News

Stuff I read 04-Sep-2023

An occasional roundup of news I found interesting, with even less occasional commentary!

How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts

A new study has found that 12% of Americans are responsible for eating half of all beef consumed on a given day, a finding that may help consumer groups and government agencies craft educational messaging around the negative health and environmental impacts of bee

Particularly important due to the enormous climate change and land use consequences of beef production and consumption

Read How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts

Who Needs Meta or Google for News? Use ‘Really Simple Syndication’

Meta is ramping up its blocking of news in Canada in resistance to a passed bill requiring news outlets be compensated for links shared on Facebook and Instagram.

Back to the golden age of blogs and 2005 we go with RSS!

Read Who Needs Meta or Google for News? Use ‘Really Simple Syndication’

The true cost of climate pollution? 44% of corporate profits.

What if companies had to pay for the problems their carbon emissions cause? Their profits would plunge, according to new estimates, possibly wiping out trillions in financial gains.

Profits: Primarily uncompensated takings from the future and everyone else to benefit a few

Read The true cost of climate pollution? 44% of corporate profits.

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New Data Confirms: Forest Fires Are Getting Worse

New data on forest fires confirms what we’ve long feared: Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago.

Read New Data Confirms: Forest Fires Are Getting Worse

More people than expected are dying in Canada in 2023 for reasons that are not yet clear

COVID-19 case counts are down dramatically from a year ago, according to federal data. Hospitalizations are higher than during the first two pandemic summers, but are hovering around their lowest point since December, 2021.

Is this excess death really a mystery or a result of covid revisionism?

Read More people than expected are dying in Canada in 2023 for reasons that are not yet clear

This N.L. man spent 20 years addicted to opiates — and says forced treatment laws would have killed him

Keith Fitzpatrick’s addiction story starts like so many others: with a prescription for painkillers. It would be two full decades, and several brushes with death, before he was ready to detox.

Why oh why aren’t punitive treatments for people who have issues with substance use treated with the disdain they deserve?

Read This N.L. man spent 20 years addicted to opiates — and says forced treatment laws would have killed him

Canada issues travel advisory for LGBTQ+ residents visiting US

LGBTQ+ citizens are at risk when traveling to the US due to numerous discriminatory laws passed at state level, the Canadian government has warned. “Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons.

Feel this hard 🙁

Read Canada issues travel advisory for LGBTQ+ residents visiting US

Canada has underestimated non-permanent resident count by almost one million

A gross underestimating of Canada’s population growth, specifically the number of non-permanent residents in the country, is having immense ramifications on the housing affordability and supply crisis.

I mean, we’d have a housing crisis without this counting crisis, but it makes things worse

Read Canada has underestimated non-permanent resident count by almost one million

How BC Could Tax Soaring Property Values for the Public Good | The Tyee

The vast majority of B.C.’s residential property wealth — $1.5 trillion — is in the value of the land rather than in the buildings on it. Unlike the value created by constructing or improving a building, increases in land values are not the result of any effort or expense by property owners. Rather, the land value is a social creation in that it reflects what makes the use of a particular location attractive to people.

Source: How BC Could Tax Soaring Property Values for the Public Good | The Tyee

Alex Hemingway has a great post on one part of our housing puzzle, how to fairly tax people on their unearned land wealth. Our property tax and incentives are setup to reward already wealthy land owners at the expense of everyone else. Given how unaffordable and unreachable housing is for many in BC and rest of Canada, every policy lever needs to be pulled. I have little faith that our landowner-heavy governments will act with the level of urgency and scale needed though 🙁

Back to School and Covid

Will Back-to-School COVID Crush Families?

BC’s status quo approach is not good enough, says a grassroots organization of doctors and teachers.

Kids sit in a classroom, facing a teacher at the front of the room.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/08/29/Back-to-School-COVID-Crush/

With new variants of covid hitting hard, we’re all concerned about covid for back to school and this Tyee Article provides a nice summary

Note: With Meta blocking news websites in Canada, blogs can hopefully play a part and this is a test 🙂

(Photo by Toom Woodward, via Flickr Creative Commons)