BuryCoal post: Canada does not have the right to develop the oil sands
Politics
On my way back from getting a chest x-ray done, I saw a demonstration while waiting for a streetcar. It seemed to be Ryerson students petitioning the provincial government for lower tuition rates. I doubt they will have much luck with that, given the mood of austerity, but it’s good to see people making an [...]
{ 1 comment }
From Daniel Yergin’s The Quest: To demonstrate environmental sensitivity [at the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol], the Japanese organizers turned down the heating in the conference center. But this created a new problem as Kyoto in December was cold. To compensate, the Japanese decided to distribute blankets to the delegates. But they did not have [...]
{ 1 comment }
U.S. Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear navy, wrote a good plain-language description of what is basically Immanuel Kan’t categorical imperative: I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one [...]
{ 1 comment }
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 [...]
{ 3 comments }
One of the big reasons for opposing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is because of how 200 oil tankers a year would threaten the coast of British Columbia. I think everyone who has seen that coastline understands its beauty and ecological importance. At the same time, I suspect the idea can be made more salient [...]
{ 4 comments }
On BuryCoal: should younger people be given more votes, because they will survive to experience more of the future?
Many websites in the United States, Canada, and around the world are joining together to protest SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill, which could become law in the United States, would have unfortunate consequences for the internet as a whole. I agree with Michael Geist that Canadians should be concerned. I remember [...]
{ 11 comments }
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 [...]
{ 29 comments }
Please listen to this podcast: Gabor Maté on The Human Face of Addictive Behavior Maté makes some excellent points about the psychological basis for addiction, as well as the serious problems with our current approach of treating addiction as a crime. Maté makes a powerful case that criminalization of drug use is ineffective and unethical, [...]
{ 0 comments }
