Cameron Roberts
@bikeademic.bsky.social
Sustainability transitions researcher.
I think there's a lot of this stuff that applies to adults driving cars in winter, too! Removing a winter coat while sat in a car requires an act of contortionism. So in most cases you either leave the coat on and overheat in the car, or leave it off and freeze as soon as you get out.
Tom Flood@tomflood.bsky.social · 4w agoputting them in a snowsuit to walk outside and then take off the snowsuit in the car for the car seat was a tragedy we lived for far too long. 🙃🙃
In short, happy “fuck them whales” and “fuck your grandkids” day to all those who celebrate (which is a scary number of Canadians, based on recent polls)
Rachel Gilmore@rachelgilmore.bsky.social · last mo.Carney announces the crude oil pipeline to the West Coast, which will almost certainly drive the orcas there to extinction, is designated in the “national interest.” That means it can bulldoze past environmental laws, impact assessments and Indigenous consultation. He laughs while announcing it.
If the big fossil supports a policy, the policy is bad for the climate. End of. They will never support a policy that destroys their business, which is what we need to do. And no, we can't hoodwink them. They have very smart analysts on payroll. They can predict policy outcomes better than we can.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)@doctorvive.bsky.social · last mo.The Searchlight / Third Way / Data-Center-Supporting Dems are also not explaining why — if the Permitting Reform bill is a "climate bill," as one Searchlight pundit said today — why does the American Petroleum Institute want it so badly? Why? @whitehouse.senate.gov @heinrich.senate.gov
Universities should be safe for everyone. We need change.
YIMBYism is based fundamentally on a good impulse, but via the Abundance movement, its ideas have evolved into something ugly. Just an uncritical, voice demanding "more! more! more!", regardless of consequences. It's become hostile to both the rule of law and to democracy.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)@doctorvive.bsky.social · last mo.None of the cheerleaders of the Permitting Reform bill are talking about the fact that it establishes a 150-day statute of limitations for lawsuits under *any* federal law challenging authorizations for coal, oil, and gas extraction. Forever. 150 days is no time at all.
Back-to-work legislation of any kind is a form of forced labour.
Angella MacEwen@angella.bsky.social · last mo.The Minister is saying there’s nothing in the bill that weakens the right to strike - that’s patently untrue - knowing the federal government will order folks back to work if there is a “social disruption” obliterates the right to strike in the federal sector.
This has always been the problem with carbon dioxide removal. All the best methods (i.e., the ones where nature does some of the work for you) are really hard to count precisely. That's a solveable scientific problem, but the issue is that lawyers and lobbyists often get more say than scientists.
Danny Cullenward@ghgpolicy.org · last mo.The inimitable @mikegrunwald.bsky.social has an exceptionally well written oped on the disastrous proposal from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to give companies carbon credit for cutting down trees.
Brand new #Ottbike experience: Encountering a bear just off the bike path while riding my kid to daycare. It was minding its own business, but I definitely sped up a bit around the next turn.
Threshold alert: renewables are about to pass coal as the No. 1 global source of electricity.
IEA: Global power demand is surging – and renewables are passing coal
Global electricity demand is rising, but booming solar will help renewables overtake coal as the top power source this year, says the IEA.
electrek.co
Is it just me or is vinegar-on-french-fries a dying preference in Canada? More and more restaurants seem to not have it as a condiment. Including very french-fry-forward places like burger joints. I'm thinking of buying a bunch of the little plastic packets to carry with me.
I will never take economics seriously as a discipline until they rescind the fake Nobel Prize they gave Nordhaus.
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)@doctorvive.bsky.social · 4mo agoIt’s hard to pick which William Nordhaus quote makes me the angriest, but this one is definitely up there.
Today on the WTF highlight of the day. You truly cannot wrap your mind around the thought processes of drivers in Toronto. Here's a cabbie driving into a protected bike lane head on with 2 ppl on bikes waiting at a red light. He couldnt use loading dock 50m behind me #cycleTO #bikeTO #waroncars
Chris Smaje's foundational assumption is that the world is headed for an energy crunch. This is why he thinks any long-term solution other than neo-agrarianism is nonviable. A quick look at renewable power deployment numbers knocks this assumption down, and with it goes Smaje's entire worldview.
Dave Barker@woodlanddave.bsky.social · 4mo ago"I want to explain why the world needs saving from the bad ideas of George [Monbiot] and his fellow ecomodernists." via @chrissmaje.bsky.social #Food #Farming #Politics #FoodSecurity #RegenerativeFarming #Groundswell2026 #RegenAg #Localism #PostGrowth #Permaculture #Horticulture
Did you know? Renewables have just overtaken coal as the world's largest source of electricity 34% – global renewable share, up 2x in 20yrs 48% – EU 37% – China 26% – US 24% – India
Hard on the heels of Carney's announcement to shirk goals to reduce climate chaos, an over-heated & moisture-laden atmosphere gleefully made its point by drowning out Canada Day festivities & flooding much of Ottawa. Can you say 'pathetic fallacy'? Our PM missed the demo. Already Alberta bound.
Ottawa receives 118 mm of rain on Canada Day, flooding roads and knocking out power
Mother Nature disrupted Canada’s 159th birthday party in Ottawa, as record rainfall and severe thunderstorms flooded roads, knocked out power across the region and forced the cancellation of Canada Da...
cp24.com
This is the most persuasive graph I've ever seen. The debate it addresses should already have been long over, but this finishes it for good. The CCS people can never come back from this.
Dr. Jonathan Foley@globalecoguy.bsky.social · 4mo agoI especially love this diagram.
It's striking to me that when my wife and I (non-drivers with a baby daughter) arrive at a family gathering, we always just have a lot less stuff than my brother and sister-in-law (drivers with a small dog). I think big trunk space just encourages you to bring more stuff you don't need.
The War on Cars@thewaroncars.bsky.social · 4mo agoHuh. Um. Why? You might as well plan a Betamax renaissance. By 2040, nuclear is going to be priced waaaay out of the market by solar and batteries. There is no way for these 10 new reactors to not be boondoggles.
Energy minister plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040 | CBC News
The federal government is looking to build up to 10 new nuclear reactors over the next 15 years, with at least one of them outside of Ontario.
cbc.ca
Critics of degrowth are completely incapable of being normal about it. This kind of demonising hyperbole is reminiscent of the Red Scare. I don't think it helps their case.
My commute takes me past this scrubby little urban woodland. For the last few years there have been homeless people living there. On cold days you'd see campfires while biking past. The city kicked them out and razed all the trees so they wouldn't come back. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
Cleared encampment near LRT station raises homelessness and addiction support concerns
The clearing last week of an encampment in an area south of Ottawa's Bayview LRT station is being flagged as a worrying symptom of the city's homelessness crisis. The recovery of a large number of nee...
cbc.ca
And, by the same token: Are you sure these one-block trips were all being undertaken by unencumbered, able-bodied people in good weather? I just don't think that this argument against free transit is adequately considering the reasons why people might take a very short free bus trip.
Ignore the liberals who say that the Democrats should support fossil fuels to be popular. They are wrong. According to the latest Yale data, majorities support generating renewable energy on public land. MAJORITIES OPPOSE DRILLING AND MINING FOR FOSSIL FUELS on public land.
This intersects with my research on alternative meats, which I posted a thread about yesterday. One of the biggest current obstacles to replacing meat with much more sustainable alternatives is concerns (which in my view are inflated) that these alternatives are over-processed.
James Ball@jamesrball.com · 6mo agoHot take into the void: "ultra-processed food" is basically the antivaxx conspiracy theory for people who think they're far too well informed to get hooked into anything like antivaxx.
The details of what led to this situation come from multiple points of bad station design. An easy workaround to protect people would be to change the fare gates arrangement. But I guess revenue protection is more important than safety for OCTranspo.
Ottawa Citizen@ottawacitizen.com · 6mo agoOut-of-service elevator leaves mother struggling with stroller and children at Parliament station ottawacitizen.com/news/out-of-...
Have any bike commuters figured out a good solution to the problem of carrying your just-in-case raingear during the day in the warmer months? It has to be easily accessible, including when off the bike. But it also has to be minimally obtrusive, or you'll get annoyed and forget to bring it.
.@chadmbaum.bsky.social and I just published a paper in Global Environmental Change The history of margarine shows it's socially and politically feasible to achieve big environmental benefits with alternative meat & dairy products www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A precedent for the protein transition: Evidence from the history of margarine for the feasibility of transitioning to alternative meat and dairy substitutes
Alternative meat and dairy products made from plants, cultivated cells, and mycoprotein have the potential to radically reduce the environmental footp…
sciencedirect.com
For those who aren't familiar with the Staples Thesis: It's a theory of Canada's political economy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staples... The gist is: We make bulk, low-margin natural resource exports the centrepiece of our economy. This requires expensive infrastructure, which creates debt.
Cameron Roberts@bikeademic.bsky.social · 6mo agoSomething something Staples Thesis.
Something something Staples Thesis.
Angella MacEwen@angella.bsky.social · 6mo agoOK, so this is not a sovereign wealth fund, it's just a variation on the failed Canada Infrastructure Bank model where public money 'de-risks' private capital in order to 'catalyze' investment - www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRYa...