[PHOTO] Spadina looking south, Toronto

[LINK] "An unspoken option if climate talks fail: Geoengineering"

The Dragon's Tales linked to Seth Borenstein's Associated Press article arguing that geoengineering may yet be necessary.

It's the option climate negotiators here are loath to talk about.

What if they fail to curb global warming and the environment gets so dangerous that someone decides to do something drastic and play mad scientist? Should nations purposely pollute the planet to try to counteract man-made warming and cool the world? Scientists are pretty sure they can do it, but should they?

The issue is called geoengineering — purposely tinkering with the planet as opposed to the unintentional warming that's happening now. The most talked about and advanced method involves putting heat-reflecting particles high in the air, but there also have been proposals to seed clouds other ways, put mirrors in space and seed the oceans with iron.

Scientists noticed a temporary but pronounced cooling after the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. What's in mind would be, essentially, an artificial and constant man-made volcano with material released by aircraft or cannons.

No one is talking about doing it — yet. But some scientists want to study it to find about side effects and other issues. And earlier this year, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said small-scale and controlled experiments could be helpful to inform future decisions.

[LINK] "From China to Europe without Russia?"

Someone on my Facebook feed shared an article, at Intersection by Vladislav Inozemtsev, suggesting that Russia may well find itself excluded from various trans-Eurasian transport links by virtue of its lack of preparedness.

In early December, Russian and foreign press published the first mention of a new transport route linking China and Europe which has just come into operation. The partners of the project: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey have offered Chinese industrialists express deliveries of goods to the EU by rail in 8-12 days. On December 12, the first train arrived in Tbilisi from Lianyungang: the train cars which had covered approximately 2,500 km across the territory of Kazakhstan were loaded onto a ferry in Aktau, delivered to Baku before continuing their journey to Georgia along the so-called ‘Iron Silk Road’. Obviously, one train does not make a summer. However, every project, even the largest, starts with a small step.

How efficient the new route will turn out to be and how cost-effective transportation along the route is, remains to be seen. Perhaps, it will suffer the fate of a similar project by Deutsche Bahn and Russian Railways which attempted to offer clients relatively swift (within 16 days) transportation of containers from Beijing to Hamburg along the Trans-Siberian Corridor in January 2008; the experiment was discontinued in 2009 due to unprofitability (hardly surprising, given the start of the crisis). It may turn out that the new project proves its viability. However, no matter what its fate will be, certain vital issues should be tackled today.

The most significant issue is that the new project has served as something of a ‘wake-up call’ for Russia. It is a well-known fact that Moscow has long dreamt of turning Russia into a transit corridor between China and Europe. JSC ‘Russian Railways’ officially launched a project aimed at ‘modernization’ of the Trans-Siberian Railway and BAM (the Baikal-Amur Mainline) in 2014, to which 900 billion rubles was earmarked to be spent over the coming years (I guess, the amount will have to be revisited and increased). The objective was to increase the throughput of the entire Trans-Siberian corridor to 115 million tons of cargo a year, of which up to 10% would be transit. However, let me reiterate, the demand for transit was initially low primarily because transport businesses focused on production in the north-eastern and eastern regions of China which have good seaport infrastructure. Moreover, the length of the route – approximately 9,700 km from let’s say Harbin to Berlin - meant that transportation was extremely expensive and was thereby only suitable for certain, specific types of goods shipments.

Aware of the problem, Russian leaders also offered support to another transit project – the ‘Western China-Western Europe’ highway from Xinjiang to Kazakhstan and then via Martuk towards Orenburg and Ulyanovsk to Moscow and Smolensk and on to Poland via Belarus. Officials claimed that this route had a distinct advantage: throughout the entire journey a container crosses only two borders: that of the Customs Union in Khorgos and that of the EU in Terespol (which was supposed to ensure the promptness of deliveries). However, a problem transpired from the very outset: while Kazakhstan has almost finished laying its section of the highway which is almost 2,400 km long (I will not even mention the Chinese), the Russian partners’ activity has been limited to presenting mock-up models of the planned road in Beijing for all these years and has done nothing in terms of work on the ground. Now, according to the most optimistic estimates, the Central Ring Road will be completed in 2020 at the earliest whereas the road running from the Kazakh border will, by all accounts, only be ‘modernized’ (that is, in fact, it will remain in its present shape: unsuitable for large-scale international transit).

[LINK] "To Fix China, Look to Korea"

Bloomberg View's Michael Schuman suggests that China should look towards South Korea, to find an example of how to deal with uncompetitive state-linked conglomerates.

Earlier this week, markets made clear how little they think of China's attempts to revamp the giant, state-owned companies that dominate its economy. After the government approved the merger of two massive shipping groups, two of their listed subsidiaries swiftly shed more than $850 million in value on Monday. Investors appear to appreciate something the regime doesn't: Simply tweaking the structure of state-owned enterprises -- professionalizing their management, inviting in private investors and merging lossmaking companies -- isn't going to transform them into world-beaters.

If Chinese leaders want proof, they need look no further than neighboring South Korea. Twenty years ago, Korea had similar problems with its biggest companies as China does today. While the family-managed conglomerates known as chaebols weren't owned by the state, the financial community in Seoul widely believed they were “too big to fail” and would always be supported by the government. As a result, a few large companies were able to suck up the economy’s financial resources no matter how poor their performance, how high their debt or how silly their business plans. Though conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG dreamed of becoming innovative enough to compete head-to-head with rivals from the U.S. and Japan, their products were considered second-rate -- and earned the low prices to match that reputation.

Today, the chaebols have grown into the national champions China wants its SOEs to become. Samsung is the largest smartphone brand in the world. Hyundai cars are known for quality. LG has a buffed image in appliances and electronics.

The key was breaking the triangle between government, banking and corporations. During the high-growth period in Korea, the close networks among the nation’s top policymakers, chaebol chiefs and major bankers propelled stellar growth rates by funneling credit to favored industries, thus creating the conditions for high investment. But by the 1990s, that system had begun to work against the economy. Gorged with easy money, chaebols never had to become truly competitive. Managers, free from oversight by bankers or the demands of profitability, wasted funds on uneconomic projects while starving potentially more productive and innovative parts of the economy of resources.

[LINK] "A Million to None: The U.K.’s Last Coal Miners Stop Work Today"

Bloomberg's Thomas Biesheuvel notes that today is literally the last day of the United Kingdom's coal industry.

A hundred years ago more than a million men made their living digging coal from deep beneath U.K. soil. As of today there will be none.

Britain’s last underground coal mine closes on Friday, calling time on an industry that helped propel the U.K. to superpower status in the 19th century. While the underground coal mining industry has been defying a final death since Margaret Thatcher’s assault in the 1980s, a collapse in coal prices and the accelerating fight against climate change has pushed them over the edge.

Kellingley Colliery, near Leeds in West Yorkshire, will close today, following the July closure of Thoresby in Nottinghamshire. The U.K. coal industry will now consist of a handful of opencast mines that will produce about 8 million tons of the fuel a year. U.K. output hit a record 292 million tons in 1913.

While coal has been mined in the U.K. since before the Roman invasion, the industry really took off during the industrial revolution. By the dawn of the 20th century there were more than 3,000 deep mines, stretching from South Wales to Yorkshire.

[LINK] "How Yahoo!’s Identity Crisis Infected Tumblr"

Bloomberg's Joshua Brustein suggests that Yahoo has made a mess of its acquisition of Tumblr.

When Marissa Mayer announced in May 2013 that Yahoo! was buying Tumblr, she immediately swore “not to screw it up.” Yahoo's chief executive officer was seeking to dispel fears that the company would suck all the life out of Tumblr in an attempt to increase its financial value. Instead, Yahoo seems to have left the site alone and somehow squandered much of Tumblr’s financial value in the process.

Yahoo paid $1.1 billion for Tumblr, the biggest acquisition in Mayer’s shopping spree for dozens of startups. As has been endlessly repeated, Wall Street values Yahoo’s core business at negative $8 billion. (You get this number by taking the full value of Yahoo shares and subtracting its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan.) In this light, it’s hard to see many bright spots. Yahoo’s struggles to capitalize on Tumblr’s potential offer a window into what has gone wrong with the company as a whole.

“If there’s a knock on Yahoo, it’s that they haven’t made the decision to say ‘Who are we?’ and how that’s articulated,” said Noah Mallin, a senior partner at MEC, a media agency that regularly works with the company. “There’s a bit of that to be seen in Tumblr as well.”

When Yahoo came knocking, Tumblr was at a crossroads. It was a small company that was growing fast without a clear vision of how to turn its vast audience into a viable business. David Karp, its then 26-year-old co-founder, faced hard decisions about hiring business-minded executives and making money from the audience he had amassed. Yahoo promised to take on those responsibilities. It also said it would leave Karp and his team alone. That offer, paired with huge paydays for Tumblr’s early employees and investors, was too tempting to pass up. Tumblr declined to comment.

[LINK] "Nunavut shrimp interests say Thailand slave-labour stock 'taints' entire industry"

CBC News' Sima Sahar Zerehi notes how Nunavut's nascent shrimp fisheries are trying to make a bid for market share in the aftermath of revelations of the use of slave labour by Thai fishers.

Slave workers in factories are reportedly behind Thailand's shrimp industry, yet many restaurants and grocery stores in Canada carry this shrimp stock instead of the shrimp harvested by Nunavut's Inuit-owned sustainable fisheries.

A feature story this week by The Associated Press paints a disturbing picture of how victims of human trafficking have been used to fuel Thailand's shrimp industry, which provides peeled shrimp to many American and Canadian restaurant and supermarket chains.
"It's unfortunate because it taints the entire shrimp industry," said Chris Flanagan of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition (BFC). "Any seafood that is harvested under these kinds of conditions should not be imported into Canada."

With four vessels that fish for shrimp and turbot, the BFC is the largest harvester of shrimp in Canada's North. Half of all BFC employees are Inuit.

"I would just advise anyone who's buying shrimp, especially if it's wholesalers or restaurants, to be sure they know where it's coming from," said Flanagan.

[LINK] "The Salvation Army Still Hates Gays"

Toronto queer writer reiterates that the Salvation Army, despite whatever good it might have achieved in the past, is still deeply homophobic.

The Salvation Army has been in damage control mode this year, trying to convince the world that the evangelical religious organization is not actually anti-gay.

This is absolutely false. Not only that, it also sweeps a significant anti-LGBTQ history under the rug without taking any accountability for it or making any public apology.

Many of us do annual reminders on social media, urging our friends and followers to not to donate to the Salvation Army and instead boycott the bell-ringers in favour of the many inclusive charities and community organizations that do not openly discriminate against LGBTQ people.

[. . .]

Remember the Salvation Army is a quasi-militaristic Methodist Church, consisting of soldiers and officers known as Salvationists. The Army’s lengthy history of anti-LGBT political maneuvering and discrimination is well documented.

The most glaring example is a 2012 interview on an Australian radio station, when Andrew Craibe, the Salvation Army’s Media Director in Australia, said gay people should be “put to death”.

[LINK] "Shaw to keep Wind Mobile a discount mobile carrier"

The Toronto Star's Vince Salotta reports on the acquisition of Wind by Shaw Communications. As a long-time Wind subscriber, I will definitely be watching things.

Shaw Communications says it will preserve the “value proposition” of Wind Mobile’s cell phone packages following its $1.6 billion takeover of the Toronto-based carrier.

But while Shaw said pricing will remain discounted, it also signaled plans to eventually narrow the gap between Wind and the big three providers Rogers, Telus and Bell.

“This is a winning strategy that’s been created, and our plan is to continue on that winning strategy,” Shaw’s chief operating officer Jay Mehr said after unveiling the deal late Wednesday.

Telecom consultant Iain Grant of the Seaboard Group said Wind will continue to be the go-to brand for value-conscious consumers.

Wind’s network is due for an upgrade, he said, “but until then, it is ideal for those that have other uses for their hard earned money than paying Canada’s incumbent carriers.”

Grant added that Shaw’s goal of increasing Wind’s average revenue per user can be met by adding elements of the Shaw portfolio such as Internet or cable services to a Wind subscription.

[URBAN NOTE] "The Beaver Wars & Toronto in the 1600s"

Spacing Toronto's Adam Bunch looks at how the location of Toronto was drawn into the brutal Beaver Wars in the 1680s, as New France and the Iroquois came into direct conflict.

1687. A year of war and famine on the shores of Lake Ontario. That summer, on a night in early July, an army camped near the mouth of the Rouge River, at the very eastern edge of what’s now the city of Toronto. A few thousand men — professional soldiers from France, militia from Québec and their First Nations allies — feasted on venison before bed. They were tired, finally heading home at the end of a bloody campaign against the Seneca.

Their war was driven by a fashion trend. Far on the other side of the Atlantic, in the cobblestone capitals of Europe, hats made of beaver felt were all the rage. The demand had already driven European beavers to the brink of extinction. Now, the furriers turned to the Americas to feed their ravenous sartorial appetite. The competition over the slaughter of the large, aquatic rodents plunged the Great Lakes into more than a century of bloodshed and violence. By the end of the 1600s, a series of conflicts had been raging for decades on end. Thousands of warriors fought bloody battles over control of the fur trade. They called them the Beaver Wars.

This was long before the city of Toronto was founded, long before the British conquered Québec, all the way back in the days when the French still claimed the Great Lakes for themselves. As far as they were concerned, this was New France. But barely any Europeans had ever set foot on this land: only a few early explorers, fur traders and missionaries. Where skyscrapers and condo towers now reach into the clouds, there was an ancient forest of towering oak and pine, home to moose, wolves and bears. But there were plenty of people here, too — just not French ones: the First Nations and their ancestors had been living here for thousands and thousands of years.

In the late 1600s, the Seneca had two bustling villages within the borders of today’s Toronto, with dozens of longhouses surrounded by vast fields of golden maize. In the west, Teiaiagon watched over the Humber River at the spot where Baby Point is now (just a bit north of Bloor Street and Old Mill Station). In the east, Ganatsekwyagon had a commanding view over the Rouge.

They were both very important places. The Humber and the Rouge were at the southern end of a vital fur trade route: the Toronto Carrying Place trail, which gave our city its name. The rivers stretched north from Lake Ontario toward Lake Simcoe. From there, fur traders could reach the Upper Great Lakes, where the beaver population was still doing relatively well. Now that the Seneca controlled the Toronto Carrying Place, they could ship beaver pelts south into the American colonies and sell them to their British allies.

[LINK] "Farewell to Nova Scotia"

Facebook's Michael linked to this essay by Allison, a long-time Nova Scotian and Haligonian, who is leaving for Toronto shortly because of the problems of her home city.

This is the city where I co-chaired then chaired the Active Transportation Advisory Committee, the city whose food feels like a full body experience, the city where I went to school, the city where I gained skills outside the classroom, the city where I got my first job, then my second, then another… where I spent that money in local shops, the city that I was always happy to come back to, the city where I started my little family, the city where I met amazing people who did amazing things, the city where I poured countless hours a week into volunteering for people and things who could help me stay in this city, the city that helped me bring visions to life, the city that has helped me so much, the city that I helped whenever I could.

I fought really hard for what we needed to stay in Halifax. I saved my money, I got the best job I could, I worked a second in my spare time. I started interviewing for the next contract before the current one ended. I cobbled together a happy life here that is great, but entirely unsustainable if I ever want my little family to be any bigger. If you’re doing okay in Halifax, you can have the best brunch you’ll ever taste every weekend but you can’t have a baby.

I worked a very short contract in Toronto this past fall. My first weekend, I walked across the entire city, as my step counter can quantify. I got bagels, I got dumplings, I saw friends, and at 7 in the evening, just as I was about to go home, I took the bus to High Park to see the sunset, because I had a transit pass, and I saw the bus coming, and the bus said High Park, and I knew that another bus home would just show up.

In Halifax, there is so much greatness but also so much to consider for every single action. 25 years in this city have made me an exceptional planner, mastering a transit system that is neither consistent nor logical, preparing for work that won’t last, finding new best friends every year because no one stays. In Halifax it's hard to be present; if you're not thinking ahead it's your fault for not being prepared.

Halifax, it is breaking my heart and my identity to leave. I know what happens when people leave. I know we turn against them, we say it was their problem, not ours, we pretend they just had to try harder. I’m not saying that if situations change I won’t be back, I’m just saying it’s looking harder than it makes sense for me to admit to myself. I took my love for this city and made it a series of verbs that I practiced every day to try to stay here.

One thing is, Halifax is probably the best-off city in the Maritimes. If it can't retain people, what community in the area can?

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• blogTO notes that all TTC streetcars will support Presto by the end of the year.


• Crooked Timber continues its examination of Piketty's thoughts on inequality and social justice.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on German surveillance of Germany's allies.


• Joe. My. God. notes the support of the Pope for the anti-gay marriage movement in Slovenia.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the fundamental economic problems with law school.


• Marginal Revolution notes that genetic testing may be coming to the business floor.


• The Russian Demographics Blog maps population change in Poland over 2002-2011.


• Strange Maps shares a map predicting the liklelihood of white Christmases in the continental United States.


• Torontoist notes the need not to forget non-heterosexual Syrian refugees.


• Window on Eurasia looks at continued Russian emigration from Tuva.