Canada is an International Pariah Professor Michael Ignatieff, the newly-minted leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, is facing an enormous decision. In early December, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the leader of a minority Conservative government, prorogued (or dissolved) parliament in order to avoid a Vote of Non-Confidence. It was an ignominous and gutless retreat, [...]
Read Full Post »
This is the first post in what will be a regular feature at One Blue Marble. The “climate scientists” who deny climate change are — with one or two exceptions — not actually climate scientists. They work at “institutes” that are funded by big oil, and they are unable to publish their “findings” in respected [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Social Justice, Spirit Moving on Dec 25th, 2008
Four graces for readers who are mindful of our many blessings. Buddhist The joys and pains of all beings are present in the gift of this food. Let us receive it in love and gratitude… And in mindfulness of our sisters and brothers among living beings of every kind who are hungry or homeless, sick [...]
Read Full Post »
I’ve always found some small respite in symbolism, a sign perhaps that a kernel of my religious upbringing yet persists in a warm corner of my soul. And so as I write these words, on the deepest, darkest day of the year, with wind and snow raking at our windows, I take some measure of [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Climate Change Science, Politics on Dec 18th, 2008
If you care about the planet, and are worried about climate change, this was a pretty lousy week. First the discouraging news out of Poznan that several countries in the developed world — most notably Canada, the US, Japan and Australia — spent all their time at the climate summit deflecting progress at every turn, [...]
Read Full Post »
Although UN delegates are always trying to gild the lily, the simple truth is that progress was hard to come by the UNFCCC* climate talks in Poznan, Poland, and every step forward was followed by an unfortunate step backwards. Even as UN officials were calling the meeting a success, pointing to the EU agreement to [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Canada, Politics, UK, USA on Dec 17th, 2008
Sweden does the most of any country to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, while Canada and Saudi Arabia do the least, according to a barometer published by watchdogs at the UN climate talks last week in Poland. Interestingly, the annual Climate Change Performance Index (CPI) only placed Sweden fourth on its list — leaving the top [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Clean Technology, Social Justice on Dec 17th, 2008
One of the things that I like best about about the fight to slow climate change is that it is intimately tied to social justice and recognizes that we need to fight every bit as hard to eradicate poverty and diminish suffering in less fortunate areas of the world. And so stories like this one [...]
Read Full Post »
And so it begins, with baby steps. Truth to tell, I had wanted to make this blog look exactly like the One Blue Marble web site, but with everything else on my plate, that’s too high a hurdle (he wrote, mixing metaphors). So this will do for now, until I learn how to transform my [...]
Read Full Post »