On October 11, Indigenous People’s Day, 136 people, including many Indigenous leaders opposing fossil fuel projects, were arrested in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., while calling on President Biden to declare a climate emergency and to stop approving fossil fuel projects. The day marked the first in a five-day-long series of protests […]

The post Indigenous Leaders Among the 136 Arrested at White House Fossil Fuel Protest appeared first on DeSmog.

Canada has not provided a transition pathway for its fossil fuel workers to move into other industries, and as global demand for oil and gas wanes, tens of thousands of workers could lose their jobs, say the authors of a new report. Roughly 167,000 people are directly employed in Canada’s oil and gas industry, but […]

The post Environmental and Labor Groups Urge Canada to Support Just Transition appeared first on DeSmog.

John Michael McGrath, for TVO, on what we do and don’t know about the latest scary variant B.1.617
Hilda Bastian, in her blog Absolutely Maybe, on the evidence behind the systematic evidence behind all matters COVID. 
David Leonhardt, in The New …

Gideon M-K, in Medium, on whether or not we should be vaccinating kids against the coronavirus (tl;dr – yes) 
Bernie Farber and David Fisman, in The Globe and Mail, on the overlap between racism, hate, and COVID denialists. 
Photo byAnthony …

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on putting an end to all respiratory viruses (not just COVID)
Vishal Khetpal, in Slate, on the collapse of the American medical system.
Jay S. Kaufman, in The New York Times, explains how sick societies trump science and …

On October 5, the Pennsylvania Attorney General unveiled criminal charges against the Mariner East 2 pipeline, a long-distance natural gas pipeline that traverses the state. Stemming from a grand jury investigation, Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced 46 environmental crimes, plus an additional two charges that were referred to his office by the Pennsylvania Department of […]

The post Mariner East 2 Pipeline Charged with 48 Environmental Crimes in Pennsylvania appeared first on DeSmog.

Brooks Fallis, in The Globe and Mail, on how Canada won’t be able to vaccinate itself out of a fourth wave and what we’ll need to do to prevent it. 
Jillian Horton, in The Toronto Star, on Canada’s broken (I’d argue cut) emergency brake and the f…

Rachel Gutman, in The Atlantic, on the timeline and process to see the vaccines approved for kids under 12.
Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in Medium, on how though he hopes he’s wrong, this latest study likely puts a nearly final nail in the coffin of horse …

Arthur Caplan, in The Cancer Letter, on how Nazi analogies (and more specifically Vinay Prasad’s) regarding COVID are imbecilic, ignorant, and dangerous.Marie-Danielle Smith, in MacLeans, with the story of a family of 3 who like all of those we’ve los…

Edward Nirenberg, Daniel A. Freedman, Risa Hoshino, Jonathan Howard, and Alastair McAlpine,  in BMJ Blogs, on vaccinating kids vs. COVID. Anna Merlan, in Vice, on the invermectin conspiracy mongers. Hilda Bastien, in The Atlantic, on wh…

James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the promise of a single coronavirus vaccine which would protect us against SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and every other coronavirus-related disease, forever and ever.
David Robert Grimes, in Scientific American, on how COVI…

Jessica Smith-Cross, in QP Briefing, on Ontario’s (and really everywhere’s) COVID finish line. James Heathers, in The Atlantic, ponders whether or not he received a microchip in his COVID vaccine.
      Related Storie…

On March 21st 2020, the land border between Canada and the United States was closed to non-essential travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that most Canadians and Americans have received two vaccine shots, many wonder when the longest border in the world will reopen? After 15 long months, we finally have an indication of […]

Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]

This week, environmental advocates addressed intensifying fossil fuel pollution, climate injustices, and the Biden administration’s failure to take the lead on climate change solutions during the People vs. Fossil Fuels protests in Washington, D.C. Their goal remains to increase the pressure on the President to declare a climate emergency. The Indigenous-led actions are supported by dozens […]

The post Raising Pressure on Biden, Dozens of Indigenous Activists Occupy Bureau of Indian Affairs and Climate Justice Advocates Decry Gulf ‘Sacrifice Zones’ appeared first on DeSmog.

Nearly £2 trillion is invested in UK pension schemes that are failing to tackle climate change, campaigners have claimed. A review of major pension funds by divestment campaign group Make My Money Matter found 71 of 100 are yet to detail concrete plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The analysis, which used a […]

The post Seven in Ten Major UK Pension Funds Yet To Make ‘Robust’ Net Zero Commitment, Say Campaigners appeared first on DeSmog.

Olivia Goldhill, in STAT, on the race against the next worse variant.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how COVID long haulers are everyone’s problem.
Katherine J. Wu, in The Atlantic, with why you likely need not worry too much about your waning immunity….

Judith Danovitch, in The New York Times, on how masks might help your children to learn.
Lael M. Yonker and Anthony J. Fischer, in Time, on how we can protect unvaccinated kids.
Helen Branswell, in STAT, polled some epidemiologists about what they wer…

An influential think tank with close ties to MPs has hired a head of policy who called the government’s climate policies “socialist” and likened proposed green legislation to a “Soviet Five Year Plan”.  Matthew Lesh, who was head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, this week confirmed he would be taking up a new […]

The post Tory Climate Policies are ‘Socialist’ Says New Head of Policy at Influential Westminster Think Tank appeared first on DeSmog.

Meredith Wadman, in Science, explains what VAERS derived data is, why anti-vaxxers love it, and why it’s wrong to use it as a dataset. 
Jason Markusoff, in MacLean’s, on the disaster that is Alberta and the reason for it – the disaster that is Ja…

Devi Sridhar, in The Guardian, on whether COVID will become a disease of the young. Katelyn Jetelina, in Your Local Epidemiologist, discusses the risk of long COVID even for those who are fully vaccinated. André Picard, in The Globe and Mail…

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how health, including during pandemics, cannot be framed as a matter of individual/personal choice.
Elizabeth Cooney, in STAT, on what we do and don’t know about children COVID long haulers. 
    &…

Kai Kupferschmidt and Gretchen Vogel, in Science, explore the future of vaccines with rare risks of blood clots.Andrew Althouse, in Medscape, on vaccines and the failure of NNTs.John Michael McGrath, in TVO, makes the case for paying people to get vac…

On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]

Jeremy Samuel Faust, Katie Dickerson Mayes and Céline Gounder, in The New York Times, with more on the risk of COVID to kids and how ultimately the choice will be for them to eventually catch it, or get vaccinated. 
Tess McClure, in The Guar…

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on his own substack Kareem.Substack.com with two stories about vaccination and the NBA.
The first on why LeBron is wrong to support hesitancy
And the second on Andrew Wiggins’ whining about getting vaccinated.
   &#1…

The current supply chain of biomass giant Drax “makes the impacts of climate change worse”, a new study has claimed. Analysis by US environmental advocacy group, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), studied the emissions from wood pellets transported from pine plantations in the southeastern United States to be used in a bioenergy, carbon capture […]

The post Drax’s ‘Carbon Negative’ Bioenergy Claims ‘Wildly Exaggerated’, Study Argues appeared first on DeSmog.

Katherine Wu, in The Atlantic, on the next worse variant.
Helen Branswell, in STAT, discusses the Delta tuned realities of vaccination
Omar Mosleh, in the Toronto Star, on why you’re probably not going to get a medical vaccination exemption
 &#16…

The UK’s most prominent climate science denial group has launched a new anti-net zero campaign to oppose the government’s green policies, a move experts dubbed the “latest tactic” from the “same old climate change deniers”, warning the public not to be “fooled” by the rebrand.  The “Net Zero Watch” website was unveiled today with the […]

The post Climate Science Denial Group Rebrands as ‘Net Zero Watch’ appeared first on DeSmog.

More than 25,000 Canadians have been lost to COVID-19 (and terrible governance given the bulk of those deaths were preventable), Macleans is collecting their stories. Please take the time today to click at least a few.
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Katelyn Jetelina, in Your Local Epidemiologist, explains base rate bias by way of Israel, Delta, and 50% of cases being found in those already vaccinated. Diana Duong, in the CMAJ, briefly interviews me regarding obesity, weight bias, and COVID.L…

On the second day of ‘People vs. Fossil Fuels’ demonstrations in Washington, D.C., hundreds marched to the White House, again calling on President Biden to recognize  the world is in a climate emergency and to halt approvals of new fossil fuel projects. More than 150 people were arrested for refusing to clear the sidewalk in […]

The post Indigenous Leaders Deliver Petitions to Army Corps DC Headquarters, After 155 Activists Arrested at The White House appeared first on DeSmog.

Joe Vipond, Kashif Pirzada, and Danielle Cane, in The Toronto Star, on how Canada’s culture of silence around airborne transmission has led to confusion and undoubtedly, to avoidable illness and death.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on the lessons we shoul…

James Heathers, with a rare must read recommendation, in Medium, on how our biggest failing of the pandemic has been keeping it invisible. Ben Collins, in NBC News, on the rapid continuing radicalization of the anti-vaxxer movementCraig Spencer, …

Philip Ball, in Nature, on how the UK’s COVID Freedom Day and dropping of restrictions risks incubating far worse variants that will risk us all. 
Andrew Coyne, in The Globe and Mail, makes the clear case for vaccination mandates in Canada. …

Jonathan Howard, in Science Based Medicine, explores myocarditis and spin with the mRNA vaccines.Katherine J. Wu, in the Atlantic, on how to understand breakthrough infections in the vaccinated. Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in Medium, covers the terri…

For the first time in nearly three years, I woke up a few months ago without felony charges hanging over my head.  I’m an investigative journalist and I’d been arrested twice in 2018, both times for allegedly trespassing on what’s known as “critical infrastructure,” a felony under a then-new Louisiana law that — at the […]

The post I Was Targeted Under Louisiana’s Felony Trespassing Law for Reporting on Police Working for a Pipeline Company appeared first on DeSmog.

Jennifer Yang and Kenyon Wallace, in The Toronto Star, on how cities, provinces and countries awash in vaccines can still mess things up if they’re not cautious with the Delta variant. 
Tavia Grant, in The Globe and Mail, on the need to address ve…