Unvaccinated invited to Christmas, ‘tis the season to be parched, and technology not arriving on Santa’s sleigh to save us
You may not want to read this post today
Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating the Christian religious holiday. To everyone else who is just enjoying some time off with family, may the day be peaceful and filled with love.
To those who do not get a designated holiday off for their own religious celebration, my hope is that one day soon we’ll provide flexibility for people to substitute the holiday according to their personal beliefs.
We are long way from that though. I’ve personally argued for this flexibility for someone in my workplace and was unsuccessful, sadly. I’m still upset about it. It’s a clear example of systemic racism that no one wants to talk about.
Ironically, I’m writing this in a year that shows how easy this would be to introduce in practical terms. With the two statutory holidays falling on a weekend this year, many of us 9-5’ers receive two days off to take at a later date of our choosing. The argument that this type of alternative approach isn’t possible in any other calendar year, is absurd.
Just a bit of a warning before I continue. What follows is not a cheerful, holiday message. So if you’re not up for a dose of reality on Christmas day, it might be good to wait until tomorrow to read this.
I may be the first Substack newsletter writer to tell you NOT to read their newsletter. This is not exactly best practices! I care about my readers, so wanted you to know ahead of the rest of this post…other than a short bit of bicycle news at the end, it is not overly cheerful!
Where to begin with the last few weeks of irrationality…
Faced with the skyrocketing spread of Omicron, the Alberta government decided to bet everything on reports the variant may lead to “milder” illness than previous strains. They’re not alone in this kind of reckless approach, but it’s worth noting they may have again outdone themselves with some of their recent actions.
Just a reminder of where we are right now:
Even though the number of occupied ICU beds has been declining since around Oct. 20, we are still well above the baseline number of beds occupied. The strain on healthcare workers continues to be immense, layered on top of a pre-existing shortage of nurses that began long before the pandemic.
The trend, if it continues as shown above, is that a plateauing, followed by a relaxation of restrictions, usually results in another spike. And this was evident even before Omicron, which has a super-charged infection rate even among vaccinated people.
More people sick combined with even a small percentage of serious illness, will continue to put pressure on the healthcare system. Not to mention the impacts on people with non-Covid related illnesses who continue to be put at risk by the shortage of available beds and the cancellation of surgeries.
So, faced with this scenario, let’s look at the government response:
On Dec. 15 the government announced at long last they were making rapid test kits (five tests in each kit) available to everyone for at-home use. The rapid tests were expanded for more schools and “for vulnerable populations.”
Also announced on Dec. 15 was the availability of vaccine booster shots to those over the age of 50 and health care workers.
Then, they announced they were EXPANDING the limits on number of households gathering and removing the distinction between unvaccinated and vaccinated attendees.
Almost immediately, problems with the distribution of the test kits surfaced. Hundreds of people went to pharmacy locations to pick up their kits and found they had either never been received or were already completely gone.
This led, of course, to criticism of the decision to limit booster shots to those over 50. Many people had previously had those booster shots freely available (for those travelling, etc.) so this was ultimately, a new limit on booster shot eligibility when the opposite should have been the case. Although, that fact did not stop Health Minister Jason Copping from claiming they were “expanding access.”
The invitation to unvaccinated people to gather over Christmas is almost beyond belief, but things were about to get even more unbelievable. Please read on…
On Dec. 21 the government reversed its decision to limit the vaccine booster shots and opened them up to everyone over the age of 18. It took them almost a full week, with Omicron numbers growing exponentially in the meantime, to realize their mistake.
They also announced new measures around social gatherings on the same day, asking people to reduce their social contacts by 50 per cent. This is effectively impossible to enforce and I’m sure they knew it.
For venues, the new measures called for a 50 per cent capacity limit for venues over 1,000 people. Smaller venues (500 or less) where air circulation is probably more of an issue, saw no changes in the rules. Covid is airborne but the Alberta government is still focused on the number of people only.
That day will also go down in history as the day the government prohibited “interactive activities” at restaurants, pubs and bars. You know, like dancing, darts and billiards (all of which could be done while wearing masks). But eating in, which involves taking off masks and increasing your risk, can continue as before.
The nonsense also continued with the return of a limit in liquor service past 11 p.m. and a forced closure at midnight. Because we all know that Omicron isn’t as much of a problem before 11 p.m. That’s when things really get out of hand (sarcasm).
Finally, there was this: “Albertans should also refrain from workplace social gatherings.”
And the rest is history, as they say. That very evening, more than 200 UCP members gathered in Edmonton for their annual Christmas party, the workplace social gathering of my personal nightmares.
Then, when we thought things could not get any worse… Just before Christmas, on Dec. 23, the Health Minister gave all Albertans a special gift. He announced that UNVACCINATED healthcare workers would be invited back to work, as long as they have an approved negative COVID-19 test no more than 48 hours before each of their shifts.
Observers quickly noted that Alberta Health Services, which operates as an arms-length agency but reports to the provincial ministry, characterized the decision as one made by “the Alberta government.”
Indeed, it doesn’t appear to be a decision based on science or protecting public health. Particularly since the government still is not providing adequate personal protective equipment to healthcare workers. If those unvaccinated people are exposed to and infected with COVID-19, the result could be devastating. We’ll have to wait and see how many of the 1,400 take them up on the offer, and what the outcome will be.
The rationale for the decision is beyond my understanding. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where this provides a huge relief workforce and even if it did, it would likely be shortlived with the spread of Omicron. It’s more likely to ADD to the number of cases and possibly lead to more hospitalizations given the health outcomes in the unvaccinated tend to be more severe.
Then, there’s the message this sends to the vaccine-hesitant people who have all along believed the shot is unnecessary. This seems to lend credence to their position, further undermining the government’s own messaging about the importance of vaccination.
We’ve seen this before though. I’ve written many times since the pandemic about how Kenney and the UCP keep stepping on the rake, slamming themselves in the face with contradictory messages and actions.
If anything is consistent with this government, it’s the ability to continually undermine itself.
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How is everyone feeling about our government’s ability to respond to the biggest threat we face -- climate crisis -- based on the response to the pandemic?
Yeah. Me too. Not very good at all.
Water scarcity, lakes drying up, and the dangers of technocentrism
A report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) warns that water stress and scarcity will affect 2-4 billion people, over half the planet in the coming years.
The Manila Times is reporting on Christmas day that “if this trend continues, the scarcity and associated water quality problems will lead to competition and conflicts among water users.”
The UNCCD is calling for better land management to prevent worsening food insecurity and water shortages.
"Extreme events, including both droughts and floods are on the rise. With more land projected to get drier and more and more people living in drylands in the future, the discussions centered on the shift more than 60 countries are making from "reactive" response to droughts and floods to "proactive" planning and risk management designed to build resilience."
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A recent study by the International Atomic Energy Agency has found that about one-fifth of the water flowing into lakes around the world is lost to evaporation and about 10 per cent of Earth’s lakes show extreme evaporative losses – more than 40 per cent of total inflow.
The research published in Nature Communications shows many lakes just don’t have the resilience needed to compensate for increased evaporation due to the rising temperatures due to global warming.
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Headline writers are the bane of my existence and this headline in Fast Company is one that is giving me heartburn.
“This tech uses seawater to fight climate change—and stops another ocean disaster in the process” is the claim at the top of a story under the sub-head of “World Changing Ideas.”
The new technology purportedly helps the ocean remove CO2 from the atmosphere and make the water less acidic. The calamity this is supposed to “stop” is a serious threat. The oceans are absorbing so much extra carbon dioxide that they’re becoming dangerously acidic and harming marine life, to say the least of the damage that is being done.
This bombastic headline doesn’t remotely match with reality. The novel carbon sequestration process is being designed to boost the natural bicarbonate in seawater but interrupt the normal acidity that is created.
The company has just announced its first customer and studies on the impacts of the technology on marine life have yet to be completed. The company expects it to be “beneficial, not harmful.”
The company says it also sees no impediments to scaling up production. It’s a private company incorporated in 2021 by three guys in California with some seed funding. Admirable effort and idea but hyped to the maximum by Fast Company’s headline writer.
While it’s a promising technology, the habit we have in sensationalizing the impact of each incremental bit of inventiveness can be more harmful than helpful. The root problem is that we can’t keep dumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere unfettered. Using the ocean to grab more of it through an experimental new application of electrochemistry is not going to “stop another ocean disaster.”
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but we have to get grounded in reality to tackle the climate crisis. I should mention this is a magazine founded by a billionaire who owns four homes, a 166 foot yacht and a private jet, and yet criticized former President Obama for spending too much on healthcare.
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In contrast, NBC News had a report today about a city in central India where a water crisis had been looming. Authorities in the ancient city revived a 400-year-old underground water harvesting system to help connect households to a functioning water tap.
“The network is built in a way that it does not require power to maintain the water flow but is done through gravity and air pressure. Rainwater from hills is collected and flows in underground channels, which are connected to 102 wells.”
This is an example of traditional knowledge being put to use to help combat the effects of climate change, something Canada needs to take more seriously.
Less “technocentrism” – the fallacy of referring all questions to technology – and more respect for Indigenous solutions, please.
Thunder Bay’s Santa Claus on a bicycle
This guy has been dressing up as Santa and towing a fully decorated wagon every Christmas for 18 years but prefers to remain anonymous. He actually starts early in December and continues riding (and cheering people up) until Christmas eve.
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In case you missed it, I’m focusing the newsletter lately on some recurring themes and issues of personal importance – climate change, anti-racism, truth and reconciliation, wealth inequality, LGBTQ2S+ rights, harm reduction, democracy, education and the pandemic. Just a few of the lighter topics. :-)
For my paid subscribers, I’ll continue to provide insights into topics I’m researching and writing about for other venues, including my freelance work focused on energy and environmental news.
Coming soon will be behind-the-scenes info on the bitcoin mining surge in Alberta, which I’ve been researching over the last two months.
I’ll also share more personal writing on history, politics in Canada and my past career working in the oil sands as a PR person (yes, regrets will figure prominently).
For those of you tired of the usual crackling fireplace video for your Christmas relaxation, here’s an alternative video to try out: