Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have sued Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, accusing it of using features that hook children to its platforms even as it claims its sites are safe for young people. According to Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, “Just like Big Tobacco
Continue readingTag: industry
Views from the Beltline: Oil industry disappoints (but doesn’t surprise)
Once upon a time I toiled in the oil patch and it was good to me. I worked for Shell Canada and the royal pectin paid well, provided excellent benefits and training, and offered ample opportunities for advancement. I made lifelong friends and was proud to be helping folks heat
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Expert sees need for improved viewscape policy in Municipal Forest Reserve
Originally published by sixmountains.ca As North Cowichan embarks on a public consultation on the future of the 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve — better known as Six Mountains — one of the key issues Read more…
Continue readingThings Are Good: Shipping Industry Finally Delivers on Climate Change
When climate conferences occur and parties sign on to legal agreements like the Paris Agreement some industries are excluded. Historically aviation and shipping have been left out from many climate change agreements which has resulted in both industries being behind the times, inefficient, and down right bad for the planet.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Morocco Leads in Cutting Subsidies to Oil and Gas Industries
Oil and gas companies get a ton of subsidies from governments which holds back the adoption of renewable energy. In most countries, the gas industry is supported by policies encourage car use and other related infrastructure decisions. Sometimes, like in Morocco, fuel is directly subsidized and recently the country found
Continue readingIlluminated By Street Lamps: Ontario: A leading jurisdiction for intense, coercive neoliberalism
By Joe Fantauzzi@jjfantauzzi Global capitalism has liberalized incrementally since the end of the Second World War. As the Keynesian welfare state fell out of favour in the late 1970s amid a stagnating economy and rising government spending, a new business-friendly approach dubbed neoliberalism (literally, “new liberalism”), emerged and ushered in
Continue readingIlluminated By Street Lamps: The Toronto G20 Summit: A State of Exception
By Joe Fantauzzi@jjfantauzziBetween June 26 and 27, 2010, thousands of demonstrators[1] descended on Toronto, Ontario to protest while the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies[2] met behind a protective fence built of steel and secretive legislative authority. When the tear gas cleared and the G20 Summit ended, 1,105 people had been
Continue readingIlluminated By Street Lamps: In Brampton, Few Recorded Development Votes After Developers Contribute To Political War Chests
By Joe Fantauzzi@jjfantauzzi Key Findings: – The development industry is clearly engaged in the political process at Brampton City Hall. – 233 development companies and development-affiliated individuals were publicly disclosed to have contributed money to Brampton candidates in the 2010 municipal election. – Of those 233 developer donors, 48 were
Continue reading350 or bust: Trust & Vulnerability: A New Business Model For Music Industry?
For TED Talk Tuesday on 350orbust, Amanda Palmer shares a revolutionary way to approach the music business. Paradigms are shifting all over the place, folks!
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Conservatives Bad At Selling Out
What’s worse than oil companies spending millions to buy off politicians? Oil companies getting them for free. The oil sector is vital to Canada’s economy, but so are a lot of industries and you don’t see them drafting government policy. From the CBC: A letter obtained by Greenpeace through access
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Being Conservative With Business Is Bad Business
Turns out Conservatives can’t grow businesses liberally. Go figure.
Since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister the World Bank reports that Canada has fallen from the 4th most business friendly nation to the 17th.
Data shows that not only has Canada …
Continue readingIlluminated By Street Lamps: ‘Winners’ And Losers In Quebec Asbestos Mess
Photo: Vsmith/Wikipedia Support for Canadian chrysotile asbestos is dead. First point, this: Canada should have gotten out of the asbestos game a long time ago.All asbestos causes cancer. We won’t use it. And, we’ve been out of step with our European friends.But now, the inconvenient rub.With apparently no clear plan about
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Cry Wolf: A Canadian Unethical Oil Story
Cry Wolf: An Unethical Oil Story (via Desmogblog) Over the last several years, Alberta has killed more than 500 wolves using aerial sharpshooters and poisoned bait in order to conceal the impact of rapid industrial development on Canada’s iconic woodland caribou. Independent scientists say that declining caribou health stems chiefly
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fuel Economy Standards To Save U.S. Consumers Billions, Create Jobs, Yet Republicans Say Too Expensive
fuel economy standards.jpg A proposed rule by the Obama Administration to raise fuel economy standards for cars and “light-trucks” is facing mounting attacks by Republican lawmakers. The proposed rule would require all newly manufactured automobiles that fall under the car or light truck category to achieve a minimum gas mileage
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Keystone XL Pipeline To Take Center Stage At Republican National Convention
money-pipeline.jpg Over the next few days, Republican lawmakers, Party officials, delegates, and supporters will gather in Tampa, Florida for the Republican National Convention. During their weeklong convention, we can expect to hear a lot of debunked talking points, particularly about the need to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. For more
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Industry Paying Off Scientists For "Unbiased" Safety Studies
science-and-money.jpg As a whole, Americans have an unfortunate tendency to distrust scientists. The number of those who distrust science and scientists is skewed heavily by ideology, with self-identified “conservatives” overwhelmingly saying that they don’t trust science. DeSmogBlog’s own Chris Mooney has spent an enormous amount of time and energy devoted
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republican Ohio Governor Kasich’s Trillion Dollar Shale Gas Lie
kasichshrug2.jpg About the only positive thing you can say about industry-funded astroturf groups is that they at least base their misinformation campaigns on phony “studies” and “reports.” Their lies are based on SOMETHING. The same cannot be said of Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has come up with a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What To Expect When You’re Electing: Mitt Romney’s Energy Advisors
Romney and Bush.jpg In the last few months, the press has been drawing a lot of parallels between presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Republican President George W. Bush. And they have plenty of reasons for doing so. Romney has already tapped many of the same Bush economic
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republican Senator Scott Brown Suffering From "Subsidy Amnesia"
Scott-Brown-Campaign-SMS-Marketing1.jpeg With a straight face, Republican Senator Scott Brown told a crowd in Massachusetts this week that “oil companies don’t get subsidies” from the federal government. Brown tells us that, just like other companies, they are able to “take deductions,” but nothing more. The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) was
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Industry Sues EPA Over Clean Air Initiatives
smoke-stack1.jpg In a blatant insult to the millions of Americans who would breathe easier under the EPA’s air pollution controls, the dirty energy industry, along with other groups, has sued the EPA to stop regulating toxic industrial air pollution. The Center for American Progress has the story: Two essential Environmental
Continue reading