Category Archives: Canadian Politics

The Leap Manifesto: Good Intentions Mixed with Bad Science

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Blair

As regular readers of this blog know, I first encountered the Leap Manifesto when it was released in September of 2015. At the time I wrote a couple pieces. The first: A Chemist looks at the Leap Manifesto and finds … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change Politics, General Politics, Leap Manifesto | 6 Comments

Debunking some myths about private sector scientists

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Blair

I had a discouraging interaction this week with an academic, who in another lifetime I might have described as a colleague. The academic and I disagree on the importance of pipelines in our modern society. That is not unexpected; we … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

On the empty platitudes of the anti-pipeline advocates

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Blair

This week was a busy one in the Energy East pipeline debate with Denis Coderre and his merry band of municipal politicians stepping out of their jurisdictional depth to come out against the pipeline and our Prime Minister saying he … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Energy East, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Debunking more Myths and Fables about the Energy East Pipeline

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Blair

Well my last post summarizing why I support the Energy East pipeline has been out for only a couple days and the response has been quite positive. I can usually tell when a post is doing well: when my social … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Energy East, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

A Chemist in Langley’s take on Energy East

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Blair

I have written a lot about pipelines at this blog and last night while watching Denis Coderre attempt to hijack the Energy East pipeline discussion I said to myself: enough is enough I want to write a blog post to … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Energy East, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 15 Comments

On poor science communication in the media: a case study on the flu vaccine

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Blair

This morning I was directed to a blog post by Bill Tieleman in The Tyee. The post dealt with the flu vaccine and was titled Time to End Expensive, Ineffective Forced Flu Shots. This is the latest of his, now … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

A look at British Columbia’s energy picture in light of the Paris Agreement

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Blair

In the last month or so, I have seen an upsurge of comments on my Twitter feed, and at the #bcpoli hashtag, from individuals who I can best describe as “politically active” and “partisans”. These tweets have centered on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Fossil Fuel Free Future, General Politics | 11 Comments

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

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

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