News week.

Only 70 starred items to choose from this week. 

Politics

• Jim Prentice questions the purpose of Copenhagen – What a cop out.  Evidently Copenhagen is to find “common ground” and not to table an international agreement.  Common ground means they will agree that coffee in the morning is delicious and Kelly Clarkson only had one good song.

• Ontario gets first full time Green Party Leader – Mike Schreiner has been crowned Green Party leader of Ontario.  Watch a video of him here talk about food secruity/sustainability.  This guy is speaking my language.

• Harmonized Sales Tax getting tabled at Queen’s Park – Controversial bill arrives, gets hilarious opposition from tax-heavy NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

• Being a gay politician in Canada is juuust fine – more research is showing that people like George Smitherman have nothing to worry about – Canadians are showing maturity and tolerance towards their politicians.  We win.

• The media does NOT have a liberal bias – the fine art of punditry.

• LocalTVMatters vs. StopTheTVTax – the battle over local TV.

Science

• Some more insight into the mass dinosaur extinction – More evidence showing that asteroids in India (not Mexico) may have played the largest role in this mass extinction period.

• Can academics be entrepreneurial? – New York Times blog looks at how academics can unleash small business to help innovate.

• Musicians great for party socializing – research showing that musicians are better at repeating a sentence heard in the presence of background noise.

• Why can humans speak and chimps can’t? – finding the gene exclusively for speech and language.

• There is water on the moon.

• We’re aurally screwed – New Scientist shows how even quieter sounds can still cause ear damage.

Green

• Water purification failing in developing countries – easy water treatment for the poor remains a difficult process.

• Dwindling water in Australia – learn how a developing country is dealing with stressing water management issues.

• Skyscraper farming – A more indepth look at vertical (urban) farming.  Stretch those Malthusian philosophies, you guyyyys.

• Global tuna stocks in worrisome supply – sushi cravings causing major concern in global tuna stocks as fishermen are catching triple the limit

• Is solar energy competitively priced ? – with Smart Grid additions, found to be cheaper than coal.

• Putting a price tag on nature – Brtish economist part of the UNEP is trying to associate costs with our waters, trees, and air.  Good f’ing luck to you trying to put something completely unboxable into a box.  Way to go economists, good luck with that.

• Combining heat and power for a one two energy punch – it’s efficient, simple, and doable.  A closer look into CHP plants and how they’ll help our energy problems.

Total awesomeness

• Mustard Tigers ! – Trailer Park Boys back with a new show, The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour.

How isn’t she inspiring you ?

Part 2 can be found here if you liked Part 1.  Besides her transparent hybrid car name drop, her philosophy is so universal and so incredibly appealing to a wide variety of people.  Yet why is her party considered marginal?  Truths, common sense, compassion, and not being afraid to look forward.  That’s why I’ll always be a participant in promoting this type of thinking – it sounds after school special, but we all know it to be true.  To appreciate and focus on being and not having.  With disappointing and partisan politics surrounding the CBC news cycle, how isn’t this a breath of fresh air?

Whenever I postulate on politics, I automatically black and white my brain – left, right.  Bleeding heart, no heart.  Too much trust in government, too much trust in the free market.  It’s not overly healthy, it’s from reading too much news and too much punditry.  Gray is the new black, we know this.

However lately, I’m realizing that  many “right-of-centre thinkers” are often too focused on (and idolize) the past.  They also focus too much on having.  The good old days when there weren’t a lot of people on the planet and you could have whatever you wanted, as long as you were white and rich.   Sustainability-based policies aren’t afraid to look forward into our future.  Opponents of  “progressives” call these predictions apocalyptic fearmongering.  Yes, some eco-friendlies wear their catastrophic hats, but it’s also true we worry about  real impacts on millions of people.  The future will be at least a bit scarycompared to now. Sorry guys.

Perpetuity.

We are going to have minority governments until the country finds a leader that cranks the chain harder than Christina Ricci.  Sorry, bad mediocre movie joke.  Or if the left finds some way to merge together like the Conservatives did.  Democracy! Choice!  Two party systems and true partisanship!  The hundredth horse of apocalypse!

Liberal or Green, she’s a toss up.  Or as Ben Gibbard frequently proclaims, head vs heart.

Offtime.

You know the quote.  “Activism is my rent for living on the planet” (Alice Walker).  I haven’t done too much volunteering in the past year or two, so it’s something I’m really looking forward to getting back into in Toronto.  Busyness tizzyness.

1. Engineers Wthout Borders – Toronto Professional Chapter – International (human) development.  It’s the “Think Global and Act Local AND Global” attitude that I appreciate so much about the organization.  I’ve already done a lot of fundraising for them back in Waterloo, so I’m looking forward to more funs.

2. Food Not Bombs – often organic and always nutritious AND pacifist AND acting locally.  Signin.  I can do 2 hours a week.  My dear friend Rochelle inspired me.

3. Green Party of Canada – Probably a small contribution, but good to be politically engaged in some way.  I don’t always agree with all of their policies, but the message is important.  Still considering this.

Trying to decide to do more local or global rights issues -  United Way vs. Amnesty/Oxfam.  Simply so many goods.

Memberships will incude Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, Whole Village or Everdale Farms, and the ever dear Bullfrog Power.

Why I’m voting Green.

You’re judging already aren’t you.  I probably would too, and then subsequently think I’m a spacy, anti-establishment, granola cruncher.  Most of that is true too, but hey, I’m allowed to have my ideals.

Really this isn’t an active choice, more of a process of elimination.  So here we go:

Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party – first of all, misnomer.   Try Alliance Reform we like Ross Perot party.  I kid, no name calling necessary.  They simply don’t align with my values, straight up.  Proponents of private health care, irresponsibly accelerated rates of oil extraction in the Tar Sands, cuts to the arts, and have less foresight than Sarah Palin’s pitbull/lipstick joke.  Not to mention his Bush-like refusals to have meaningful conversations with the media for the past few years.  And oh yeah, where’s your bloody platform?  Don’t worry, I know it’s not under your sweater.

Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party – Stephane, I like you enough, really I do.  But it’s because I really want to like you and I’m trying my damndest to like you.  You’re making it bloody difficult.  I want you to show us the fierce strong guy that brought us the Clarity Act.  But now you rely on your “team” of Bob fucking Rae and all the guys that couldn’t beat you in the leadership convention?!?  Come on.  This team now fully means that you and everyone else believe that you can’t lead on your own.  You seem like a great guy, and I even don’t mind your Green Shift plan, but you’re just not the right person to take on Mr. Harper and take back the country to the Canadian Redbook middle.  I want Ignatieff, and quick.

Jack Layton and the NDP – JACK.  You were my guy!  We were all tight, I talked to you on the Danforth about water quality and your trip to Gros Morne and your trip with Olivia to the caves!  Your numbers are increasing in the polls, and I am happy for you.  Overall, you’re fighting a good fight, you’re just not going to get my vote while I live here in Montreal, QC.  You want to know why?  Because I’m getting worried that this “integrity” you preach is bullshit.  You are selling out Anglophone Quebecers by supporting Bill 101 in order to gain more Francophone votes.  Among many other things, Bill 101 helps strengthen the use of the French language in Quebec, implicity discouraging anglophones from moving and residing in Quebec.  Although I can see where this bill is coming from (in a separatist kind of way), as an English speaker in Montreal (and trying my damndest to learn your impossible dialect), my life here would be much more difficult if 101 was fully implemented.  Thus I can’t support you this time.  And after witnessing you dodging too many questions, spinning answers like a typical untrustworthy politician, your cap and trade climate change solution, and being vehemently pro-union, I’m wondering about my future support.

Elizabeth May and the Greens – Well missy May.  Sorry, Mz. May.  You got my vote, I want to ride your bandwagon.  Or should I say Via trainwagon.  I secretly want to think your cross Canada tour on the train was exactly like Festival Express.  Please tell me you’re Janis.  Anyway, this is a woman that not only impressed me but many other Canadians in the televised national debate.  She supports the OECD recommended income tax cut/carbon tax plan, even supported by neo-con idols (read: head economists).  For me, she offers answers with honesty, integrity, and foresight.  This is what I see lacking in virtually all parties.  Stephen Harper’s eyes cannot see past 4 years into the future, as do most politicians.  The economy will always take some sort of hit when shifting to more environmental policies, but this impact won’t be far reaching, especially if the country invests intelligently in developing green energy and related industries. Quick tip boys and girls – do you know where oil comes from?  how about those precious automobiles and the rest of the manufacturing sector?  Even the computers you’re typing on?  Yes, it all comes from the EARTH.  Having weak environmental policy is having weak long term economic policy, plain and simple.  Do we want to be a short term thinking kind of society?  We are way smarter than that.  We can only go on ignoring weak environmental policy for so long.  Let’s actually be proactive here.  You know what reactive politics gets you?  THIS.  I could rant forever, but Elizabeth May believes in fostering local food production (a huge issue for me), punishing polluters, investing in national rail, and getting troops out of Afghanistan in a respectable period of time.  Sign me up.

The awesome and hilarious irony of this overly long post is that yours truly, a left wing anglophone living in Montreal resides in a little riding called Laurier-Sainte Marie.  Do you know who has been running in this riding the past decade or so?

Isn’t irony a bitch?  Gilles, you’re a good guy, and I hear this is your last campaign.  I’m glad this is the last time an anglophone’s vote won’t count in your lovely riding.   Allez Vert!