Friday, December 16, 2011
Global slavery
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Nuclear power - A poster child for the planned economy
Monday, February 21, 2011
A "cosmic vignette" by Lord Rees
The following is an excerpt from a BBC broadcast of the Reith Lectures 2010. The Reith Lectures are a series of annual radio lectures held in the UK on significant contemporary issues, delivered by "leading figures from the relevant fields".
And I’ll conclude with a cosmic vignette. Suppose some aliens had been watching our planet from afar for its entire history. What would they have seen?
Over nearly all that immense time, 45 million centuries, Earth’s appearance would have altered very gradually. Continents drifted; the ice cover waxed and waned; successive species emerged, evolved and became extinct. But in just a tiny sliver of the Earth’s history, the last one millionth part, patterns of vegetation altered at an accelerating rate. This signalled the growing impact of humans and the advent of agriculture.
Then, in just one century, came other changes. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air began to rise anomalously fast. The planet became an intense submitter of radio waves - the output from TV, cellphones and radar transmissions. And something else unprecedented happened: small projectiles, launched from the planet’s surface, escaped the biosphere completely. Some were propelled into orbits around the Earth; some journeyed to the moon and planets.
If they understood astrophysics, the aliens could predict that the biosphere would face doom in a few billion years when our sun flares up and dies. But could they have predicted this sudden fever less than halfway through the Earth’s life? And if they continued to keep watch, what might these hypothetical aliens witness in the next hundred years in this unique century?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Open letter to Environment Minister Peter Kent
Contact the Minister
Tel.: 819-997-1441
Fax: 819-953-0279
Email: Minister@ec.gc.ca
The Honourable Peter Kent
Minister of the Environment
Member of Parliament for Thornhill (Ontario)
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0H3
Version 1
Oil sands developers in Alberta are getting away with murder, and the Canadian government seems to be turning a blind eye.
As I write this, I am thinking of the millions of innocent human beings who have been killed or displaced, and will continue to be so likely as a result of anthropogenic climate change. I’m also thinking of northern Alberta where the smell of hydrocarbons from the terrible scar of the tar sands replaces the scent of flowers, and of cancer rates in the Chipewyan First Nation community.
Instead of letting companies run roughshod over our Athabasca forests with minimal penalty, in particular companies with foreign-headquarters and little concern for Canada's long-term interests, they should be taxed and a large portion of their profits earmarked for, among other things, remediation programs.
Peter, I was disappointed to find you on the Polluter Harmony site. I expect more of the newsman who used to grace my family's living room nightly.
Please stand up for the environment and impose proper regulation and taxation on the oil sands.
Sincerely,
Ted Sherk
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
FORD FOCUS - Chapter 3
Think of the effect George Bush and throngs of misinformed, rhetoric-driven voters had on the U.S. economy, and then read this:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontomayoralrace/article/858032--scrap-streetcars-for-subways-ford-says
Here are some facts about Transit City:
FACT: LRT and street cars are not the same thing.
FACT: 1/3 of the proposed Eglinton LRT will run underground.*
(i.e. between Laird Ave. and Keele St.)
FACT: Transit City vs. Ford's "plan"
In case it's not obvious, I deeply resent having to take time away from other important work to try and protect Toronto's future against this buffoon. Thank goodness our city's governance structure has some ability to temper Ford's rhetoric with reason, and keep him in check.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/915410--ford-transit-city-hybrid-plan-in-the-works?bn=1
When my thesis is done, I will be doing some serious advocacy, including more canvassing. Hopefully it won't be too late by then to save the Jane LRT as well.
*Sources: City of Toronto, 2010; Google Maps
Monday, January 3, 2011
Jobs in Ontario's renewable energy sector
Company | No. of jobs | Location |
Canadian Solar | 500 | Guelph |
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Melatron | 300 | Guelph |
Fronius (inverters) | 100 | Mississauga |
Canasia Power | 500 | London |
Seimans |
| Windsor |
Samco | 60-100 | Scarborough |
Windtronics | 174 | Windsor |
Lower Mattagami River Project | 800 | Timmins James Bay |
Solar Source | 150-200 | Windsor |
Niagara Tunnel | ? | Niagara |
GSL and MecaSolar | 15 | Wallaceburg |
| ? | Leeds & Grenville |
More on the way! |
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For more information, see http://cpconference.ca/