The Arctic is Hot

This year, Canada has experienced high average temperatures, especially in the Arctic. If the trend continues, it will be one of the hottest on record since 1850, just behind 1998 and 2005. We have to take caution here not to fall into the trap that so many do. Some people would take this and say, "temperatures are lower now than in 1998." But the reality is that it's the overall trend that matters and temperature has been increasing since the industrial age.

It's very important to make sure the Arctic doesn't melt along with its permafrost. Inside the permafrost there are gas bubbles composed of methane. This will do much more to raise temperatures than carbon dioxide. We should commit to reducing our emissions and preventing ourselves from sliding down a slippery slope.

In a report released Thursday at the climate summit in Cancun, the United Nations agency said the global average temperature in 2010 was tracking to be one of the three warmest since readings began to be taken in 1850, just behind 1998 and 2005.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Related articles

• Siberia's Climate Time Bomb: Thawing Permafrost Could Spell Disaster (huffingtonpost.com)
• 2010 to be among three warmest years, UN says (calgaryherald.com)

Snakes on Bus

Fares are going to be raised in Montreal once again. It won't be a lot, but they have been raised non-stop since 2002 at three times the rate of inflation. The one thing an outside analyst proposed when he examined our transit system was to get more money from advertising. Some people propose renaming stations or metro lines, but I think that's going too far. The STM's plan to have companies sponsor lines in exchange for a small logo on maps should be examined, but there's another option that hasn't really been discussed.

Full-body advertisements on buses like this one in Copenhagen would bring in a lot more money. This money saved could go towards improvements so that we would not need to pay as much for them. I've seen a few of these types of advertisements, but not many. I'd like to see more and save more. In other news, vote for the design of the new Montreal metro cars.

The Copenhagen ad agency, working for the city zoo, took “very high res pictures” of all sides of a “normal city bus” and melded them with a picture of a very large boa constrictor, said Schack.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Montreal transit fares going up: mayor (cbc.ca)

Quebecor Soldiers

Norman Spector wrote today about whether the journalists working for Quebecor their "soldiers" or not, whether they would take an unbiased view against everything. In one anecdote, it was one journalist's boss who was forced to do write articles in the commercial interests of Quebecor. If this is so, then we should be ready to accept the same things from Sun TV News. It will be biased and it will serve the commercial interests of it and its boss Piere Karl Peladeau.

At that point, his JdeM colleagues advised him to “choose his fights carefully and to make pretend.” And he did just that by pretending to phone the protagonists, and later to tell his editors that he’d come up with nothing….

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Related articles

• Quebecor gets go-ahead for Sun TV News channel (thestar.com)
• CRTC approves Quebecor's application to launch Sun TV News (nationalpost.com)

Bush tax cuts up for debate.

Obama old plan was to extend tax cuts for the people making 250,000 or less, but the Republicans want to keep the tax rate for everyone. Now it seems that middle class tax payers aren't going to have to worry about a tax increase considering that there seems to be a general consesses, but what I find confusing is that the Republicans want to spend billions on Bush tax cuts for the rich, and want to cut spending on what some Tea party cadidate calls useless. Like spending money on education, science, Uneployment benifits, Health care, Social security. When will they realize that in order to make the country reduce it's enormouse deficit you need to actually stop all Bush era taxes, stop corporation loopholes, make minor cuts and make reforms like a real uneviresal health care and a national Phramacare system. With Republicans in the house and having major fillibuster power in the senate non of this is going to get done, and I can see in 2012 some Republican candidate saying that Obama didn't cut enough. The U.S looks right now very hard to fix, but I still remain hopeful that at some time taxes will eventually rise for everyone, and better now than at a point when taxes will need to rise just to pay off the intrest on the debt.

Limits on CSIS are Good

I agree with Ignatieff when he says that the limits put on CSIS when combatting terrorism. These agencies should not be able to invade our personal freedoms. The intelligence agency should not be able to do all it wants. If there were no limits, CSIS would probably torture people for information and listen in to our private conversations. Ignatieff is right about this one. Our freedom must be protected and that's why there are so many limits on what CSIS can do.

“I’ll just say this: I’m proud of our Charter, I’m proud of our courts. I’m proud of the fact that there are limits on what agencies and our government can do,” Ignatieff said. “That’s always been our position. We’re a country of freedom. We’re a country of democracy.”

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Ex-CSIS head slams courts in U.S. memo: WikiLeaks (nationalpost.com)
• WikiLeaks: CSIS 'vigorously harassing' Hezbollah members (theglobeandmail.com)
• CSIS ex-chief slams courts, Canadians: WikiLeaks (cbc.ca)