Author Archives: Blair

A case against the empty symbolism of the 1.5C climate change goal

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Blair

In my last post on Pragmatic Environmentalism I brought up the topic of Canada endorsing a call to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. I bemoaned the idea as being the equivalent of … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics | 7 Comments

On Pragmatic Environmentalism: Being the Responsible Adult in the Room

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Blair

I wasn’t sure what I wanted write about this weekend only to open up the paper (okay figuratively since I read the paper online) to discover that my next topic had pretty much dropped itself into my lap. There in … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Deconstructing the 100% Wind, Water and Sunlight scenarios – Part III Issues with energy storage

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Blair

Last night I got drawn into a very long Twitter discussion with an acolyte of Dr. Marc Z. Jacobson and his colleagues in the Wind, Water and Sunlight (WWS) series. The discussion revolved around the most recent in Dr. Jacobson … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Fossil Fuel Free Future, Renewable Energy | 10 Comments

The good politics and bad policy implications of a revenue neutral carbon tax

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Blair

Premier Notley and The Alberta Climate Change Advisory Panel released their Climate Leadership Plan this week to widespread approval in both the political and climate communities. One of the features of the recommendations from the Panel is a price on … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Renewable Energy | 10 Comments

On “Shilling” for evidence-based decision making

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Blair

In the last couple weeks I have had a very interesting time on my social media platforms. As many of you might know I have a regular blog at the Huffington Post. I use that blog to present shorter versions … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism | 8 Comments

Don’t fear the soccer pitch – on synthetic turf fields and risk communication

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Blair

So my twitter feed exploded again. This time it was about the risks of synthetic turf fields to the kids in our soccer organization. The basis for this furor was a series of reports in The Province, CBC etc…. apparently … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology | 7 Comments

On scare reporting of science and the risk of eating red meat

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Blair

My twitter feed went insane this morning following a news release from The Lancet about an article titled Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat. For anyone interested in toxicology, human health risk assessment or simply regular readers of … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk, Risk Communication | 3 Comments

On inane criticism in the climate change debate – the Ridley affair

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Blair

I have been following the climate change debate for over a decade now and have been writing on the topic for several years. Even with that level of exposure, the inane level of personal criticisms thrown around in this debate … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change Politics | 4 Comments

Thoughts on the new Liberal Government and the Environment

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Blair

Like many interested observers, I was shocked at the size of the Liberal victory in our Canadian election. I was confident in a Liberal minority but had no clue that the Liberals would end up with a majority. From an … Continue reading →

Posted in General Politics | 1 Comment

On the Indifference of our School System to Parents and Teachers

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Blair

To date on this blog I have avoided discussing the school system. As many of my readers know I am the husband of a school teacher and have avoided writing on topics that would potentially affect my wife’s workplace but … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment