In 2026, this personal blog will begin its 19th year. Financial contributions from readers keep the lights on. If you judge IN-SIGHTS to be worthwhile, please contribute by clicking on this post and following the link provided.
18 years
An intractable problem
I recently read several Facebook comments that trivialized the indiscriminate violence inflicted on innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon. Some commenters suggested that the deaths and disruption experienced by Israeli residents were equivalent to—or even worse than—the destruction inflicted on more than eight million people when sophisticated weaponry threatened or destroyed densely populated areas outside Israel’s borders.
Will Electronic Monsters Rule Mankind?
During the past half-century, I have watched computing power increase beyond anything most of us could have imagined. My old Digital Equipment DS310 attracted attention from other business people, but its capability was laughably small. Yet nothing in my 50-year history with computers has developed quite as rapidly—or unsettled me as deeply—as artificial intelligence.
Discouraging solar to subsidize LNG
By Jeremy Valeriote, BC Green Party MLA: On July 1, BC Hydro is changing the way it pays for power generated from household solar, and we’re not happy about it. Under the […]
Damn the climate science, full speed ahead!
During the 1864 American Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay, Rear Admiral Farragut ordered his fleet forward after the vessel Tecumseh struck a torpedo—and sank. The admiral said something like, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” David Eby is desperate for any kind of achievement, so the premier left yesterday for China, where he will promote a gigantic expansion of the LNG plant that is now polluting Kitimat and spewing methane into the atmosphere. Eby is in effect saying, “Damn the climate science, full speed ahead!”
Decarbonizing energy
By making ordinary hills suitable for energy storage, the technology could dramatically expand the number of viable pumped-hydro sites. RheEnergise promises that its system is cost-effective and able to integrate seamlessly with any grid infrastructure. Partnered with wind and solar, it could also be used in remote areas now unserved by the grid.
Can politicians sympathetic to unions be climate-conscious?
A strong labour movement can make climate policy more durable and socially just—but only when it represents workers rather than becoming the political defender of multinational, carbon-intensive industries.
Goodbye Premier Eby
As dissatisfaction spreads within the NDP, doubts about Eby’s political judgment and electoral appeal will deepen. Unless he reverses the government’s decline, pressure for a leadership change will not merely grow; it may become irresistible well before 2028.
LNG carbon footprint is “worse than coal”
To promote natural gas, British Columbia has foregone billions of dollars that once flowed into the public treasury. In 2005-2008, monthly auctions of natural gas rights brought in the 2026 equivalent of $12 billion. In 2021-2024, these auctions produced less than $5 million.
Why not geothermal?
Los Angeles-based Critical Energy is developing modular power plants that can be mass-produced in factories, transported in sections by 18-wheelers, and installed in as little as two weeks to meet soaring electricity demand from AI data centres. The AI boom is intensifying interest in modular generation and geothermal energy as data centre operators need dependable, around-the-clock power.
ICYMI
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy has continuously held elected offices since 1999. He was first voted into the Connecticut House of Representatives and then into the State Senate. Murphy entered the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served three terms. Murphy ran successfully for the U.S. Senate in 2012 and was reelected in 2018 and 2024, each time with about 60 percent of the vote. This week, Senator Murphy accused President Donald Trump of overseeing what Murphy called ‘500 days of corruption’ in the White House. His speech is worth attention:
A toxic cocktail of air pollutants
Having committed itself to promoting and subsidizing British Columbia’s fossil-fuel industry, David Eby’s government will not restrain a company planning to release substantially greater quantities of harmful air pollutants. Nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, fine particulate matter, and benzene will degrade local air quality, and these are associated with serious respiratory and cardiovascular risks.
Tax breaks for billionaires instead of public housing
The Tyee and Canada’s National Observer consistently produce independent journalism worth our attention. While browsing recent stories at The Tyee, one stood out. It’s an account of a billionaire family receiving a tax break for a long-vacant Vancouver property that once housed hundreds of low-income residents. Today, Little Mountain is devoid of residents, despite years of promises that affordable housing would return.
Day after day
People with rust in their arteries (like me) probably remember a song that was briefly popular in 1969…
Nincompoops turned out to be correct
After more than 15 years of BC Hydro insisting demand was rising for electricity, Adrian Dix has now admitted what I documented repeatedly at IN-SIGHTS. CTV quoted the minister responsible for BC Hydro: “There’s been two decades of flat load growth at BC Hydro.”
Underwater data centres, part 2
The explosive growth of artificial intelligence may force us to choose between imperfect alternatives. If demand for computing power continues to rise, policymakers have to weigh the environmental and social impacts of locating data centres above the ocean surface against those of placing them below.
Underwater data centres
China is the first country in the world to operate an underwater data center. It is part of a strategy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and reduce the environmental impact of powering artificial intelligence facilities. This is a partnership between HiCloud Technology and state-owned China Communications Construction, which involved an investment of about C$330 million
Creating new markets for a fossil fuel
The Tyee is reporting on why the federal government wants to promote and subsidize a national network of data centres. Apparently the Liberals discount peer-reviewed science that says the global warming emissions from burning natural gas are higher than those from clean energy sources like wind or solar.
Stupidity worth more than C$100bn
Futurism describes itself as a leading source of cutting-edge science and technology news. That may not position the Florida-based journal as the most reliable place for financial and investment news, but it produced an article in 2025 about Elon Musk that should be examined before any of us move our pennies to buy shares available after the SpaceX public offering.
What the wounds are telling us
De Volkskrant (The People’s Newspaper) is a Dutch morning daily, the third largest newspaper in The Netherlands. Its journalists Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra won the 2026 European Press Prize for Distinguished Reporting for What the wounds are telling us, a powerful investigation of targeted violence through the testimony of victims, medical professionals, and forensic analysis. De Volkskrant’s article is not easy reading.
Making antisemitism respectable?
Years ago, veteran war correspondent Robert Fisk warned against equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. He argued that conflating opposition to Israeli government policies with hostility toward Jewish people served to suppress debate and protect the state from legitimate criticism.
in-sights.ca 
The biggest problem with Ai and for existing search engines is that they are USA centred. As we are now…