’s least energy secure, by Peter Tertzakian, The Financial Post
- Tanker tensions put spotlight on UK's Johnson, Iran and oil, by Dan Murphy, The National
- The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil transit chokepoint, by Justine Barden, EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration
- Permian Basin Oil Production Growth Is Falling Fast, by Robert Napier, Forbes
Climate Change
- What we can do now, by Megan Ogilvie, The Toronto Star
- Rich will save themselves in 'climate apartheid' while poor suffer, UN report says, CBC News
- 3 ways to ensure the Climate Assembly really addresses the climate emergency, by Rebecca Willis, Rich Wilson and Lucy Stone , Open Democracy
"Parliament is setting up citizens assemblies to demonstrate the public desire for climate action. But we’ve been here before – what will be different this time?" - We Need a New Manhattan Project to Combat Climate Change, by Tom Engelhardt, The Nation
"A threat this expansive requires mobilization on a mass scale." - Does Extinction Rebellion Have the Solution to the Climate Crisis?, by Sam Knight, The New Yorker
- Grasslands More Reliable Carbon Sink Than Trees, by Kat Kerlin, UC DAvis—Science & Climate
In Wildfire-Prone California, Grasslands a Less Vulnerable Carbon Offset Than Forests - David Attenborough on climate change: 'We cannot be radical enough', by Adam Vaughan, New Scientist
- I Am a Carbon Abolitionist, by Eric Beinhocker, Democracy, A Journal of Ideas
"The future of our species and planet depends on creating a mass social movement motivated by moral arguments, not statistics." - Canada's domestic climate refugees, by Linda Solomon Wood, Canada's National Observer
- BP and Shell planning for catastrophic 5°C global warming despite publicly backing Paris climate agreement, by Ben Chapman, The Independent
- How climate change is affecting what we grow and eat, by jesse Davis and Kate Doyle, ABC News (Australia)
Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality
- The hidden reasons behind slow economic growth: Declining EROI, constrained net energy, by Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
Energy
- Why renewables can’t save the planet, by Michael Shellenberger, TEDxDanubia
But I am not sure that nuclear is the only alternative to renewables, or if it is a viable alternative. - The real lesson of the Energiewende is that the German economy uses too much energy to be sustainable and needs to degrow…, by Brian Davey, Feasta (The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability)
- Germany’s renewable energy program, Energiewende, is a big, expensive failure, by Mike Stasse, Damn the Matrix
- Controversy Explodes over Renewable Energy, by Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute
- How Much Energy Do We Need? by Kris De Decker, Low Tech Magazine
Hazard and Risk
- How Do You Assess if a Chemical Causes Cancer? by Guy-André Pelouze, Slate
"Years of testing glyphosate, part of the most widely used herbicide in the world, has shown us that the chemical is not carcinogenic. Why can’t we believe it?" - Is the Fukushima nuclear core still sinking into the ground?, two answers to this question on Quora
Both say no, the cores at Fukushima never reached the ground.
Agriculture
Before jumping to the erroneous conclusion that I am a shill for Monsanto, stop for a moment and understand that organic agriculture/food is a multi-billion dollar per year industry that relies on fear to get people to buy its product. Millions of dollars are being spent to convince you that non-organic food is dangerous. In fact both conventionally grown and organic foods are equally safe. Sadly neither method of agriculture is even remotely substainable.
- So you want to start a vertical farm? by Alice Friedemann, Energy Skeptic
- Scientists work to solve phosphate shortage – the dwindling resource required to grow food, by Toluwase Olukayode, The Conversation
Food
- Environmental Working Group Serves Up More Nonsense: 'Organic: The Original Clean Food', by Josh Bloom, American Council on Science and Health
- Chemical residues on foods and why dose matters, by David Warmflash, Genetic Literacy Project
- Asking for a friend: Are ‘expiration dates’ just totally bogus? by Emily Laurence, Well and Good
Practical Skills
- You’ve Probably Never Had Real Soy Sauce, by Wei Tchou, Medium—Heated
A few years ago, I made soy sauce, using a procedure similar to the one in this article. I got the soy beans from a local farmer, the wheat from Bulk Barn, the mold from Gem Cultures, and miso (the source of another culture) from a local health food store. Worked well and the result was a very nice soy sauce.
Politics
- Just How Crazy Is Boris Johnson? by Sam Knight, The New Yorker
Canadian Politics
- The dangers of an Andrew Scheer Conservative federal government, by Ethan Phillips, Canada Fact Check
- Maxime Bernier's false claim about Canada's 'subsidized' immigrants, by Jonathon Gatehouse, CBC News
Ontario Politics
- Canada's failed populist: A cautionary tale, by Andrew Mitrovica, Al Jazeera
"The downfall of Ontario's provincial premier, Doug Ford, is a prime example of what happens when populism takes power."
Debunking Resources
These are of such importance that I've decide to leave them here on an ongoing basis.
- Debunking, Wikipedia
- Pseudoscience, Wikipedia
- List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, Wikipedia
- Rational Wiki
- Science Based Medecine
- Quackwatch
- Snopes, debunks or validates urban legends
- Bad Astronomy
- The Skeptics Society
Science Based Medicine
- Sugar Isn’t Giving Us All Cancer, by Gid M-K; Health Nerd, Medium—Lifestyle
Lacking an Owner's Manual
The human body/mind/spirit doesn't come with an owner's manual, and we continually struggle to figure out how best to operate them.
"Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos"
Aha experiences aren’t as serendipitous as you may think. Here’s how to proactively produce them.
"We’re opportunistic, inventive and flexible animals, and there is no ‘natural’ or ‘right’ way to bring up our children."
There is No God, and Thou Shall Have No Other Gods
I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I am an atheist, but I may not have made it clear that I think any sort of worship is a bad thing and that believing in things is to be avoided whenever possible. Indeed, I do not believe in belief itself. That's what the "Thou shall have no other gods" is about—it's not enough to quit believing in whatever God or Gods you were raised to believe in, but also we must avoid other gods, including material wealth, power and fame.
- Why I’ll Never Go on a Mission Trip Again, by Mariette Williams, Medium—Zora
"Our well-intentioned attempts to serve Black and Brown people barely made an impact
" This piece speaks volumes about that's wrong with Christianity in America.
Puerto Rico
- 15 Days of Fury: How Puerto Rico’s Government Collapsed, by Simon Romero, Frances Robles, Patricia Mazzei and Jose A. Del Real, The New York Times
"Simmering frustrations over disaster response, a weak economy and graft scandals turned into mass protests that toppled Gov. Ricardo Rosselló." - No one knows who will be in charge of Puerto Rico, by Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox
"A constitutional crisis is brewing and time is running out."
Poverty, Homeless People, Minimum Wage, UBI, Health Care, Housing
- Invisible in plain sight: fighting loneliness in the homeless community, by James Walker, Open Democracy
"Have a chat with someone on the streets and you may help and, perhaps, come away with an important story. This is Rupi’s." - One day, one city, no relief—24 hours inside San Francisco’s homelessness crisis, The San Fransisco Chronicle
Artificial Intelligence
- Stand Up for Best Practices: Misuse of Deep Learning in Nature’s Earthquake Aftershock Paper, by Rajiv Shah, Medium—Towards Data Science
Education
- Teaching ‘grit’ is bad for children, and bad for democracy, by Nicholas Tampio, Aeon
- Why Streaming Kids According to Ability Is a Terrible Idea, by Oscar Hedstrom, Medium—Aeon Magazine
"The smart stay smart while the dumb get dumber: Why streaming schoolchildren by ability fails to benefit the majority"
Humour
These are great times for political satire.
- Alberta looks for new dying, volatile industry to tie economy to, by Callum Wratten, The Beaverton
Books
Fiction
- Thin Air, by Ann Cleeves
Non-Fiction
- Upheaval, by Jared Diamond
- Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, by Sam Kaner
- Artificial Unintelligence, by Meredith Broussard
"How computers misunderstand the world" This book addresses the problems with our magical thinking about artificial intelligence. - An interview with Meredith Broussard about her book, Artificial Unintellience, by Angela Chen, The Verge
No comments:
Post a Comment