Archive for 2008 February

David Suzuki supports the carbon tax

In a report released on Friday, David Suzuki and economist Mark Jaccard have proposed a carbon tax offset by income tax relief.     Read more »

2008 Mar 2: Concert in memory of John O’Keefe

Concert in memory of John O’Keefe
Sunday, 2008 March 2
Doors open 7 pm, showtime 8 pm
The Mod Club, 722 College Street

PWYC, all proceeds to the aid and education of Iain O’Keefe-Kaufman, John O’Keefe’s son     Read more »

Monbiot on why flying kills

I think I need a new category.  This post isn’t exactly scaremongering, it’s more like guilt-tripping.  I discovered this post from George Monbiot while looking up background information for my previous post, which was also one massive guilt trip.  Guilt-tripping is not what I like to do, and clearly it’s not something Mr. Monbiot feels entirely comfortable with, either.  In this video, he repeats what he articulated to a Toronto audience in 2006:     Read more »

Poverty and climate change

I saw this article a while ago and wanted to report on it, but got side tracked with other things.

It makes it clear that the wealthiest nations and the wealthiest people are overwhelmingly responsible for climate change, but that the costs will be borne overwhelmingly by the poorest people in developing nations.  As one researcher finds, “the world’s rich countries owe the world’s poor $2.3 trillion — an amount that easily eclipses the total of Third World debt ($1.8 trillion)”.  At a personal level, one study the article refers to “showed that people in the U.S. who earned more than $75,000 emitted nearly four times as much C02 as those who earned less than $10,000”.

In fact, Stephen Pacala, the director of the Princeton Environmental Institute, said “the world’s 500 million richest people were responsible for a breathtaking 50 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions”.     Read more »

Welcome to the nuclear renaissance

This is a good article in the Globe and Mail about the problems in AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) and the relationship between the federal government and the nuclear regulator.  What’s missing is a critical observation.  If we accept the AECL is hobbling and must cut corners on safety measures despite enormous government subsidies, what is the true cost of nuclear power?