kar0ling

I open a lot of emails, skim the alarmed subject lines and the paragraphs denouncing the action government is either taking or failing to take, then click to sign the letter they have drafted to send. Sometimes I add my own spice (as is amply demonstrated on this blog).  This time they were inviting me to submit a letter to the editor to several publications instead, so here I go! It's fairly off-the-cuff so I highly doubt it'll be published anywhere, but if Stand for Earth is right that 60% of people in Canada don't want a publicly funded pipeline (depressingly low when you think about it; but I suspect most of the other 40% just don't even understand what's at stake or care to even try to understand), then we need our media to start reflecting that in their reporting. If some letters to the editor help newspapers gauge public sentiment to guide their reporting, then I hope this adds to the weight of opinion in a good way.  Prime Minister Carney says we can'...

Glitchy products that never do what they say are bad enough, and then they add genocide into the mix. But what real options are there to Microsoft? Another (adapted) form letter from Stand for earth. Write your own here You’ve trapped us all into being forced to use MS for word processing since you simply drove all the competition out of the marketplace with injust business practices. The least you can do it not lie to us about your supposed commitments to green energy sourcing.  I was disgusted to hear Microsoft struck a 20 year deal with Chevron to supply massive amounts of polluting methane gas for a data centre in Texas. Microsoft used to pretend to have climate commitments by setting goals far off in the future so you could keep kicking the can down the road and never meeting them. But now you're not even pretending to try, Now it’s pursuit of ecological disaster through unnecessary AI data centres nobody even wants to use.  I’m asking: please start listening to the commu...

It’s just so ludicrous that we’d be sending any public money to fossil fuel extraction. It doesn’t even make financial sense with major Asian markets ramping up solar and wind. And that's beyond the known climate change consequences of continued extraction.   So, another adapted form letter, thanks to Stand for earth.  Write your own here I am writing to urge you to reject any investment, financing, or de-risking of new LNG projects in Canada. I am sick and tired of public money flowing to subsidize fossil fuel extraction.  It does not benefit ordinary Canadians.  It is known to contribute to global warming – the effects of which we are already feeling with a huge increase in disastrous climate events which are costly and harmful. It doesn’t even make financial sense because the market is drying up. The rest of the world is smart enough to switch to renewables.  You are continuing to dehumanize Indigenous peoples by running roughshod over their territory a...

  “We’ve increased support for municipalities year after year because we know strong communities depend on reliable, stable and predictable funding increases,” Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard said in an emailed statement to the Free Press Tuesday. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/06/23/winnipeg-transit-needs-funding-boost-additional-staff-to-follow-new-provincial-accessibility-regulations-city-report This in answer to City of Winnipeg chair of Public Works Janice Lukes plea for the province to cough up money for the needed upgrades. Listen carefully because these are words I won't often say: I gotta agree with Lukes on this one. If the province is handing down new standards, given their higher capacity for raising revenues, they ought to help the city fund meeting said standards. What Simard fails to acknowledge is that those "year after year" funding increases started at the bottom basement after Conservative cuts and likely h...

We don’t need another pipeline, but Mark Carney doesn’t seem to agree. The Liberal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, that announces plans for a new Alberta to BC pipeline with construction to begin as early as next fall. Leadnow hopes that if we create an immediate public outcry, we can empower Liberal MPs to stand with us in opposition to this pipeline and create an internal party fracture that Carney cannot ignore. I added a few spicy bits and sent a letter. Will you send one too? Ms Dabrusin, there is no patience left for your excuses and deflections. I am writing to demand that you stand up against the proposed Alberta to BC pipeline. At a time when we need to be transitioning to a clean economy, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith's MOU is moving us in the wrong direction. I am asking you to represent real people, stand up to Big Oil, and do everything in your power to stop this disastrous proposal. There is not i...

A letter to the Manitoba government on their ludicrous plan. I can't remember where I found the template which I adjusted with my own comments, but it was probably from the Climate Action Team. Check out their resources for advocacy for a better energy future for Manitoba.  Climate Action Team Dear Premier, minister of the environment and minister of finance  I am writing today to voice my utter horror regarding your government’s recent announcement of plans to build a new, $3 billion fossil gas power plant. Could it get any more wrong at this moment? Building new fossil fuel infrastructure that will fuel the climate crisis and keep us reliant on imported fossil gas from Alberta for decades to come is unacceptable. You haven't even tried to supplement our energy with solar, wind, heat pumps and district heat, to say nothing of improving efficiency so we simply need less. My main concerns with this project are: It expands fossil fuel use during an era of climate emergenc...

Oddly, CEO banker Mark Carney was actually aware of the dangers of fossil fuels and was tentatively in favour of the green energy transition and industry paying damage fees on their extraction. But as CEO of Canada (he is NOT acting like a Prime Minister but as a business leader), he's forgotten all of it and is full speed ahead on raking in corporate profits while Canadians suffer in every way.   See Narwhal article How Mark Carney is complicating Canada’s climate progress Here's my latest adapted form letter to ask for better. Sign your own here. 350 [dot] org: No Pipelines Dear Prime Minister Carney, The science is clear. Burning fossil fuels is cooking our planet. You said yourself that the “vast majority of reserves are unburnable” over a decade ago. It's not just words on a page: we are seeing this with our own eyes, experiencing it with our own bodies.  Since you opined that we oughtn't be burning the reserves, it has nevertheless continued, and the dire...

This just makes no sense, folks. That's one thing I added to the Climate Action Team's letter to the Manitoba government.  According to a friend's back of the envelop math -- so of course it's possible something is missing/miscalculated/misunderstood -- for only about $1 billion, the government could subsidize insulating homes to a degree that would reduce energy demand to the degree this plans to scale it up. Add to that the fact that clean energy's star is rising as fast as fossil fuel's is tanking ( Check out Max Fawcett's piece in Canada's National Observer ), and it's impossible not to conclude the decision makers are either intentionally idiotic and ill-informed or maliciously pursuing interests that have to do with enormous short term financial gain and zero benefit to the general population.  So, take a look at this letter and please send a version of it yourself.  Send your own letter Thanks, Climate Action Team Manitoba !  I am writing toda...

Our oh-so-popular and oh-so-duplicitous premier is at it again. Basking in an undeserved reputation of being progressive and caring about climate, he's about to introduce fossil fuel power to our renewably resourced province. Likely to build world-destroying (in so many ways) data centres.  Meanwhile, for a lower investment of millions, the amount of power set to be generated could be saved simply by properly insulating thousands of houses and reducing energy consumption.  To say nothing of the fact that, relative to the “supply” available, we haven't even begun to use solar and wind power.  Thank you to the Climate Action Team of Manitoba who is resisting, educating, and offering alternatives.  Read more: New Provincial Fossil Gas-Fired Power Plant Contradicts Climate Commitments, Misses Opportunities And adapt and write your own letter as I did: Send a letter I am writing today to voice my strong concern regarding your government’s decision to build a new $3 ...

...but sent anyway. I discovered the link to this message languishing in my inbox long after the budget had been voted on but I still wanted to get my voice out on this subject.  This message is too late, I know. The budget has passed -- because our silly system forces budgets to be nonconfidence votes, which is the exact opposite of collaboration and negotiation, which is how budgets should be approached by all parties seeking the best for Canadians -- and I didn't get this message to you in time to urge you to vote it down.  But budgets are always a plan not a fait accompli, so I'm writing anyway, in hopes there is the possibility to alter course.  I am alarmed by the federal budget tabled by the Carney government. The corporate handouts, vast expansion of military spending, and outright attacks on public services will hurt everyday people and put more public money in the hands of corporations and billionaires (who, in case you aren't following why that's a problem, ...

Carney's budget sounds like a plan to destroy Canada, not to build it.  There is no future in oil and gas – and Carney knows it. Canadians by and large oppose this, which is why he wants to bypass their input. Stop it. We clearly voted *against* the politics of the Orange Man to the south. Why then is that exactly what Carney is giving us? Here’s what Environmental Defence Canada says: Bill C-5: Climate Action  is  Nation Building!  Building up Canada as a strong nation means being a strong climate leader, not backpedalling on progress in favour of polluting industries.  Yet that’s what our federal government is at risk of doing in response to Trump’s attacks. The Prime Minister has committed to making Canada an ‘energy superpower,’ but what does that  really  mean?  The rushed  Building Canada Act  or Bill C-5 gives the federal government sweeping power to fast-track mega-projects of ‘national interest’ without environmental re...

 Just a short personal insertion in this form letter from LeadNow. Sign your own message here To Mr Carney & the finance minister  I am deeply concerned about Prime Minister Carney’s upcoming “generational budget”, which has been described as an austerity budget that will require “sacrifices.” Let’s take a moment to ask who are we NOT asking to sacrifice: those who can best afford it and who bear the greatest responsibility for bringing climate change around our ears.  Enough! We can’t sacrifice our planet. The real route to a resilient economy isn’t more fossil fuel infrastructure and climate regulation rollbacks — it’s investing in people and clean energy. It looks like a 100% renewable East–West power grid, and fair taxes from mega-corporations. I believe that investments in the public good are what make Canada strong — which is why I’m convinced that in the face of Trump’s tariffs, we must prioritize spending in the 2025 budget that puts people a...

Dear Winnipeg elected officials  The North East ride of the Bike to the Future series was supposed to be today, but it was  cancelled because of unsafe air quality.  These rides are meant to raise awareness about the climate crisis, yet the crisis itself has shut these rides down twice this year. If the air isn’t even safe to bike in, how can we keep ignoring the need for urgent change? We can't keep making things worse.  Cancelled bike rides may not seem like a reason to install more lanes but in fact it is: we must reduce car dependency. We must have alternatives. There must be safe and easy walking, biking, and transit choices.  This is a time for courage, not compromise.  Instead of delaying plans for one crucial bike lane, we should be roaring ahead on implementation of multiple active transit projects, no matter how much drivers complain.  When will the elected representatives of Winnipeg make decisions appropriate to the level of crisis we ...

Dear Premier Wab Kinew  The wildfires are terrifying. Not because they’ve been anywhere near me, but because they are evidence the climate scientists have been right all along, and a hellish future of floods, fires and famines awaits us sooner than we think. And we’re just idling our cars with our "gas tax holiday" full tanks. I was extremely disappointed to hear you briefly discuss the fires with Marcy on CBC the other morning and mention in passing the huge expense of purchasing more fire bombers, but not the reason we need them (climate change) and certainly not your failure to show any leadership on climate (pausing pollution pricing instead of embracing its potential). Manitoba is a wonderful province and it has so much potential but we need to do so much better. And that leadership needs to come from the top. Manitobans need massive mode shift – and it’s going to take all levels of government to fund public transit within cities, between cities and increases of acti...

A letter to the premier dashed off very quickly without much re-thinking or even re-reading because then I would just pause and never send it. The minister of environment told a member of a citizen lobby group I'm connected with to “hold us accountable” and that hearing from people face to face or phone or personal email is better than form letters. So here goes... The wildfires are terrifying. Not because they've been anywhere near me, but because they are evidence the climate scientists have been right all along, and a hellish future of floods, fires and famines awaits us sooner than we think. And we're just idling our cars with our “gas tax holiday” full tanks. I was extremely disappointed to hear you briefly discuss the fires with Marcy on CBC the other morning and mention in passing the huge expense of purchasing more fire bombers, but not the reason we need them (climate change) and certainly not your failure to show any leadership on climate (pausing pollutio...

—Presented at a CAWG event in Altona— In Living More with Less , Doris Janzen Longacre shares a story about envelopes from Marie Moyer, a missionary in India, who was studying Hindi with Panditji. Marie writes: “From his philosophic mind, which probed the meaning of events and circumstances, I learned more than Hindi.” Just before her teacher’s arrival one day before Christmas, she’d received and opened a pile of Christmas cards and discarded the envelopes as he walked in the room. She writes: “He sat down soberly and studied the situation, then he solemnly scolded me: ‘the reverberation of this wasteful act will be felt around the world’.” Marie was stunned. “What do you mean?” she asked him. “Those envelopes,” he said, pointing to the wastebasket. “You could write on the inside of them.” “Chagrined”, Marie apologized and rescued the envelopes with the help of Panditji, who “caressed each one” as he pulled it out of the garbage. This forever changed Marie’s relationship to pape...