By Jasmin Zine, Greg Bird and Sara Matthews | – This summer controversy arose around the hiring of Valentina Azarova as the director of the University of Toronto faculty of law’s international human rights program. Some faculty accused the dean of rescinding a job offer because public figures were uncomfortable with her scholarly criticism of […]
We only need $1.5 Trillion to meet Paris climate goals, a fraction of what Gov’ts are spending on Pandemic Relief
By David L. McCollum | – As of late summer, governments around the world had pledged US$12.2 trillion of relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That’s around 15% of global GDP, three times larger than government spending put forward during and after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and enough for every adult in the […]
Trump 2024? Presidential comebacks have mixed success
By Robert Speel | – American author F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “there are no second acts in American lives.” Yet it’s already assumed Donald Trump will go on to a next act in one form or another. Will he start his own media company? Serve as a GOP kingmaker? There are even rumblings […]
Why do People reject the Science of Climate Crisis, and can their Minds be Changed?
By Peter Ellerton | – Why do humans instinctively reject evidence contrary to their beliefs? Do we understand why and how people change their mind about climate change? Is there anything we can do to engage people? These are three very significant questions. They could be answered separately but, in the context of climate science, […]
What’s behind Trump’s refusal to concede? For Republicans, the end game is Georgia and control of the Senate
By Markus Wagner | – The world may have expected the chaos and uncertainty of the US presidential election to end when Joe Biden was declared the winner last weekend. But these are not normal times and Donald Trump is not a conventional president. Concessions that used to be a part of the political process […]
Biden will be the Antidote to Trump’s Poisoning of our Environment
By Janet McCabe | – The Trump administration has waged what I and many other legal experts view as an all-out assault on the nation’s environmental laws for the past four years. Decisions at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and other agencies have weakened the guardrails that protect our nation’s air, water and […]
Climate change: Joe Biden could ride a wave of international momentum to break deadlock in US
By Richard Beardsworth and Olaf Corry | – Joe Biden’s presidency is likely to be dominated by “the three Cs”: COVID-19, China and climate change. Each one of these behemoths could make or break him. Despite wildfires and hurricanes, this was not the long-awaited climate election. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris campaigned on the […]
Uh, oh: Oil field operations likely triggered earthquakes in California a few miles from the San Andreas Fault
By Thomas H. Goebel | – The way companies drill for oil and gas and dispose of wastewater can trigger earthquakes, at times in unexpected places. In West Texas, earthquake rates are now 30 times higher than they were in 2013. Studies have also linked earthquakes to oil field operations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and […]
Has Donald Trump had his Joe McCarthy moment?
By Chris Lamb | – When CBS, NBC and ABC cut away from President Donald Trump’s news conference at the White House on the evening of Nov. 5, they took pains to explain why they were shutting off the nation’s commander-in-chief. It was a moment that for me, as a journalism historian, carried echoes of […]