Temporarily Torontonian
As usual, Bill McKibben is saying sensible things and calling for appropriate actions. He is a non-Canadian who is concerned about the ethics of digging up and burning the oil sands, in a world where the climate is changing at a frightening pace. He is asking Canadians to sign a petition: “As a Canadian, I [...]
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When I think about how to characterize my political views, it seems as though there are philosophical positions that I find appealing, but which need to be tempered in response to the strong counterarguments against them. Ironic liberalism I can see the sense in what Richard Rorty calls ‘ironic liberalism’. All that old-fashioned stuff about [...]
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There seems to be some useful software here: Open Source Mac – Free Mac software, all open-source, all OS X. For the unfamiliar, open-source software is software where the authors provide the underlying computer code to everybody. That lets you examine how it really works, compile it to run on a range of machines, and [...]
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With the commencement of hearings, the political fight over the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is now beginning in earnest. The proposed pipeline would carry bitumen from the oil sands to the Pacific coast for export. It would encourage the development of the oil sands and contribute to the fastest-growing category of emissions of greenhouse gas [...]
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This week’s episode of This American Life is powerful and thought- provoking. It’s about manufacturing in China, the ten million person city of Shenzhen, and how most of our computers and phones and miscellaneous gadgets are made by hand by millions of workers working at least twelve hours a day. Apple has been conducting its own [...]
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One thing all the world’s nuclear reactors have in common is that – unless they are constantly cooled with large volumes of water – they will eventually explode. This is because even after nuclear fission has been stopped, the decay heat from the fuel rods is sufficient to melt them and prompt dangerous interactions between [...]
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Two tasks for 2012 – recovering from the rather dire state of global climate policy will not be easy, but we have no alternative but to try
A few times before, I have mentioned the website Stratfor. They normally provide a very ‘realist‘ take on global politics. They have interesting sources of information and arguments, and I have found them to be worth reading. Unfortunately, their entire database of past and present subscribers has been stolen by hackers and released online. If [...]
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Henry Shue has written convincingly about the moral importance of the rich giving up luxuries for the sake of fighting climate change, before the poor are asked to give up necessities. As he explains it, even in an emergency you sell the jewelry before you sell the blankets. The ultimate example of luxury emissions is [...]
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Cheryl McNamara wrote a good op-ed on climate change for The Calgary Beacon. She does a good job of making the economic case for action: Either lock into an insecure high-carbon system, or legislate a mechanism that sends a clear market signal to nourish an industry poised to surge, bring new life back to our [...]
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Keep carbon underground. Help stop the Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline.
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Content copyright Milan Ilnyckyj (2003-2011). May be used non-commercially with attribution. For more details see this page.