Issues, ethics, memory
Justin Trudeau’s re-election has unleashed political outrage in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is talking about Alberta’s being “betrayed.” Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe sent a letter to Trudeau demanding that he cancel the federal carbon tax, build various pipelines and renegotiate the formula for equalization payments. I’ll withhold detailed comment on equalization payments,... Continue Reading →
Young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who will speak to the UN Climate Summit in New York this week, has said: “I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.” One thinks of the carnage at Fort McMurray in 2016 where the houses were on fire after a massive blaze... Continue Reading →
Newspapers have recently carried lengthy obituaries on the death of David Koch, the US billionaire. Through Koch Industries, David and his equally wealthy brother Charles controlled the second largest private corporation in the US, with ownership in chemicals, pipelines and fossil fuel extraction. The company was also, until recently, a major investor in Alberta’s oil... Continue Reading →
I was invited in 2019 to speak in Ottawa to the Annual General Meeting of the ecumenical social justice group Citizens for Public Justice. They asked me to talk about populism. It's a topic that has gained new urgency following the so-called Freedom Convoy in 2022. Here is the speech: Introductory comments I am so... Continue Reading →
The United We Roll convoy of trucks on its way from Alberta to Ottawa makes for good television coverage, but the deep sense of grievance and anger on display does beg questions. Here are some of them. What about global warming? Those in the convoy demand that Ottawa simply clear the way for the construction... Continue Reading →
Activist Tony Clarke was respected by foes and revered by activists for speaking truth to power in Canada and abroad. He died on December 4, 2024. I am reposting a blog piece that I wrote in 2018, upon the release of Clarke's last book, Getting to Zero: Canada Confronts Global Warming.
The United States is walking away from the Paris agreement on climate change, which was so laboriously negotiated by most of the world’s countries in 2015. This is suicidal lunacy on the part of Republicans who still claim that climate change is a hoax. Their prattle continues even as a chunk of ice equivalent to... Continue Reading →
Well-known U.S. environmental activist Bill McKibben has caused a stir by describing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “stunning hypocrite” on climate change. “Trudeau says all the right things, over and over, “McKibben wrote in The Guardian. “But those words are meaningless if you keep digging up more carbon and selling it to people to... Continue Reading →
Jeffrey Simpson, the excellent but now retired columnist for The Globe and Mail would write at year’s end about what he got right — and where he had been wrong. I intend to try something similar with this blog posting. Climate change deniers Most of my entries attract just a few comments, but one about climate-change... Continue Reading →
I’ve been writing blogs for nine years now, and I receive the greatest response — much of it negative — whenever I write about climate change. I suspect that at least some of those who react are paid by the carbon industry to sow doubt. I accept the scientific consensus that that climate change is real,... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 