“Now to think that democracy is properly represented when you have elections under a system which gives you a majority of the members from a minority of the electorate is, of course, too absurd for further argument.”
Wind and solar produced more energy in the EU during May than all fossil fuels combined, according to energy think tank Ember. This is the first full month on record where these renewables produced more power - with almost a third of the bloc’s electricity coming from wind and solar. Fossil fuels generated a record low of 27 per cent.
Solar alone generated 14 per cent of the EU’s electricity in May: an all-time high. Even without the summer sun, it overtook coal power for the first time which produced just a tenth of the total last month.
Largest Companies do Little to Limit Climate Change
The vast majority of the world’s biggest companies have done almost nothing in the past five years to cut their planet-heating pollution enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. Large companies are either more likely to contribute to extreme levels of warming or are not disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions at all, according to a new report from ESG Book, seen by CNN.
The leading sustainability data provider found that the efforts of just 22% of the world’s 500 biggest public companies by market value are aligned with the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That’s a measly gain from 18% of firms in 2018.
Major polluters such as Shell and BP (BP) are shifting their focus back to fossil fuel production following a year of bumper profits helped by soaring oil and gas prices.
Maybe we all need to join Extinction Rebellion…
Governments could be handling this properly if they weren’t in the pockets of sociopathic big businesses… and why on earth are democratic governments *subsidizing* the Fossil Fuel Industry?
A plume of Canadian wildfire smoke rapidly darkened the skies over New York City and around the Northeast on Wednesday, making the air dangerous to breathe and disrupting life across the region.
By afternoon, Midtown Manhattan was plunged into a deep hazy orange and smoky clouds obscured visibility across the five boroughs and the region, canceling some flights. Earlier in the day, commuters donned masks used amid the Covid-19 pandemic while walking the streets, children stayed indoors at recess, some schools closed and officials warned people against going outside.
Wildfires - Australia
An estimated 60 billion bugs were lost during the Black Summer bushfires in Australian rainforests and it’s having a major impact on the health of the ecosystem.
Scientists from La Trobe University studied 52 sites in East Gippsland in Victoria and southern NSW that were severely impacted by bushfires in 2019-2020. About 75 per cent of invertebrates visible to the naked eye had disappeared entirely a year after the natural disaster. Rainforests make up just one per cent of all forests in Australia and lead author Professor Heloise Gibb fears up to 120 trillion invertebrates could have been lost across the country.
This is just the beginning of #ClimateChange.
Too bad Prime Minister Trudeau is working do hard to ramp up Canada’s fossil fuel production.
Fans of the Sopranos will remember the “bust out” as a mob tactic in which a business is taken over, loaded up with debt, and driven into the ground, wrecking the lives of the business’s workers, customers and suppliers. When the mafia does this, we call it a bust out; when Wall Street does it, we call it “private equity.”
It used to be that we rarely heard about private equity, but then, as national chains and iconic companies started to vanish, this mysterious financial arrangement popped up with increasing frequency. When a finance bro’s presentation on why Olive Garden needed to be re-orged when viral, there was a lot off snickering about the decline of a tacky business whose value prop was unlimited carbs. But the bro was working for Starboard Value, a hedge fund that specialized in buhying out and killing off companies, pocketing billions while destroying profitable businesses.
My first musical love was folk music, and nobody told its stories better than our own Gordon Lightfoot.
Cover Art: The album was originally titled Sit Down Young Stranger, but when If You Could Read My Mind became a monster hit, they added the little pink sticker until the next pressing when they could rename the album.
As a young pup one of my first forays into the wider world was the bus trip…
My first musical love was folk music, and nobody told its stories better than our own Gordon Lightfoot.
Cover Art: The album was originally titled Sit Down Young Stranger, but when If You Could Read My Mind became a monster hit, they added the little pink sticker until the next pressing when they could rename the album.
As a young pup one of my first forays into the wider world was the bus trip I took to Toronto to see my musical idol, Gordon Lightfoot, live in concert at Massey Hall. And it was fabulous. I’ll always remember Gord’s introduction of one of my favorite songs, “Second Cup of Coffee,” self deprecatingly pointing out his folly in pairing the lyrics of despair with such an upbeat tune. The audience laughed good naturedly, but it was clear we would continue to love the song anyway.
Whether they were songs were about love or heartbreak, ballads about building the railway or laying in wet grass watching a 707 fly home, or maybe a chance to hear Don Quixote rail against injustice at an unsympathetic ocean or agonize as the Yarmouth Castle dies beneath its waves, Lightfoot’s music doesn’t just tell us his stories, he pulls us into them.
It wasn’t only the lyrical words he wove together, it was the sometimes acoustically simple, others orchestrally complex but often breathtakingly beautiful music that swept his lyrics into our minds. And very often our hearts.
Take note of the fingerpicking as Gordon Lightfoot performs his timeless classic, “If You Could Read My Mind.”
Gordon Lightfoot became the soul of the Canadian folk era, but he didn’t just fade away when folk music was relegated to the back pages of the music world. Instead he spread his creativity and passion into whatever genre was appropriate to the work, continuing to craft meticulous lyrics and wrap them in unforgettable melodies.
In the end he forged a musical legacy that became an integral part of the shared culture underpinning the Canadian Identity.
Thank you for sharing your gifts with us, Gordon Lightfoot. Rest well, dear minstrel. You’ve earned it.
My beautiful older sister will always be a part of me.
She was both the worst enemy and greatest friend of my childhood. She was cool, and sometimes my hero,
6 year old Lynda
Of course I wanted to be just like her. Other times I hid quietly in the attic so I wouldn’t feel her wrath of her fists. We had a see-saw relationship throughout our lives.
My beautiful older sister will always be a part of me.
She was both the worst enemy and greatest friend of my childhood. She was cool, and sometimes my hero,
6 year old Lynda
Of course I wanted to be just like her. Other times I hid quietly in the attic so I wouldn’t feel her wrath of her fists. We had a see-saw relationship throughout our lives.
Lynda gave me a home when I needed one, and helped me find my way to “launch” … then was angry with me when I went. As I was finding my own way I had to push her away when she tried to tell me how to live my life,
But later when we were both truly grown up we finally became the friends we might have always been, but for a better childhood.
Lynda had survived the worst childhood by far of any of the original seven because she couldn’t let what was broken alone. She stood up and fought for herself when no one else would. In the process, she taught me the cruelest lesson of my childhood: the only way to live through it was *not* to fight. Lynda was a fighter, and fighting a losing battle. So I learned to swallow my pride & pain & let it slide.
I will always treasure the relationship we had, good and bad, especially the good we had in later life when we finally became the friends we should always have been. By this time I knew I was a fighter too, but I could fight for anyone else, almost never for myself.
Lynda and Poukie
(late 1970s)
When Lynda got sick, at least I knew she was a fighter. I couldn’t believe it when I realized she had chosen *not* to fight. Instead of following medical advice, she decided to put her faith in carrot juice and religion, tantamount to giving up, I was shocked beyond belief. I couldn’t believe it. Then was angry she was giving up, that she was leaving me. I tried so hard to convince Lynda — of all people — that she had to fight for herself. But all I got back was an infuriating Mona Lisa smile. She wouldn’t even fight with me,
It was too soon to lose her. I wasn’t ready. I was afraid to lose my wonderful infuriating big sister.
I am afraid Lynda was just tired. Tired of having to fight. Almost always by herself. For everything. Always.
I couldn’t really accept it the last time I saw her in the hospital, but at least I could let her know I loved her, and she could let me know she forgave me.
I wish so many things had been different. I couldn’t really accept it until after she was gone. I wish I had been different. And I wish I had been able to be a better sister to her. I wish I could have stood up for her when we were young, and most of all, I wish I had been able to get past my anger and fear to be there for her at the end.
![Remembering Gordon Lightfoot Collage [Text] Gordon Lightfoot November 17, 1938 - May 1, 2023 [Photo] Gordon Lightfoot at Interlochen [Pictured] Album Covers • Lightfoot! (1966) • Two Tones at the Village Corner (1962) • The Way I Feel (1967) • Did She Mention My Name? (1968) • Back Here on Earth (1968) • Sunday Concert (1969) • Sit Down Young Stranger (1970) • Summer Side of Life (1971) • Don Quixote (1972) • Old Dan's Records (1972) • Sundown (1974) • Cold On The Shoulder (1975) • Gord's Gold (compilation 1975) • Summertime Dream (1976) • Endless Wire (1978) • Dream Street Rose (1980) • Shadows (1982) • Salute (1983) • Solo (2020) • All Live (2012) • Harmony (2004) • A Painter Passing Through (1998) • East of Midnight 1986) • Waiting For You (1993)](https://laurelrusswurm.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/gordonlightfoot-banner.jpg)
