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Articles by John McGrath

John McGrath is an intinerant student and sometimes reporter currently living in Toronto, Canada. He mainly writes about Canadian and International Politics from an energy and climate perspective

All Articles

  • Neither can we

    I mentioned in a previous post that Canadians might be facing an election soon over the Conservative government's budget. That turned out not to happen (all three opposition parties had to oppose it, and only two did).

    Instead, something much more interesting may happen: The three opposition parties have finalized their much-improved version of a Clean Air Act, with hard targets on CO2 emissions and penalties for those who don't make the necessary cuts. This leaves the government in an uncomfortable position: either accept a bill that they hate, or call an election over it.

    John McGrath Politics

  • Without subsidies, they’re just not profitable

    News breaking from Canada: It turns out that once the government stops subsidizing fossil fuel developments ... fossil fuel developments are increasingly unprofitable!

    Brief summary of the link: It looks like all forms of fossil-fuel development in Canada -- especially the tar sands -- are going to suffer as governments are forced by public pressure to reduce the subsidies and tax breaks they've been doling out. This looks to be equal parts environmental activism and populist "screw the oil barons" attitude, but whatever it is I say huzzah!

    John McGrath Technology

  • Human impacts, Al Gore, and more

    I was fortunate enough last night to hear Tim Flannery -- he of The Weathermakers -- speak here in Toronto to a crowd of businessmen and lawyers. Favorite moment:

    Questioner: Mr. Flannery, do you think or wish that Al Gore should run for President?

    Flannery: He's already done it, and what's more, he won!

    Levity aside, Flannery delivered an excellent talk and specifically explained why, exactly, the atmosphere is so much more vulnerable to human disruption than something like the ocean.

    John McGrath Climate & Energy

  • Seems like a dead end

    Last week, Erik Hoffner posted about H2CAR, a process developed at Purdue University that would allegedly dramatically improve the productivity of coal or biomass gasification by adding hydrogen to the mix.

    I was intrigued by the idea, and read the article. Unfortunately, I think this is a dead end.

    John McGrath Culture