As the pandemic builds, most people, led by government officials and policy wonks, perceive the threat solely in terms of human health and its impact on the national economy. Consistent with the prevailing vision, mainstream media call almost exclusively on physicians and epidemiologists, financiers and economists to assess the consequences of the viral outbreak.
"We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts."
The western United States is likely being gripped by an "emerging" megadrought partly fueled by the climate crisis, says a study published Friday.
Researchers claim the region's 19-year drought, from 2000–2018, already rivals that of any over the past 1,200 years.
The ongoing pandemic epoch has exposed a clear duality marked both by increasingly obvious and blatant inequalities, hypocrisies and systemic failures as well as beautiful, loving and creative responses in the form of mutual aid communities and direct action to save lives.
170 Dutch academics sign manifesto for sustainable, equal and diverse societies based on international solidarity
The following statement, signed by 170 academics from eight universities in the Netherlands, has been widely reported in the Dutch press, becoming a focus for discussion on how to avoid repeating past mistakes when in planning for the future.
[BC has wild fires and dry creekbeds in mid-April. Come fire season, where does one evacuate to? Hurricanes would be even worse!]
April 15, 2020
The next several months could bring hurricanes, floods and fire, on top of the pandemic currently raging through the country. How do you shelter in place during an evacuation?
George Monbiot: Capitalism relies upon perpetual growth, which cancels out all our efforts in combating climate change
The following is adapted from the opening remarks made by George Monbiot in a Munk Debates Podcast with Andrew McAfee. Listen to the whole episode on climate change and capitalism here:
The Bank of Canada’s response to this crisis shows we have the capacity to rebuild social programs, fund Indigenous communities and transition to clean energy, what we lack is political will
“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled,” famed Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote.
