Bragging sucks. It makes most decent people itch to brag, even at the thought of it. It’s generally the hallmark of little people trying to look big. On the other hand, if someone takes a picture of you sitting in your car and simultaneously looking at your cellphone, and they paste it all over social media and insinuate that you’re texting and driving and that you habitually do it, is it bragging to deny it? Is it bragging to point out that you have no traffic tickets, that you don’t text [Read more]
Guilty until proven innocent – If we could burn the endless stream of oilsands disinformation we wouldn’t need fossil fuels
Falsehood will fly, as it were, on the wings of the wind, and carry its tales to every corner of the earth; whilst truth lags behind; her steps, though sure, are slow and solemn, and she has neither vigour nor activity enough to pursue and overtake her enemy… Thomas Francklin, 1787 This quote, while a bit poncy and dour and unfunny for these parts, is also a pretty useful one to keep in mind. It may be maudlin, but it is also in turns useful and fascinating and disheartening. And Homer [Read more]
Hey, nice coup! Protesters: what is your plan for the country?
Maybe it’s just poetic justice that for decades we’ve struggled with how to reconcile Canada’s history with indigenous peoples. Some think we’ve done not enough, some think too much, and most agree it doesn’t work very well. Maybe it’s a reflection of reality that Canada caters to the protest movement, we’re too nice to deal with them in any meaningful way, and we let them dictate national agendas. Maybe the two, along with Canada’s inability to deal with either, are a marriage made in [Read more]
Smoke on the troposphere: CO2 emission targets rendered meaningless in the face of mother nature
A funny thing happened the other day as I returned home from the grocery store. My homeward trip coincided with a person from my neighbourhood whose car I recognized, and I got to observe his driving habits first hand. He was meticulous in lane changes, signalled every move, even in places where people usually don’t. We went through traffic circles, and he waited properly and even signalled every move correctly on those, which is rare. He maintained a proper speed limit, and his every action was [Read more]
Daily distortions: brainless media coverage of the oil and gas industry is ripe for consequence
I don’t know what it’s like to be the editor of a mainstream media news outlet, but it must be a miserable job. The popular information world has sort of gone off its rocker with the demands to be entertaining, insightful, current, hip, and wise, non-stop, all day long. It’s one thing to work on a story for days or weeks, as institutions like Reuters often do; the end result can be insightful journalism. Some institutions like Bloomberg however have resorted to the equivalent of painted [Read more]
The view from Oslo, which sounds about right: “Canada seems to be the least painful country to kind of whale on”
I have a big favour to ask: Can we please stop with this Canadian niceness PR campaign? Aw crap, there I go, guilty as anyone. Sorry. I mean not sorry. Sheesh. I’ll try again: It’s time to stop this “Canada means nice” foolishness. Don't take that the wrong way, we can still be lovable hosers if we want. Polite? Sure. Helpful? Sounds great. By all means, let’s stand proud that we (if we) deserve those accolades. But it’s time to stop with this mantra that niceness is our natural national [Read more]
Hope for natural gas prices? Listless markets say no, but they said the same about oil two years ago
A funny thing happens to people psychologically when our society/culture/economy gets very good at providing something, particularly for a long period of time: we simply take it for granted and don’t even think about it anymore. Clean water is a good example; in advanced economies, we don’t think twice about whether it will be there tomorrow to shower in or cook our food or flush the toilet. If there is a good side to annual flood seasons, when we observe cars and houses floating down rivers at [Read more]
Saudi Aramco’s public share sale might raise a few bucks but would neuter the country, so don’t bet on it happening
A few years ago, Saudi Arabia had a change of leadership at the top, and the new guy in charge decided to open up the country in some very positive ways. Major steps were taken to open up society, and clumsily heartwarming human rights gestures were even appearing, like rare flowers blooming in the desert after decades of drought. Women were suddenly acknowledged to be different than dogs, and allowed to, for example, go jogging in public, and attend soccer matches. To the relief of all, no [Read more]
Rising oil prices may bail out Canada but precipitate a global financial calamity; there’s a reason Trump is screaming at OPEC to crank it up
Suppose you were a sort of financial derelict that spent what you wanted, and ran up huge debt. You had options to reduce the debt burden, such as collect money that was owed you, or sell off some things; but you were having a good time and that stuff seems like a lot of work. Eventually you run out of hiding places and go bankrupt, then claw your way out, then it’s party time again. But old habits die hard, and the cycle repeats. At some point, without resorting to criminality, it’s going to be [Read more]
Here comes the judge, with a BS detector – US climate change lawsuit case full of surprises, accountability
I’m not sure how much people read anymore; I hear it’s going out of style and am told that 280 characters now tests the limits of our attention span (the new-ish Twitter limit, FYI, if you’re, like, a caveman). I hope the reading habit isn’t dying off for several reasons; one, because I’m writing a book; and two, that sometimes the world requires a bit more mental processing power than is on display in Twitter or Instagram to get either ahead, or out, of a quagmire. It is not an [Read more]
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