Category Archives: Uncategorized

Understanding the role of, and opportunities for, Canadian fossil fuels in our net zero future

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Blair

In my review of Seth Klein’s A Good War, I took issue with the author’s statement that in order to fight climate change we need to eliminate the fossil fuel industry. I have repeatedly pointed out how ridiculous that claim … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil Sands, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

BC’s new School Food Guidelines: an attempt by bureaucrats to squeeze the joy out of our kids’ childhoods while stripping away parental choice

Posted on April 15, 2022 by Blair

I am the parent of three school-aged kids and the president of our local elementary school Parent Advisory Council (PAC). Last night our PAC looked at BC’s Proposed 2022 BC School Foods Guidelines For Food & Beverages in K-12 Schools … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Do Canadians really consume the equivalent of a credit card worth of plastic every week? – Of course they don’t

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Blair

This week I was directed to a factoid I had somehow missed that is currently making the rounds. That “humans consume the equivalent of a credit card worth of plastic every week”. The factoid was being used by the CEO … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Digging into that paper that “associates” VOCs in indoor air and tap water samples with Northern BC LNG wells – a likely example of spurious correlations

Posted on September 24, 2021 by Blair

This week I was directed to a new paper in Science of the Total Environment titled Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air and tap water samples in residences of pregnant women living in an area of unconventional natural gas … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Understanding the rules for exporting plastic waste – what the activists keep getting wrong

Posted on July 7, 2021 by Blair

As part of my ongoing discussion of plastic regulation in Canada, I ended up in an enlightening discussion on Twitter. It wasn’t enlightening for what it taught me about the handling of plastic waste; rather it was enlightening in that … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Debunking the claim that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Blair

In my last post I wrote On the proposed Canadian plastics bans – Part 1: How the Government created useful “facts” for its scary headlines and how “facts” are being created, essentially out of thin air, to be used as activist … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Chemistry and Toxicology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

On the proposed Canadian plastics bans – Part 1: How the Government created useful “facts” for its scary headlines

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Blair

This fall the Canadian government hopes to get a single-use plastics ban enacted with a plan to get to zero-plastic waste by 2030. To enact this ban, on October 10, 2020 the Canadian government recommended to the Governor in Council … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Debunking common anti-nuclear talking points Part 1 – Nuclear takes too long to build

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Blair

In BC approximately 18% of our total energy is provided by clean electricity and 61% of our total energy is provided by fossil fuels (most of the rest is industrial energy supplied by burning biomass). The Pacific Institute for Climate … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Why an environmental scientist is so often critical of environmental activists

Posted on March 2, 2021 by Blair

As an environmental scientist, I am regularly asked why I seem so critical of environmental activists and environmental NGOs. My answer is simple: because the people who should be speaking out when environmental activists and environmental NGOs make ridiculous claims … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

A pragmatic environmentalist’s view on climate change, BC LNG and the Trans Mountain Pipeline project – not either or but all of the above

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Blair

In the last months, I have taken a lot of flak about my stances on topics like BC LNG and the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX). In the last week alone I have been called a “denier” and an … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, LNG, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 15 Comments