Carney, Smith and Eby’s climate betrayal

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Governments acknowledge climate science, then pursue policies that directly contradict it. They transfer public wealth to immensely profitable corporations, encourage greater fossil-fuel dependence, and leave ordinary people to bear the mounting costs of fires, floods, droughts, extreme heat, illness, displacement, and environmental destruction. The first duty of government is to protect human life and the public interest. Leaders who knowingly intensify a threat to both are not merely failing in that duty. They are betraying it. This is not climate leadership. It is a betrayal of the people governments are supposed to protect—and of the generations who will inherit the consequences.

What we pretend not to see

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I recently stumbled across an American website: A Moveable Feed from buttondown.com. It promises to deliver “Blunt, funny takes on today’s biggest stories from a recovering DC insider.” This week, the website published Smoke, Fire, And What We Pretend Not To See. I found the full article engaging. Below the separator are excerpts.

RCMP’s decades-old Tommy Douglas files remain secret

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The RCMP was particularly suspicious of people associated with peace movements—and of political leaders willing to speak openly with people across the political spectrum. In the eyes of Canada’s security establishment, listening to dissenting voices and engaging opponents were not signs of democratic strength. They were grounds for surveillance. The irony is striking. The authorities treated Tommy Douglas as a possible threat largely because he practiced the openness, tolerance, and democratic engagement that Canada claimed to value.

Megasize credit unions have policies, not memories

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From 1956 through 1958, I attended Stillwater Elementary, a small schoolhouse twenty-two kilometres south of Powell River. Its three rooms accommodated six grades, and children were summoned to class by a hand-rung bell left over from the region’s railway-logging days. One ordinary school day, a visitor appeared. She was Ruth Allan, known locally as the “Credit Union Lady.” She lived to be 102 and touched the lives of many people.

Remembering the Freedom Riders

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I do not know Mel Lehan personally, but I have been aware of his altruistic activism for many years. His Facebook posts are usually both entertaining and informative. Recently, he reposted an item from Informatify about Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. Her story brought back memories of the dangerous years when courageous people risked their lives in the struggle for civil rights.

Vacation home in south of France

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Many years ago, our valued friends Jacquie and Lorne began searching for a vacation home. They explored possibilities in several parts of North America and Europe before deciding that the south of France offered almost everything they could wish for: a rich and fascinating history, a warm climate, exceptional food and wine, and surprisingly modest costs…

Buying unsellable luxury condos better than building affordable housing for just-plain-folks

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A comment on my last article is too good to not feature as a separate post. It was submitted by Loopholes Uber Alles, which I suspect just might be a nom de plume. The main part is from The Beaverton, which happens to be a more accurate reporter of political affairs than Postmedia and several other publications that promote the interests of Canada’s one percent.

Government housing policy wrong again

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Erick Villagomez teaches architecture and urban design at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning. His work examines how cities are shaped by often-invisible systems that influence power, equity, and democratic participation. An article by Villagomez published at spacing.ca is worth serious attention. It followed the announcement by Premier Eby and Prime Minister Carney of a welfare plan for developers that involves the purchase of unsold condominiums…

LNG: unclean energy

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The following was published as a letter in Victoria’s Times Colonist newspaper Re: “B.C. premier visiting China to pitch LNG project as province’s ‘really big fish,’ ” June 27. While Premier David […]

Damn the climate science, full speed ahead!

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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!”

An intractable problem

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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?

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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.

Decarbonizing energy

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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.

Goodbye Premier Eby

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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.

Why not geothermal?

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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

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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

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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.