Keystone Pipeline: To Build or Not to Build

An interesting new report is out from the US state department about the Keystone XL pipeline, a proposed oil pipeline running from Canada’s tar sands to the United States. Key to the report is this line in particular:

Project is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development of the tar sands, or on the amount of heavy crude oil refined in the Gulf Coast area.

This may have some interesting implications for the question of whether or not the pipeline ought to be built. Let’s discuss them.

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The Ethical Standing of Animals

Over the last couple of weeks I have found myself engaged three times in discussions about the ethical standing of the animal. In the first instance, the question was one of vegetarianism, the second was one of animal testing, and the third was of the validity of antihumanism, specifically the notion that human beings should diminish both in number and in environmental impact for the benefit of animals. It seems that the animal liberation movement grows stronger and more politically relevant, so it is time to evaluate its central proposition–that animals are non-human persons with the same ethical standing to that of human beings. To answer this question, we must investigate what precisely it means to be a person.

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The Daily Mail, Global Warming, and Disinformation

Recently, an article appeared in the British newspaper Daily Mail alleging that global warming stopped 16 years ago. Of course, my first instinct was to recall that this is the Daily Mail we’re talking about, and they’re not exactly reputable:

But leaving aside for the moment the Daily Mail‘s reputation for inaccuracy, let us examine the evidence they claim they have from the British Meteorological Office, discover if this is true or not, and the implications of that truth or lack thereof are.

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Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Recently, I was asked to comment on the debate over state investment in infrastructure, specifically the role that high speed rail has to play. Today I’d like to investigate to what extent high speed rail is a viable option in developed countries as a means of expanding and improving the transportation network and the economy more broadly, comparing it to added investment in airport infrastructure or highway infrastructure.

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