Monthly Archives: March 2019

On spherical cows, an idealized China and the futility of arguing with activists on BC LNG

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Blair

It seems like every week we get another announcement from the BC government about the BC LNG industry. While there are clearly issues with how our government is handling the financial end of the BC LNG industry (including taxation policy … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

How understanding Type I and Type II errors and p-values helps in assessing the conclusions of the Ramazzini Institute 13-week pilot study on Glyphosate

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Blair

As regular followers of this blog know, my graduate research involved developing systems to allow data collected by researchers to be evaluated for reliability and made available for subsequent re-use by other researchers. I carried out my research in an … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Risk Assessment Methodologies, Risk Communication, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Understanding the difference between a “hazard” and a “risk” or why scare stories about glyphosate and pesticides in your food shouldn’t frighten you

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Blair

I have written a lot at this blog about how chemical risks are communicated to the public and so I am often asked about news stories depicting the latest science scare story. Sometimes they are handled badly, like the CTV … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk, Risk Assessment Methodologies, Risk Communication, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Some thoughts from a Pragmatic Environmentalist for the Climate Strikers

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Blair

As a pragmatic environmentalist who has been working to advance environmental causes for the last 30+ years I would like to take a moment to provide some advice to the youth of today on your 2019 Climate Strike. First let … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Debunking some Viral Climate Change Alarmism

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Blair

As my regular readers know, the emphasis of this blog is evidence-based, environmental decision-making. I care that reliable scientific data is being used to make informed policy decisions. As such, I try to push back when science is abused by … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Why sample design matters or Why that “Insects are Vanishing Paper” does not tell us much about world insect populations

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Blair

As followers of this blog know, one of my big interests is evidence-based, environmental decision-making. I care that good scientific data is being used to make informed policy decisions. As such the recent “insects are vanishing” meme that is spreading … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Risk Communication, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

On the Achilles Heel of these Climate Damages Lawsuits: Municipal Zoning Bylaws

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Blair

By now everyone has heard about West Coast Environmental Law’s (WCEL’s) Climate Accountability Letters campaign. This is the campaign where a group of enterprising lawyers are: asking your municipality (or regional district) to send “Climate Accountability Letters” to 20 of … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Debunking more activist talking points about BC LNG: on “illegal dams”, electrification, and LNG as a bridge fuel

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Blair

The thing I really don’t understand about the activist class in BC is their intellectual incoherence. They argue that climate change is an existential threat to our planet; but that we should only fight climate change using a small suite … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Site C, Uncategorized | 2 Comments