• 183 Posts
  • 170 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: July 18th, 2023
  • streetfestival@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Study Estimates 2023 Canadian Wildfire Smoke Caused 82,000 Premature Deaths GloballyEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    I disagree. 82,000 premature deaths are certainly not nothing. You can say “yeah, well those 82,000 made up only 2% of worldwide premature deaths from outdoor air pollution that year,” (using the 2019 estimate you cite) - but so what? What’s gleaned from that part-vs-whole comparison? I guess it’s a good thing there’s so much existing air pollution that our wildfires didn’t drive those worldwide numbers up more? /s (Also look at it per capita: it was one season; we’re a large country, but we’ve a teeny human population)

    Could we have killed more people if the affected forests were surrounded by a much denser human population, say such as in China or India? /s

    More relevant, I think, is comparing Canada’s contributions to these types of deaths year over year. These numbers should disturb.

    And these numbers certainly aren’t nothing to the even larger number of people affected by wildfires, such as those who can’t go outside during wildfires because of health risks. Or their family members. Or those providing them medical or social care.

  • streetfestival@lemmy.caOPtoCanada@lemmy.ca•Dispatch from the community rally against a racist, anti-immigrant event in TorontoEnglish
    131·
    2 months ago

    Credit:@PapyrusBrigade@mstdn.ca

    Alt Text: Christie Pits has been lovely this afternoon. Huge neighbourhood turnout in support of immigrants and against fascism.

    I loved the Korean performances: Taekwondo, drumming, singing, dancing. Magicians and story telling for kids. Lots of live music.

    A few dozen dejected fascists, drowned out (both audibly and visually) by overwhelming numbers of antifascists.

    And this sad guy walking around with a Knights Templar flag and a Christian flag, both on a hockey stick. On which he has written “In this sign thou shalt conquer.”. Desperately seeking his people, as hundreds of people nearby enjoy Palestinian folk songs.

  • streetfestival@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Prime Minister Mark Carney is delaying a plan that requires automakers to hit minimum sales levels for electric vehiclesEnglish
    31·
    2 months ago

    To seriously suggest that the Conservatives would have the same environmental policy is not only childish beyond belief, stunningly ignorant but that level of false equivocation is fundamentally dangerous.

    You disagree with Greenpeace and I, that’s fine. I think the thing that unsettles me the most with Carney - and maybe you feel somewhat similarly with your invocation of US politics examples - is that I fear Canadian politics is descending to the 2-party system in the US where neither party serves working class interests, the two parties are very similar on many fronts (except more socially conservative ‘issues’), and the system is so easily gamed by the filthy rich to prevent positive change. (I feel the NDP is sadly missing the opportunity to be Mamdani-like, cater to the 90+% of Canadians that supported Air Canada Flight Attendants’ strike action, fill the void left of the political centre, etc.) It instills me with hopelessness and it can rile me up in an angry way. Carney has really disappointed me. I know a plurality here hold out hope that he’ll reveal a positive character later in his term, but I don’t share that belief. I remember Trump favouring Carney more than PP during the campaign for the federal Canada election. I don’t fully understand it, but it makes more sense to me now than it did before Carney was elected

  • streetfestival@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Prime Minister Mark Carney is delaying a plan that requires automakers to hit minimum sales levels for electric vehiclesEnglish
    91·
    2 months ago

    CBC’s coverage and your reading of it isn’t critical enough of the LPC, imo. For CBC’s part, their coverage surrounding Air Canada’s labour issues the other week made that pretty clear.

    The pause appears indefinite for now, the part you cite does not say the pause will be for 60 days, but it might be by intention that you read it that way.

    The EV mandate will be paused as the government conducts a 60-day review of the policy, and is being waived for 2026 models.

    I predicted Carney’d postpone this days ago in another post. My other prediction is that Assolini will not participate in a fair CUSMA renegotiation - nothing about his first 8 months suggests he will.

    CPC must be pretty ecstatic. If they can ditch PP for his excessive social conservativism, they can easily win the next federal election as Carney is Conservative. Greenpeace gets it:

    However, Greenpeace Canada was quick to criticize the EV mandate delay.

    “What was the point of electing Mark Carney when we get Pierre Poilievre’s climate policy?” said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist with the activist group.

  • streetfestival@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Why Canada is ill-equipped to tackle the growing threat of fake scienceEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    Kind of a sensationalist headline, but the tl;dr is that Canada lacks a federal retraction and other misconduct in biomedical research body - unlike the US, which has one (for now).

    By contrast, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, a federal body which oversees misconduct in federally funded biomedical research, publicly lists all confirmed cases.

    In 2010, the Council of Canadian Academies — an independent body that supports science-based policy — recommended the government create a Canadian Council for Research Integrity, a national office similar to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity. Canada never moved ahead with the proposal, and has no current plans to do so.

  • streetfestival@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Mexico reportedly considering higher Chinese import tariffs at US urgingEnglish
    14·
    3 months ago

    Mexico is preparing to raise tariffs on Chinese imports of automobiles, textiles and plastics

    It cites a Bloomberg report that it doesn’t link to. Every sentence supporting the title is “US pressuring Mexico to” not “Mexico has suggested.” Feels like US propaganda tbh.

    Of note, Mexico is building a national EV (source), so they could theoretically have non US-related motives to consider tariffs on Chinese EVs

    Mexico’s “Olinia”, for instance, is a planned EV line set to be led by a new federal ministry, with a focus on affordability. As noted in its initial press release, the target demographic is families and young people, with three models expected to cost between US $4,400 to US $7,400—significantly lower than other EVs sold in the country.

  • streetfestival@lemmy.catoCanada@lemmy.ca•Saskatchewan Premier Moe says Canada should remove tariff on Chinese EVsEnglish
    9·
    3 months ago

    Yes but other than government handouts to industry, the EV industry in Canada has no momentum. Moreover, between Assolini’s eagerness to destroy the world, Smith’s anti-EV lobbying, and Carney’s corporate profits-first agenda, I don’t see EV manufacturing getting off the ground in Canada any time soon. I bet Carney will soon strike down (or ‘postpone’) the EV quota mandate for Canadian car manufacturers, to go into effect in 2026, I think, further eroding momentum. Other parts of the world are passing North America by when it comes to renewables while we’re asleep at the wheel because the oligarchs in this country obstinately refuse to reduce fossil fuel dependence and our political and media classes keep bowing to them