SCTV, Canada’s best ever comedy series? Of course!
Economic and cultural sanctions needed
I won’t post again on the platform owned by today’s leading promoter of fascism. Only psychopaths aim to revive a movement responsible for a conflict that left more than 50 million dead, mostly non-combatant civilians. Over a billion people were negatively affected by World War II…
Forced to pay for our own destruction
Today, there is no uncertainty about the importance of preserving waters that have sustained inhabitants for millennia. However, profits are still prioritized above all else…
Canadian politicians recklessly blazing a path toward unprecedented climate change
Canadian climate journalist Geoff Dembicki wrote an opinion piece published by the New York Times almost six years ago. Canada’s Perverse Climate Change Policy: Gas Up. It was subtitled: Pushing toward the worst scenario despite better options for the future of the environment.
BC gas exports more than 33x the amount consumed by BC’s residential sector
Taxpayers fund subsidies to encourage BC residential consumers to burn less natural gas, while the same taxpayers fund subsidies to encourage people in other places to burn more natural gas. As Voltaire said, “Common sense is not so common.”
Prepare for electric rate shock
In a recent piece, I demonstrated that successive British Columbia governments have seriously reduced the public share of the value of natural gas produced in the province. Now, there is evidence of more hidden subsidies to fossil fuel producers and processors…
Petroleum and Natural Gas Rights (and wrongs)
The BC NDP remains committed to expanding fossil fuel production. In BC, the industry paid millions of dollars to lobbyists and politicians. The rate of return on that investment was just a touch more than most of us get when we deposit a few dollars in a chartered bank or credit union.
Our World in Data
Training in accountancy encourages my reliance on data to improve understanding of various issues. One valuable source of information is Our World in Data. It was founded by Max Roser, Professor of Practice in Global Data Analytics at the University of Oxford. Dr. Roser’s research has focused on large global problems, including poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, existential risks, and war.
Carbon dioxide emissions hit a record in 2024 and show no signs of dropping
Andrew Coyne says carbon tax critics who ignore rebates are dishonest. They are eager to damage the Earth and the Canadian economy if a political advantage can be gained. Duplicity may be a useful tool for politicians but it damages our democratic institutions. Beyond that, maligning the carbon tax impairs Canadian efforts to deal with climate change. That has real consequences.
Privatizing $24 billion public dollars
IEA says energy efficiency provides some of the quickest and most cost-effective CO2 mitigation options while lowering energy bills and strengthening energy security. Because the immediate benefits of efficiency go to individual consumers, vested interests that influence public policy discourage that approach. These groups know there are far more financial rewards gained from increasing energy supply than by conserving energy.
Bully the world
Several members of the party expected to form the next government in Ottawa are enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump and his cohort. Canadian resistance to American hegemony may be negligible.
Forest protection, a vital climate action
The Province can unleash a squad of public relations staff and announce BC is on track to meet its climate targets. Like other provinces, BC has no independent method for accountability. Claims made about greenhouse gas reductions, clean energy, and forest protection are not fully supported by trustworthy science.
Greed is good?
After the IN-SIGHTS article BC Hydro second quarter report, fiscal year 2025, retired economist Erik Andersen provided the following…
Geothermal energy now!
The International Energy Agency involves 32 member nations and 17 other associates. Together, these countries are responsible for about three-quarters of global energy consumption and almost 90 percent of clean energy investments. IEA recently published The Future of Geothermal Energy. The report notes that modern technologies enable the world to produce clean, attractively-priced geothermal energy.
BC Hydro second quarter report, fiscal year 2025
BC Hydro waited until the last days allowed by law to release the utility’s second-quarter report for the fiscal year ending March 2025. The utility’s financial reports show politicians consciously misinform the public about BC’s need for electricity…
Billionaires pay millions to hide trillions
In 1963, former JFK administration officials Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet formed the Institute for Policy Studies. The American organization became involved in civil rights, feminism, economic reforms, peace movements, and military draft resistance. Uncomfortable with such radical ideas, the Nixon administration added Raskin and Barnet to their lengthy enemies list. Now in its seventh decade, IPS remains focused on social justice.
In Praise of Idleness
“…there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached…”
The pigs are now wearing trousers
Words from two of Britain’s finest humourists.
Big Pharma maximizes profits even if patients are harmed
Free-market individuals believe industries should be allowed to do whatever an unregulated market allows. Most would object to Therapeutics Initiative (TI). But many of us recognize its value. TI is part of the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. It aims to provide health professionals and the public with evidence-based information on healthcare interventions. TI is independent and separate from the government, the pharmaceutical industry, and other vested interest groups.
Don’t be afraid to look at the sky and say that it’s blue
This is a follow-up to an earlier article that focused on political accountability and the need for journalists to demand it. The main objective of news people is to provide the public with useful information. Thorough reporting on government should involve facts that politicians want to promote and facts they wish to demote and keep out of the public eye. From political pundits, we need interpretive journalism that educates the public about failures in political and corporate accountability. Threats to democracy by authoritarians should be primary concerns.
in-sights.ca 
Thanks, Norm, for continuing to pound the drum about the giveaways in the oil and gas extraction industry. Aside from…