How-Sen Chong
@how-sen.com
Toronto urban environmentalist. 20+ years in climate activism. ADHDer. Fancy degrees from McGill and Yale. Posts my own. Energy and transit should be free and plentiful. Cars should be an option, not a necessity. https://how-sen.com/link
YouTube has become unwatchable. When I was a kid, there were about 3 commercial breaks in a 30 minute program. On YouTube these days I’m getting a commercial every two minutes. And now I know why thanks to @doctorow.pluralistic.net’s #enshittification
London’s emergency calls were higher during the June heatwave than they were during the pandemic.
London's heatwave 999 call-outs higher than in pandemic
In the June heatwave, the London Ambulance Service says it receives more than 53,000 emergency calls.
bbc.com
Sometimes I think about how many people fossil-fuel air pollution sickens and kills every year - some 5-10% of all human deaths, depending on the study - and how this alone is ample reason to phase out fossil fuels, without considering climate change at all. We have the alternatives ready to go.
John Hanger@jrfhanger.bsky.social · 3d agoEVs save lives...262,000 and counting just in China! Internal Combustion Engine autos burn oil and cause pollution that globally sickens and kills millions. China's electrification of heavy-duty trucks will cut diesel burning and save many more lives. electrek.co/2026/06/08/c... #energysky.
$34 million in climate funding for 128 communities is $265,000 per community. Meanwhile, the federal government and Alberta will together spend around *$40 billion* on yet another fossil fuel pipeline.
Federal government announces $34M to help communities cope with climate change
In all, 128 communities across Canada will receive funding for various climate resilience projects.
thestar.com
You should support @ttcriders.bsky.social
TTCriders@ttcriders.bsky.social · 5d agoDedicated transit lanes on Dufferin and Bathurst have proven their worth, delivering 12-18% faster rides. Transit lanes work - time to roll out the red paint (and other measures to speed-up transit) across the rest of Toronto!
Renewables are affordable because they don’t need fuel. So affordable that electricity is being provided for free in the UK and Australia. We need to stop burning stuff for energy! www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
They get free power to run air conditioning and charge EVs. Here’s what Canada can learn from the global push for free electricity
Australia and the U.K. have more solar and wind power than their electrical systems know what to do with — so they’re giving it away.
thestar.com
There are places in the world, including parts of Australia and the UK, where electricity is being given away for free because unlike oil and gas, renewable energy does not need to burn fuel for every Watt it produces. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
They get free power to run air conditioning and charge EVs. Here’s what Canada can learn from the global push for free electricity
Australia and the U.K. have more solar and wind power than their electrical systems know what to do with — so they’re giving it away.
thestar.com
A neighbourhood commercial street that prioritizes cars driving quickly through it isn’t a street that prioritizes commerce.
A BMW-sponsored team at Clemson University just built a car that *gathers more energy than it uses*. Energy is one of the most plentiful substances in the universe. Only the greed of fossil fuel companies locking us into more oil and gas makes energy expensive. news.clemson.edu/clemson-univ...
Clemson University unveils Deep Orange 17, a solar-integrated, energy-positive electric vehicle
Clemson University has unveiled Deep Orange 17, a solar-integrated, energy-positive electric vehicle prototype designed to generate more energy than it consumes during a typical day of urban commuting...
news.clemson.edu
Exxon: “Carbon capture and storage is great! We love carbon capture and storage” Also Exxon: “No! Don’t force us to do carbon capture and storage! We sue you!” CCS is a scam to make oil and gas companies look good so they can keep burning up our planet.
Doug Parr@dougparr.bsky.social · last wk.Exxon is annoyed EU is insisting on some kind of CO2 capture Makes most sense if you think oil company advocacy for CCS is more about pretending to politicians they have an answer for climate change, rather than their actual willingness to do anything about it giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 for proving that cultures around the world have found solutions long ago to Garrett Hardin’s ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ that don’t involve Privatizing Absolutely Everything.
Erik Nordman@eriknordman.bsky.social · last wk.🎂Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom was born on this day in 1933! Ostrom was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on "collaborative governance, especially the commons." She showed how communities of users could work together to sustain their shared resources. 1/9
When you get a job in government, does someone just knock you over the head with a bat until you start coming up with ways to improve the bottom line of the oil and gas industry, or what
Mark Carney Advisor Says AI Data Centres ‘Provide Markets’ For Gas
Boosting energy production is one of the top ‘public policy benefits to Canada’ of data centres, internal Privy Council document explains.
desmog.com
One of the reasons I find impressionist paintings fasinating is because they paint the pollution of the time. The ‘hazy pink and purple winter fog’ of this 1897 Pissarro painting is almost certainly pollution from all the coal being used to heat buildings in Paris. @agotoronto.bsky.social
Why is so much corporate money being dumped into AI, which no one asked for; and not for a fossil-free economy, which everybody needs?!!?
Right now there is: - Major flooding in Niagara region - Major flooding around Montreal and in the Laurentians - BC wildfire smoke spreading into Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley We need #climateaction now.
Few make me seethe more than nearly every workplace in the world insisting that the only way to be ‘professional’ is to dress like they’re living in London’s climate circa 1900.
Can employees wear shorts and T-shirts to the office in summer?
Here's what employers can do when summer heat clashes with workplace dress code expectations.
thestar.com
One data centre proposed for Toronto would use over 50MW of electricity. That’s as much energy as 50,000 homes or every home in East York. Too many data centres could lead to unsustainable emissions, water use, and electricity prices. We need a pause on new approvals to set some ground rules.
Toronto Environmental Alliance@toenviro.bsky.social · 2w agoAI data centres around the world are using up too much energy & water. Toronto needs to pause approvals of new large data centres until their full impacts are known. Read our letter to Council here: https://loom.ly/2HIVMD8
“60 percent of the people getting hit are older — boomers and seniors — even though they make up only 14 percent of the population.”
Walking While Old Is Killing a Lot More Pedestrians Than Walking While Distracted
There are all kinds of distracted and compromised people in our roads. Some of them cannot help it.
treehugger.com
AI companies are buying up rare books and slicing off their spines in the millions.
AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books
If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.
news.com.au
FACT: Cars crash into buildings so frequently that in the U.S. a vehicle collides with a 7-11 convenience more than once a day.
The Don River used to be so toxic that it literally caught fire on more than one occasion.
Michèle Champagne@michelechampagne.com · 3w agoDesign work is now under way “for the nearby community and housing development, with the first residents expected by 2031 ... ‘We have changed our relationship to the Don River and the city,’ says Glaisek. ‘I hope that this will be a model for more positive development in Toronto’.”
This is the real reason. There is no business case for commercial jets at Billy Bishop because the infrastructure around the airport can’t handle the traffic of people. But the infrastructure *can* handle it if each jet flying from there holds just a handful of people instead of hundreds.
Andrew Lewis FC@andrewlewisfc.bsky.social · 3w agoThe "jets at Toronto Island Airport" zombie idea rises from the dead every decade or so b/c Toronto CEOs, hedgies, other plutocrats, & their political enablers, want to fly THEIR OWN PRIVATE JETS from & to downtown, not b/c there's a business case or any popular demand. @shawnmicallef.bsky.social
As someone who’s used Billy Bishop Airport several times, I have to say this: It would be much better if it were a park.
HUGE NEWS. This shows that sharp campaigning and strong public pressure works!! Let’s keep coming together to bring about the city that we all deserve!
Federal government grounds Billy Bishop airport expansion
The just-concluded public survey suggested strong public opposition to the project, according to a federal government official.
thestar.com
*One quarter* of Toronto’s total landmass are roads and streets. And that doesn’t account for all the private space for cars like driveways and parking lots.
Oh The Urbanity!@ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 4w agoThere’s a lot of space for greenery on our streets if you just reallocate a bit from cars.
Fossil fuel corporations keep getting billions of dollars in public money so they can keep profiting from selling us natural gas and gasoline (that’s also burning up the planet.) Where are the billions in subsidies for the rest of us save money by getting us off oil and gas?
I was interviewed in @thestar.com about the wildfire smoke today. “The unfortunate reality is that this extreme weather and wildfire smoke is not natural. It is man-made. It is a result of decades of burning natural gas, gasoline, coal, burning garbage… …we need to stop burning things for energy.”
Toronto turns orange under a sky choked by Ontario wildfire smoke: ‘Is this the apocalypse?’
The city had the worst air quality in the world on Wednesday, prompting health warnings and event cancellations. About 200 wildfires are burning in northwestern Ontario where First Nations communities...
thestar.com
