fire

Wednesday September 24, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 24, 2019

‘How dare you’: Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg scolds world leaders at UN climate talks

Scolded for doing little, leader after leader promised the United Nations on Monday to do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels.

December 1, 2015

As they made their pledges at the Climate Action Summit, though, they and others conceded it was not enough. And even before they spoke, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg shamed them over and over for their inaction: “How dare you?”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres concluded the summit by listing 77 countries that committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, 70 nations pledging to do more to fight climate change, with 100 business leaders promising to join the green economy and one-third of the global banking sector signing up to green goals.

“Action by action, the tide is turning,” he said. “But we have a long way to go.”

June 2, 2017

Businesses and charities also got in on the act, at times even going bigger than major nations. Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced Monday that his foundation, along with The World Bank and some European governments, would provide $790 million in financial help to 300 million of the world’s small farmers adapt to climate change. The Gates foundation pledged $310 million of that.

“The world can still prevent the absolute worst effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing new technologies and sources of energy,” Gates said. “But the effects of rising temperatures are already underway.”

As the day went on Monday and the promises kept coming, the United States seemed out in the cold.

Before world leaders made their promises in three-minute speeches, the 16-year-old Thunberg gave an emotional appeal in which she scolded the leaders with her repeated phrase, “How dare you.”

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” said Thunberg, who began a lone protest outside the Swedish parliament more than a year ago that culminated in Friday’s global climate strikes.

November 28, 2015

“I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.

Thunberg told the UN that even the strictest emission cuts being talked about only gives the world a 50 per cent chance of limiting future warming to another 0.4 C from now, which is a global goal. Those odds, she said, are not good enough.

“We will not let you get away with this,” Thunberg said. “Right now is where we draw the line.”

As this all played out, scientists announced that Arctic sea ice reached its annual summer low and this year the ice shrank so much it tied for the second lowest mark in 40 years of monitoring. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday August 28, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 28, 2019

Bolsonaro’s ego stands in the way of saving the Amazon

December 18, 2009

“Did I say that? Did I?” That was Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro talking to reporters on Tuesday morning, apparently denying what his office had told CNN exactly one hour earlier, that he would reject a $20 million pledge from the G7 countries to help fight the fires consuming the Amazon. It was a touch of gaslighting, Bolsonaro style.

The Amazon fires are scorching the Earth’s most vital ecosystem at such a voracious rate that by the time you read this, thousands more trees will have turned to ashes. Brazil’s space research agency calculates that one-and-a-half soccer fields worth of rainforest burns every single minute. That destruction includes more than trees — it is engulfing everything that lives in the forest and cannot escape.

December 4, 2007

As the flames spread, the scale of the devastation could reach a point where the damage may become irreversible. Amid rising pressure from abroad, and from inside Brazil, Bolsonaro has instead busied himself with a childish (and sexist) dispute over whether he has a more beautiful wife than French President Emmanuel Macron and posturing that efforts to help from abroad amount to an assault on Brazilian sovereignty. Meanwhile, more rainforest burns.

Brazil should receive help not only because what happens in the Amazon will affect the entire world, but because it should not bear the cost of preserving the Amazon all alone. Whether or not Bolsonaro feels he has something to prove, Brazilians have much to be proud of. They have a spectacular country, and they have shown in the past that they are capable of protecting it. There is no shame in accepting assistance from a world that is eager to help. They have every right to run the operation. It is their country. But their problem is affecting everyone. If everyone wants to help, why not let them? The obstacle, as often happens with demagogues, is their president. It’s a perfect — perfectly awful — example of what happens when nationalist demagogues take power.

June 2, 2017

It is hardly a surprise that Bolsonaro has been described as the “Trump of the Tropics.” There’s much about his political style that echoes the US President, including his approach to the environment.

Urged by foreign leaders to fight the fires — which open up more land for powerful Brazilian ranchers and miners to graze cattle and extract mineral wealth — Bolsonaro declared, “You have to understand that the Amazon is Brazil’s, not yours.”

It was not unlike what President Donald Trump said in his press conference three days later, when he was asked if he is still skeptical about climate change. In his rambling answer, he said he is an “environmentalist,” and went on to describe precisely the opposite, saying, “I feel that the United States has tremendous wealth. The wealth is under its feet,” adding, “I’m not going to lose that wealth; I’m not going to lose it on dreams.”

The nationalists’ creed is centered on some version of MAGA, Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan, which is at its heart a call to mistrust cooperation with other countries and to reject the prospect of sacrifices for a common good shared with other nations. (Continued: CNN)  

 

Tuesday July 30, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 30, 2019

Ford government reversing autism program changes

There’s news today from Queen’s Park that the Ontario government will reverse its direction on the funding of the province’s autism program.

February 16, 2019

This comes after months of protests from parents and an internal review that called for an immediate reset of its strategy.

Todd Smith, the new Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, announced on Monday that the government will move to design a funding program based on the needs of individual children.

Smith says the new program will work within a $600-million budget.

“It’s clear that the Ford government, we didn’t get the re-design right the first time. I’m here to tell you we will now,” said Smith.

“My message to families of children and youth with autism is, we have heard you, and we are taking action,” said Smith. “Our government is committed to a needs-based program that provides children and youth with the supports they need to thrive. Over the past number of weeks, I have met with service providers and families of children with autism who share a common goal to provide the best possible care and make a positive difference in the lives of children and families living with autism in Ontario.” (CTV News) 

 

Wednesday June 12, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 12, 2019

Vigilance the best protection from plague of fake news

Canadians will be voting in federal elections in four months. Many have already made up their minds. Regardless, attempts will be made to shift voters’ perceptions. We know this is coming and we need to prepare for it.

Facebook admitted in 2017 that Russian operatives bought political advertising on its social media site intent on disrupting the U.S. elections the previous fall. U.S. citizens (let’s face it: all of us) were subjected to fake news, absurd memes and all manner of slander in a Moscow-driven attempt to affect the vote.

It didn’t end there. Facebook closed down hundreds of fake Facebook accounts, at least one of which had 3.6 million users, set up to help Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Facebook also shut down hundreds of accounts linked to an Israeli political consulting firm, Archimedes Group, whose primary goal is to win campaigns in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

In Canada, we can expect the same. An alleged email made the rounds recently purporting to be from a People’s Party of Canada organizer bizarrely suggesting that non-white Canadians who join Maxime Bernier’s anti-immigrant, Islamophobic party should be displayed prominently but never consulted about policy because “they are all liberals anyway.”

Similarly, the U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was featured in a video in which she was made to look like she was slurring her speech. U.S. President Donald Trump was among those who tweeted the fake video. In this case, Facebook refused to take the video down, claiming it is not its responsibility to censor.

On Monday, Facebook Canada announced that anyone wishing to buy political ads on its platform will need approval. The authorization process involves several steps to confirm the group buying the ad is real and based in Canada. Starting June 30, political ads appearing on Facebook will show who bought the ad and will allow social media users to view information about the ad’s reach.

The Pelosi video, however, is not considered advertising and would have been allowed on the site.

In that case, Facebook is actually correct. Free speech is free speech is free speech. As disgusting as the video is — it was created by slowing down an actual clip of Pelosi speaking and then altering the pitch of her voice to mask the manipulation — it does not qualify as hate speech. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Tuesday April 16, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 16, 2019

Fire torches Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

A massive fire engulfed the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of the French capital Monday, toppling its spire and sending thick plumes of smoke high into the blue sky as tourists and Parisians watched in horror from the streets below.

November 16, 2015

A spokesman said the entire wooden frame of the cathedral would likely come down, and that the vault of the edifice could be threatened too.

“Everything is burning, nothing will remain from the frame,” Notre Dame spokesman Andre Finot told French media. The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions.

The cause of the catastrophic blaze was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire is “potentially linked” to a 6 million-euro renovation project on the church’s spire and its 250 tons of lead. Prosecutors opened an investigation as Paris police said there were no reported deaths.

Flames shot out of the roof behind the nave of the cathedral, among the most visited landmarks in the world. Hundreds of people lined up bridges around the island that houses the cathedral, watching in shock as acrid smoke rose in plumes.

The iconic building in the center of the city is the most visited monument in Paris, with more than 12 million visitors a year — nearly double the people who visit Eiffel Tower.

February 22, 2003

French President Emmanuel Macron postponed a televised speech to the nation because of the stunning blaze and was going to the cathedral himself.

Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said emergency services are trying to salvage the famed art pieces stored in the cathedral.

Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, Notre Dame is the most famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages as well as one of the most beloved structures in the world. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine, the cathedral’s architecture is famous for, among other things, its many gargoyles and its iconic flying buttresses.

Among the most celebrated artworks inside are its three stained-glass rose windows, placed high up on the west, north and south faces of the cathedral. Its priceless treasures also include a Catholic relic, the crown of thorns, which is only occasionally displayed, including on Fridays during Lent.

The cathedral was immortalized in Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” published in 1831, and has long been a subject of fascination in popular culture as well as the traditional art world. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

I couldn’t help the fact that this 1980’s song by the House Martins re-ran through my head as the Cathedral burned: