Canada should shut up about Chinese violation of human rights, its government grumbles. On June 22, Zhao Lijian, a Chinese spokesperson, publicly told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “China urges the relevant Canadian leader to earnestly respect the rule of law, respect China’s judicial sovereignty and stop making irresponsible remarks.” I agree. It’s time to stop […]
Author: Earle Gray
Runaway global warming is humanity’s gravest threat
Storms kill more people than any other extreme weather event–a reported 242,000 deaths in the 2o years to 2015. Any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5C degrees, or even 2C above the pre-industrial global temperature, as sought in the December 2015 Paris Accord, evaporated in 2017. No one knows how high the temperature […]
With coming recession, Trump will soon be toast
Down Jones Index, one hundred years. Published Sunday, March 25, 2018. There are two economic forecasts you can make with confidence, based on the record of history. In a period of economic growth, the next recession is inevitable, while during a recession, the next recovery is on its way. More difficult to forecast is when […]
World little knows and much less cares about deaths and suffering of year’s worst flood catastrophe
Mumbai, India, August 29, 2017. AP Photo by Rajanish Kakade. Death, displacement, and distress of South Asia flooding are 10 times worse than Hurricane Harvey. You might have missed the news in the past week about the most catastrophic flooding this year. Incessant rains and flooding caused loss in two widely separated areas of the […]
350 million years ago. Source of prosperity, poverty, global warming, drought, famine and war.
We live in a second carbon period. Carbon dioxide is the main force driving global warming just as it did in the first carbon period 359 million years ago. When the CO2 level rose and fell in the first carbon period, so did the temperature. Our climbing CO2 is stimulating plant growth. That could increase […]
Canada leads in establishing International criminal court
Canada played the lead role in establishing the International Criminal Court in 1998. It was the climax of a 126-year quest for a body to bring to justice those guilty of the world’s war and humanitarian crimes. But control by the UN’s Permanent Security Council has hampered its efforts to prosecute the worst […]
History of fierce free trade issue essential background for high-stakes NAFTA renegotiation with erratic Trump administration.
No Canadian political and economic issue is as contentious, persistent, and long-running as the struggle between free trade and protection. A concise account of that issue from 1840 to the 1988 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement provides essential historical background to the impending high-stakes renegotiation of NAFTA with the erratic Trump administration. The record clearly […]
Ukrainian settlers in sheepskin coats overcome rancid prejudice
They were called filthy, ignorant, lazy, immoral drunkards, a threat to the racial character and social stability of Canada. They were the peasants from Eastern Europe brought to Canada under Interior Minister Clifford Sifton’s aggressive quest for immigrants. To Sifton, they were “stalwart peasants in sheepskin coats,” precisely the type of good, hard-working farmers needed […]
Global warming denial burdens world with catastrophe
Global warming denial—the work of ignorance, wishful thinking, demagoguery, and heedless self-interest—spreads global catastrophe. A writer in a letter in the Toronto Star asserts that “…climate change has absolutely nothing to do with carbon emissions… climate change is not about science but rather about the politics of social engineering and wealth transfer.” It is this, […]
Peasants find freedom in Canada but anarchy and doomed democracy forecast
A settlers’ homestead, cleared from the bush in Upper Canada, ca. 1800. Pen Pictures of Pioneer Life in Upper Canada, ElectricCanadian.com/pioneer/pen/Chapter 21.htm. Liberty, democracy, and freedom from want, hunger and an oppressive aristocracy were said to prevail among peasants from Europe in the Upper Canada of 1821, but anarchy and doomed democracy were widely predicted. […]