Once upon a time, liberals (small l) supported social progress and conservatives (small c) supported fiscal responsibility. In 2018, it is the left that supports both of these things, while the right represents short term economic benefits for the few, at the expense of long term deficits for everyone. This is most pronounced in the…
Earth’s population may be maxing out at last
Many of our global social and environmental problems are all tied back to the same root problem: There are simply too many of us for the available space and our consumption of resources is pushing the world toward the breaking point. However, the assumption that the global population will continue to grow exponentially consuming ever…
Politics in 2018: Making the most of dangerous times
Looking forward from 2018, there are both great opportunities and serious challenges. Challenges may not even be the right word because, while there are obviously obstacles to overcome and problems in need of solutions, there are tragedies waiting in the future which are probably not avoidable anymore. To move forward successfully, we are going to…
Am I still a “progressive”? It depends on who you ask
I have always considered myself to be “progressive” but, over the last few years, I’ve become uncomfortable with the term. I am certainly in favour of progress but many “progressives” seem to have fashioned it into a hard and fast dogma from which there is no room for variation. Because human knowledge and circumstances are…
Invasive species might not be such a bad thing
It turns out that our reaction to invasive species may have more to do with our fear of the ‘alien’ than environmentalism. Recently I got to listen to an interview, from CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, with ecologist Ken Thompson. Thompson’s book ‘Where Do Camels Belong: Why Invasive Species Aren’t All Bad‘ lays out the case…
Can an arachnid reverse climate change?
It has been incredibly difficult to do anything about climate change, in large part because no one wants to give anything up or pay more for anything. However, Americans may soon not have a choice in the matter thanks to a disease carrying tick. Most of efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses has, for obvious reasons,…
Drone footage of a humpback whale and her calf
Drones get a bad rap. Yes, the kind with bombs are evil but pretty much anything “with bombs” is going to suck. However, they can be put to good use, capturing images that humans can’t. Take, for example, this footage of an active volcano or this plan for capturing images from the surface of Venus.…
Minute Earth examines all of the way plants communicate and what they talk about
This great little video takes a look at plant communication, at what plants talk about and at how they do it. We frequently forget, vegans especially, that plants are living organisms that evolved on this planet. They are, in fact, much older than humans or even mammals and have had a very long time to…
John Oliver and Bill Nye on an accurate climate change “debate”
Neil deGrasse Tyson recently gave television news media a slap on the wrist for giving climate change deniers equal time and hosting debates on whether or not climate change is real. At this point it is an absurd thing to do. Giving those who do not believe in global warming equal time is roughly the equivalent…
A sports analogy to help explain how global warming is measured
There is a great tendency among humans in general, to filter information based on their own recent experiences. People, for example, tend to believe in global warming less on cold days. Obviously climate change doesn’t work that way. Other than the potential impact on storms, today’s weather in your town has nothing to do with global…