Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Jeff Masters sets out some of the anticipated timelines for climate change to fundamentally reshape life in the U.S. - with immense disruption expected in a matter of just a few years. Vikas Parashram Mekram discusses how climate change is threatening groundwater supplies, while Darrin Joy points out the risk that melting permafrost will unleash massive quantities of mercury into the environment. And Hope Lompe reports on a new study showing how migrant workers in British Columbia are suffering from extreme heat in housing not designed to protect against it, while Stuti Mishra writes about the dangers and stresses of life at 50 degrees Celsius in India. 

- Meanwhile, Mostafa Henaway discusses how both the Cons and Libs have chosen to turn Canada's temporary foreign worker program into constant supply of cheap, powerless labour for corporate masters. And Prem Sikka sets out some suggestions to rein in extreme executive pay and income inequality. 

- Nojoud Al Mallees reports on new research showing that corporate capital gains have nothing to do with the creation of jobs in Canada. And Judd Legum offers a reminder that the inflation make life unaffordable for consumers has been primarily the result of corporate price-gouging which Republicans have now decided is fundamental to their way of life. 

- Finally, David Moscrop discusses how Doug Ford has thrown any concern for health and well-being out the window in directing his government's attention (and massive amounts of public money) toward alcohol liberalization as a top priority. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Simon Torracinta reviews Branko Milanovic's Visions of Inequality in tracing historical conversations in inequality, while pointing out the importance of identifying power dynamics as a root cause. And Natalia Junquera talks to Gary Stevenson about the systematic forces serving to funnel wealth toward the rich at the expense of impoverishing more and more people. 

- Patrick Greenfield examines the problems with relying on the whims of Jeff Bezos and other plutocrats to fund the work of trying to salvage a habitable environment in the face of industrial carbon pollution. Emily Sanders writes that the nomination of one climate scientist to Exxon's board of directors did nothing to noticeably alter its business as usual. And Ian Urquhart discusses how petropolitics in Alberta (and elsewhere) are blocking the deployment of renewable energy which is both more affordable and more sustainable. 

- Crawford Kilian discusses Tim Smedley's The Last Drop, including its recognition that our current usage patterns include wasting and poisoning vital supplies. And Ainslie Cuickshank reports on the constant chemical pollution at Vancouver's Burrard Inlet port. 

- Finally, Sarah Law discusses new research showing that mercury poisoning near the Grassy Narrows First Nation is being exacerbated by ongoing industrial releases. And Marc Fawcett-Atkinson reports on the push by advocates to start having realistic adult conversations about the health risks of glyphosate herbicides and pesticides - and the complete refusal by regulators to do anything but operate in utter denial. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Martha Lincoln writes about the needless harm caused by public health messaging about being people being "tired" of pandemic precautions which many (if not most) are entirely willing to take. Rachel Gilmore reports on the WHO's warnings about the continued human toll from COVID. And Patrick Rail warns that Ontario is careening toward a brutal eighth wave this fall, while Josh Rubin reports on the recognition that the elimination of any isolation period will only increase the number of worker absences caused by COVID.

- Alexander Quon reports that a shortage of workers continues to devastate Saskatchewan's health care system and put patients at risk. And Heather Ganshorn and Medeana Moussa discuss the problems with "privatization creep" being imposed on Saskatchewan schools by the Moe government. 

- Meanwhile, Russell Wangersky points out that Scott Moe's recent bloviating about basic environmental enforcement actually means complaining about federal action which he specifically demanded - not that we can expect any acknowledgment of such inconvenient realities from a government focused purely on posturing and hate-mongering. Jared Wesley discusses how that same philosophy has resulted in Jason Kenney's downfall. And Luke LeBurn reports on the latest revelations of threats to the lives of federal cabinet ministers as a result of the Flu Trux Klan which continues to be supported by the Cons and their provincial cousins. 

- Martyn Brown suggests that Anjali Appadurai's campaign for the leadership of the B.C. NDP should include a much stronger message about the need to build labour solidarity and challenge the dominance of the rich. Darren Shore discusses how Canada is being far outpaced by other countries in bringing in tax revenue from the wealthiest few. And Umair Haque writes that soaring energy prices - like so many unfair and frustrating elements of our world - are the result of an economic system designed to enrich a well-connected few. 

- Finally, Tameed Hawfiq reports on a new report showing how increased mercury levels are threatening human and animal life in the Arctic. 

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Ian Millhiser writes that the Republican majority on the U.S.' Supreme Court is restoring the robber baron era:

The conceit of Gorsuch’s Epic Systems opinion is that workers and their bosses sit down like equal bargaining partners to hash out their terms of employment. “Should employees and employers be allowed to agree that any disputes between them will be resolved through one-on-one arbitration?” Gorsuch begins his opinion with a question framed as if it could only have one answer. “Or should employees always be permitted to bring their claims in class or collective actions, no matter what they agreed with their employers?”

In reality, the facts of Epic Systems bear little resemblance to the civilized negotiation presented by Gorsuch. Workers at one of the companies at issue in this case received an email one day informing them that they must give up their right to bring class actions. Employees who “continue[d] to work at Epic,” according to the email, would “be deemed to have accepted” this agreement. A similar email was sent to the employees of one of the other companies that prevailed in Epic Systems.

These employees, in other words, only “agreed” to the terms proposed by their bosses in the same sense that a person accosted by a gunman in a dark alley “agrees” to give up their wallet. Their choice was to give up their rights or to immediately lose their jobs.

This is not the first time the Supreme Court ignored the fairly basic fact that employers typically have far more bargaining power than their workers — and can use this greater share of power to exploit their employees.
...
[At the time of the similar decision in Lochner v. New York,] (b)akeries often had no windows and little ventilation, filling the air with irritating flour dust and fumes. Ovens heated the workplaces into infernos. Low ceilings required many workers to crouch, and the floors were typically either dirt or rotten wood filled with rat holes.

The average bakery worker labored at least 13 hours a day in these conditions, though some worked as much as 126-hours a week. Workers, moreover, were often required to sleep on the very same tables where they prepared the dough, and the cost of these makeshift beds were then deducted from their wages.

These were the sorts of conditions that the free market offered workers who, without the law to protect them, were forced to bargain alone with their employers. Perhaps, in some narrow sense, these workers “agreed” to work countless hours among the roaches, the heat, and the raw sewage. But only a judge blinded by their own ideology could conclude that these workers had any real choice in the matter.
...
[Gorsuch] ignored the way the law was originally understood, ignored the text of the National Labor Relations Act, ignored the law’s hard-won understanding that employees and employers do not have equal bargaining power, and ignored Congress’ explicit efforts to strike a different balance of power between workers and their bosses.

It is a great day for law firms that profit off the exploitation of workers. And it is an even greater day for their clients.

The rest of us can either sign away our rights or lose our jobs.

- David Dayen comments on the severed connection between economic growth and wages in the U.S., while Sarah Anderson notes that the appalling pay gap between CEOs and frontline employees is bad for business. And Terri Gerstein calls for stronger legal action against employers who steal wages from their workers.

- Noah Smith discusses the uneven effect of a university education - with already-privileged white males seeing far more income gains from a degree than their classmates. And Martin Armstrong charts the additional work performed by women compared to men.

- Corey Mintz offers a reminder of the importance of regulations to ensure that our food is safe to eat. And Jayme Poisson and David Brusser report on a new study showing the damage done to the residents of Grassy Narrows by industrial mercury poisoning.

- Finally, Vicky Mochama criticizes the inhumane use of indefinite detention in maximum-security facilities pending determination of an individual's immigration status.

New column day

Here, on what we should learn from the recent spate of Alberta oil spills.

For further reading...
- Stephen Hume finds that Alberta's pipelines have spilled roughly 28 million litres of oil in thousands of leaks and ruptures just since 2006, and puts the results in perspective:

(C)onsider the campaign by the B.C. Used Oil Management Association to educate citizens here regarding the environmental threat posed by small quantities of oil.
A single litre of spilled oil, the campaign points out, can contaminate a million litres of groundwater.
So, consider the impact of 28 million litres of spilled oil on water resources - at a time when your Vancouver Sun's front page headline reports that conservation of water is becoming crucial. Multiply 28 million litres of oil by a million. I get 28 trillion litres of contaminated water.

- Coverage of the three most recent spills can be found here, here and here among other sources. Meanwhile, Mike de Souza reports on the latest news about mercury contamination, while Dave Dormer highlights the damage done to Alberta ranches.
- And Graham Thomson comments that even Alberta and its oil sector have plenty to lose if they keep on minimizing the significance of what are obviously major spills.

Crazy 'bout that mercury

The CP reports on what seems to be the first substantive difference in the federal environment portfolio under John Baird: rather than trying to pretend that action against other pollutants can be conflated with action against greenhouse gas emissions, the Cons are now standing in the way of anything getting done on other issues as well:

Canada's refusal to support a legally binding global pact to cut highly toxic mercury pollution is another Kyoto-style evasion that allies Ottawa with Washington, critics say.

Canada sided with the U.S. and India during international talks in Nairobi this week. The trio was among a minority of countries that blocked immediate progress of an enforceable system to curb mercury use, including a glut of noxious exports to the developing world...

Environmental groups blamed the U.S. and Canada for effectively delaying an enforceable system. Repeated studies clearly document health threats posed by air pollution, water contamination and mercury-laced electronic junk, they say.

"They want more talk but they don't back up that talk with action," said Michael Bender, spokesman for Zero Mercury, a coalition of 48 public interest groups...

Canada conceded in documents submitted to the UN Environment Program that "there is sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury ... to warrant further international action to reduce the risks to human health and the environment."

Still, Ottawa favours voluntary reduction efforts while binding rules are discussed for the next two years.

Of course, given the Cons' stated intention to ignore Canada's own laws when it comes to environmental action they don't want to bother with, there's little reason to think that a treaty would be acted on in any event.

But that only highlights the fact that there's neither a substantial near-term cost to trying to work toward an effective treaty, nor a rational basis for holding up what should be an important international effort aside from a general distaste for global cooperation. And it's particularly noteworthy that the Cons' rejection of an enforceable mercury treaty arises on an issue where - unlike on global warming - the Cons don't figure to have much of a base motivated by a desire to deny the problem.

Which signals that the Cons' already-ineffective mask on environmental issues is in severe danger of slipping off entirely. And it will only serve the Cons right if their willingness to side with the U.S. against the health of Canadian citizens proves toxic to their hopes for another term in office.