Return of the CanUK

[Return of the CanUK]

My Coronation Tale (or “Why is David wearing tails?”)

Though I ended up spending most of my life in the UK, I don’t have strong feelings about the monarchy one way or the other, so I hadn’t given any real thought to whether I should do anything coronation-related until this morning, when the commemorative artillery barrage began to rattle my windows (those cannons are surprisingly loud!) But the more I thought about it at that moment, the more it seemed to me that fate was drawing me in to the day’s events… And it all started with my tails.

Being a singer, I have worn a tux dozens of times, but though I have had a set of tails for decades I have probably worn them no more than two or three times. What occasions call for them, after all? Well, as it turns out, a coronation celebration is one of the few legitimate opportunities. Then as I pondered this I remembered how it is I came to have tails at all. I had inherited them from my grandfather. And why did he have them? Because he needed them to go to the Queen’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace - something I remember him being inordinately proud of.

Moreover, as it happens, I had just moved to my new home, a 19th C merchant’s mansion less than 500m from the Lieutenant Governor’s residence. So I donned the tails and strolled next door.

I wasn’t able to take advantage of the L-G’s kind invitation to drop in and watch the ceremony, but I did step in and sign the guest book on behalf of my grandfather, who I like to think would have been pleased. And a security guard was kind enough to provide me with the commemorative stuff!

If this has whetted an appetite for quirky stories from Newfoundland about their interactions with the royal family, I heartily recommend this episode from the comic memoirs of one of our local legends, Mark Critch, recalling the visit of Charles and Diana to the city in 1983.

Royal Visit 5 | Son of a Critch | CBC Gem

A coming-of-age story set in St. John’s, Newfoundland of 11 year-old Mark, much older on the inside than his 11 years, who uses comedy to wi

gem.cbc.ca

[Return of the CanUK]

Will the climate run AMOC?

I have been taking a (free) @effectivealtruism course and reading The Precipice by a leading EA longtermist thinker. It tends to minimize the possibility that climate change might be an existential risk. I also just listened to an interesting episode of the Clearer Thinking podcast on this issue, where Misha Glouberman was suggesting the projections he was able to find tended to class the consequences of high end climate change as bad but essentially manageable. So in light of the recent release of the latest IPCC “Synthesis Report” summary, I thought I would take a look and see for myself if anything new and alarming there about the more extreme climate risks. Unfortunately, I did…

Something I always thought of as a “long tail” climate risk (in 2014 it was deemed “very unlikely” by the IPCC) has turned into a roughly 50% risk by 2100 in the latest report. I guess this may be old news to dedicated climate change followers but it was news to me…

Specifically, the IPCC now estimates the odds are roughly 50/50 that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) - which includes the Gulf Stream - will collapse before 2100 (pp 19-20). If that happened, an MIT Technology Review AMOC summary suggests,

it could freeze the far north of Europe, driving down average winter temperatures by more than 10 °C. It might cut crop production and incomes across the continent as much of the land becomes cooler and drier. Sea levels could rise as much as a foot on the Eastern Seaboard, flooding homes and businesses up and down the coast. And the summer monsoons over major parts of Africa and Asia might weaken, raising the odds of droughts and famines that could leave untold numbers without adequate food or water.

Back in 2014, the IPCC also said (p. 1079)

Large CH4 release to the atmosphere [due to accelerated emissions of CH4 from wetlands, permafrost, and ocean hydrates during this century is unlikely [0=33%] (WGI AR5 Section 6.4.7.3). Owing to such uncertainties, the existence of a tipping point cannot be ascertained.

Am waiting nervously to find out whether they are officially still not that worried about that potential disaster.

[Return of the CanUK]

My climate conundrum

My own personal climate crisis hits home… I am trying to live by my values and trim my carbon footprint as much as I can. I have not flown this year, driving twice to Ontario in my EV instead. But I put my travel and home data into the CoolClimate calculator which is tailored to North American domestic calculations (and endorsed by The Economist) and was pretty horrified at what came out. If it’s close to accurate I emit seven times the average person on the globe - and that average includes all emissions in each country including industry.

https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions#per-capita-co2-emissions

The big, unsurprising takeaway is that my oil furnace (even given I already use it as little as I can) is by far the easiest remaining thing for me to improve. And now I am looking at new houses…

I like older houses and a personal bonus to me would be that they typically also are heated by oil so I could take an oil boiler out of circulation. But the one I am currently looking at has a boiler that’s almost brand new! If I insulated better and maybe put some mini-splits in that would probably make much more economic sense than killing off the oil furnace completely. But keeping it would still feel bad! I am currently researching my options….

Parenthetically, we are still allowing developers to build new housing and other buildings in this province with oil burning furnaces, which I find pretty abhorrent - I wonder what proportion are still doing so?

[Return of the CanUK]

A little bit of awful that says so much about the world today

ALT

There’s so much that’s obviously terrible about the way the world is and the way it’s headed that like many I have chosen to pick my battles and not to get too caught up in it all. But I was really struck by an almost throw-away comment in a discussion about how the poor are suffering the increasing heatwaves in India that I felt shows how even those who want to help can fail to acknowledge the casual cruelties in the global system.

Of course the big picture (wealthy nations failing to help much poorer ones develop sustainably and using developing world pollution to excuse their own inaction) is terrible enough, but it’s this exchange that really hit me…

The Inquiry - Is India becoming too hot to live in? - BBC Sounds

How is India’s heatwave threatening health and livelihoods?

BBC

Listen from 14:05:

Presenter: “There are other ways that poorer people are more exposed to suffering. Those with jobs are more likely to benefit from air conditioning. But people who spend the day outside simply have to stop work.”

Dr Chandni Singh (Indian Institute for Human Settlements): Kerala has a labour code which says people should not be working outdoors in the hottest times - in the afternoon…

Yes, indeed it does have such a law preventing outside labouring from noon to 3pm, Feb to April in response to rising heatstroke. In normal times, the maximum temperature in those months is 33C/91F and even at night the minimum temperature is 25. And it’s humid - the humidex in those months is 50 (!)

Dr Singh: … “while these kind of strategies are helpful, maybe some safety nets also have to be provided…”

Me nodding along… Sure - if people in dire poverty can’t safely work, it does mean governments will have to find ways to boost transfers so they can still afford to feed themselves and their families

“… maybe when people are working on construction sites there are shaded places for them to cool down, provision of water, things like that might help rather than telling people to not work at all.”

I mean… even if it’s not the hottest part of the day, maybe employers should already have to provide water and shaded places for workers to cool down. But the BBC presenter didn’t seem at all thrown by this response. So I thought perhaps this Dr Singh was some kind of radical free market libertarian economist. But no - she appears to be on the side of the angels on this one. She writes IPCC reports. She writes impassioned New York Times editorials like this one.

Opinion | Spring Never Came to India This Year

In a rapidly warming world, the ability to cool and stay indoors is the real divider.

nytimes.com

That’s what still bothers me. Imagine spending long days in construction work, largely by hand, in scorching temperatures, without an air conditioned home or mall to return to.

The law demands your employer give you a break in the hottest part of the day, but he won’t pay you for it and you can’t live without the extra income. You turn to a social scientist for help… and recognizing that you’ll never get more money out of the government or your boss, they promise they’ll try to get the law repealed and get you some more water to drink while you work yourself to death. It’s the best they can do.

[Return of the CanUK]

11:30 I went out. 11:50 I thought “I should be done in a few more minutes…” (top picture) Second picture taken 13:00 - no breaks taken I might add! I also thought I was nearly done then. But when I backed out I couldn’t turn fast enough to get around the snowbank on the L and was still stuck. I finally got out at… 14:30! At least it was warm in the sun (well, NL winter warm, around -4). Took off my hat, coat and gloves!

[Return of the CanUK]

Newfoundland - where the wild winds blow…

[Return of the CanUK]

garbagepoems.com

The Garbage Poems – Anna Swanson

Poems transcribed from garbage found at a swimming hole in Flatrock Newfoundland by local writer (and impassioned swimmer) Anna Swanson

Stop what you are doing now and go visit this simple but great website of simple but great poetry . Then use the same words to make your own poem!

[Return of the CanUK]

A pair of things I spotted on the same day which made me wonder about St Johns’ sexy side. Firstly, I did not realise that a well-known strip joint downtown is housed in a historic building that was once the Sisters of Mercy Catholic School for Girls. Secondly, I wondered whether it was wise to have burlesque performances in your college graduation fashion show. Wouldn’t it distract from the clothes?

[Return of the CanUK]

[oldtimeystjohnsscifi]

Rebels stop the last AT-AT in the Battle of Quidi Vidi, 1940

[Return of the CanUK]

The cheapest available red wine in our state-owned monopoly alcohol retailer (= $13.6/£8 with tax). I remember one could get some kind of wine back in the UK for the equivalent of $5. Which is why I switched to beer when I got here.