I just watched the documentary GasLand (trailer below), which tells the horrifying tale of the shale fracking natural gas industry in the US. Luckily, activists in Québec managed to stop the industry from moving forward with its plans to start fracking the the lower St. Lawrence valley. Here is a good rundown of what Shale Gas Fracking is. [...]
With the hyper-active behaviour surrounding Copenhagen this year, climate-gate, and the failed climate change bills in the US and Australia; it might be time to take some perspective on our situation as a species and global warming as a problem. We are destroying the planet, but not in the way you might think. Global warming [...]
The film Collapse outlines an inevitable doomsday scenario – no more oil. Oil is the cheapest source of energy we have ever known and when we run out, it will be very bad. While it does not sound great, the film makes no factual error and offers no meaningful solutions. Perhaps there are none: wind, [...]
Recently two friends have repeated the idea that nations go to war over water. It is not true. Over-consumption of natural resources is the topic du jour. The current popularity of environmental sustainability has birthed the notion that countries go to war for water. This is simply not true. While we do fight wars over [...]
Climatologists and financial modellers share more than we might think, or like. Fundamentally, both climate and financial models propose bold predictions based on highly sophisticated mathematical systems. One has already collapsed and the other will too. Both the planet’s climate and the financial system are very, very complex beasts. Yet, people in both camps claim [...]
Just watched a great interview between Charlie Rose and Michael Crichton. He has some interesting view on global warming (which I agree with). His idea mainly boils down to this: The global climate is a chaotic non-linear system that cannot be predicted (as stated by the UN). He also claims the models the UNFCC have [...]
The concept of vegetarianism has always appealed to me. Like many to-do items, I have procrastinated, but it is now clear that (Quasi) vegetarianism makes sense on three massive fronts: Personal Health, Environmental Degradation and Morality. The word “quasi” is not used as an escape root, but rather a warning. In my attempt to move [...]
At the Pecha Kucha night back in March, I presented the importance of graphical representation of data in the medical and philanthropic world (in under 7 minutes). At the time, I could not find the actual graphic that influenced Bill and Melinda Gates to give their fortune to preventable disease in Africa so I recreated [...]
Why are so many huge buses half-full. http://www.eem.ca/index.php/blog/68-half-full-or-half-empty-bus
A very interesting way of presenting the history of oil. 45 minutes long, but worth it.