I am currently working on a novel and this month also taking part in a 10-day writing competition so this edition will not be quite as timely as it usually is.
And it will also be my last.
After 82 editions of producing this independently, and years worth as part of my Comms career, I am putting it to rest. It is time consuming to get it right and and I have other projects I want to focus on. My short stories from songs turned out well and I want to focus on fiction now.
So, for one final time:
We crossbreed cattle, crops, and flowers to come up with more hardy stock or new varieties. Trying it with coral may help endangered reefs around the world and that is where we’ll start this final edition.
First a quick primer on coral. Despite what they look like in a picture or video, they are living marine invertebrates. They grow together in colonies and can be either a soft coral or a hard coral and when the hard coral colonies come together, they form a coral reef. Each of those little polyps you see in an image of a coral reef has a body, mouth, and stinging tentacles to capture food. These coral reefs are important for protecting coastlines and are key habitats for 25% of all marine life. The are sometime referred to as the “rainforest of the sea”. As climate change warms oceans, coral becomes too weak to compete with other marine life and they eventually die. They are also being killed off by pollution, human caused physical changes, and from sewage released into coastal waters or runoff filled with agricultural fertilizers. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said last year that 44% of reef building coral are on its Red List of Threatened Species.
Different types of coral live in different ecosystems, and this is where crossbreeding comes into play as part of the effort to save a coral reef off the coast of Miami which is dying off as the water warms up. Down in Honduras where the water is warmer coral is still doing well. Researchers from the University of Miami, the Florida Aquarium, and Tela Marine in Honduras came up with the idea of crossbreeding the coral from the two environments to come up with a variety more likely to adapt to the changing conditions in Florida. The coral were raised in tanks at the Florida Aquarium then transplanted into the Florida coral ecosystem. It is the first time international crossbreeding has been allowed in a wild reef. Selective breeding of coral has been an ongoing project in Hawaii since 2021, but the Florida crossbreeding program is unique.
A story in The Guardian last month said that many coral reefs in the world have been damaged passed the point of no return and more will follow as the climate warms.
I seem to have devoted a lot of space in this newsletter to the latest species or ecosystem that is either past the point of no return or teetering in the edge. This latest effort to save coral may be able to slow down what seems to be an inevitable fate.
An article in The Guardian earlier this month said that U.S. President Donald Trump is “waging war against the media and winning”. The latest win in what appears to be an ongoing effort to intimidate media, is a settlement with Paramount, which owns CBS News, to pay the president $16M US in the form of a donation to his presidential library. At issue was the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that he believes was done to paint her in a better light. Many media analysts and legal experts believe Trump would not have won the lawsuit, but the threat to Paramount was enough to convince the company to settle and which led the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes to quit over the decision. The President has called many media outlets “scum” and his Vice President has called for investigation into media for colluding against Trump in 2020 so the fear at least, was real.
When the leaders of a country openly work against media outlets that are critical of their work it inevitably trickles down to the public. Add in the outsized influence of social media, mis- and dis information, and an increasingly splintered and financially challenged media landscape, and over the last couple of decades we have seen trust in media institutions fall. A Gallup Poll last year found record-low levels of trust in mass media. 36% of U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media and another 33% said “not very much” confidence. An Ekos poll in Canada around the same time showed only 32% of us trust mainstream media (that number drops to 24% here in good ol’ Alberta).
There is a glimmer of hope however, but one that comes with the caveat that we will not let our political and personal leanings push aside critical thinking. (I fear that is a losing battle)
The 2025 Reuters Digital New Report released last month shows that while mainstream or institutional news outlets are losing ground, people are still hungry for news. They are just looking for their news in manty different places such as TikTok, X, YouTube, or podcasts. Many of those polled not only admitted to finding it difficult to sort out real from fake but consider mis- or dis- information a threat. The survey was based on 100,000 responses from people in 48 countries.
And the report found that in many countries (14% in Canada) we are willing to buy subscriptions to get our digital news. Across the world we also tend have a higher level of trust in the publicly funded news. In Canada the two of the most trusted sources are the BBC (60%) and CBC (62%). We Canadians also like to commiserate about the weather and in a Pollara Strategic Insights poll last year The Weather Network received a whopping trust score of +58 with CBC, CTV, and Global in the +40s. Like the Reuters study Pollara found that we still like to get news but are getting it online whether it is social media or sites run by media outlets and 28% are paying for subscriptions. Like the other surveys and polls, Pollara also found high levels of concern about accuracy.
Isn’t there an expression that the first step in dealing with a problem is to acknowledge you have a problem?
My fingers are crossed that as individuals we take steps to deal with it.
If you are reading this when it lands in your mailbox on Saturday, you may well be bracing for Monday morning already. For some, those Monday mornings come with stress and maybe a feeling that the weekend just wasn’t long enough. Forbes magazine said in 2023 that 80% of respondents to a survey considered Monday to be the most stressful of their work week. (Interestingly 22% said it was their most productive day.)
Turns out that the Monday morning blues are real according to a new study in the Journal of Affective Disorders which found that Mondays drive long-term biological stress. The study was led by researchers from the University of Hong Kong and in a media release the university said there was significantly higher long-term stress hormone levels in older adults who felt anxious on Monday mornings. This biological stress wasn’t just for those in the working world, but retired people felt it as well because of cultural “stress amplifiers” which remain ingrained even after leaving the 9-to-5 grind.
Oder adults in the study who reported Monday anxiety had 23% higher levels of cortisol which helps your body manage stress, regulates blood pressure, and plays a role in controlling our sleep-wake cycle. Monday also shows a 19% spike in heart attacks, likely linked to the dysregulation caused by the cortisol levels.
While the new study uncovered the biochemistry of your Monday morning stress, it did not dig into exactly why people find it a tough day, and the authors said that addressing Monday-specific stress could combat hearts disease and stress in older people.
Admittedly this may well be a first world problem with an established 5-day work week and 2-day weekend cycle. It also seems to be most disliked day by people with an annual income of more than $75,000 and better tolerated by those in the $50,000 to 75,000 income range according to a 2023 survey by the career site, Zety.
The Easybeats summed it up in 1966:
“Monday I'll have Friday on my mind”
As I write this newsletter there are 246 wildfires across Canada and 81 of those are classified as out of control according to the National Wildland Situation Report. There has been some decent rainfall over the last few weeks here in parts of Alberta, but it is warming up and warm dry conditions are forecast across the prairies. As we have learned over the last few years, smoke can be a problem and though it is not always visible, there are also dust and organic compounds and soot which scientists refer to as ‘black carbon’.
A Bloomberg article earlier this month pointed out that the rising hot air from wildfires carries this mixture high into the atmosphere where it can be blown over huge distances. The “hotter the fire, the higher it can be lifted”. Apart from the health effects when it hits urban areas, black carbon can make it to mountain glaciers, into Arctic areas, and in the case of intentional slash and burn fires in the Amazon, down into Antarctica. The Bloomberg story suggests that as we have focused on cutting fossil fuel emissions, we may have taken our eyes off the black carbon ball.
Where that black carbon ends up will determine its effect on the climate and on the ice surfaces below it. Lower down it will warm the surface. Higher up it may brighten clouds and reflect sunlight and reduce the rate of sea ice loss according to Phys.org and a study published in June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study suggests that boreal fires will “actually slow warming by 12% globally and 38% in the Arctic”.
Don’t think that somehow this is a genuine upside to wildfires. First off don’t forget that the increase in the number of fires and their ferocity is largely because of global warming which is hardly good news.
The science around the effects of wildfires is complex and has a lot to do with location and where soot ash ends up. Last year’s Jasper area wildfire dumped much of its soot and ash on the Athabasca Glacier. As we all know, dark surfaces heat up faster. What should be a bright white surface of a glacier reflects heat, but once it becomes grimy with dust and the fallout from a fire it holds the heat and can increase the ice melt by as much as 10%.
This could turn out to be another long hot summer so keep your eyes on the wildfire news because it comes with interesting, complex, and often devastating impacts.
Cannabidiol or CBD is one of the chemical compounds found in marijuana and hemp plants. Unlike THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which is the part of the plant that gives the familiar high to users, CBD is often used to relieve anxiety, pain, and to help with sleep issues. I used it on a senior dog (with a vet’s supervision) to relieve his arthritis, and it seemed to help. CBD products became legal to buy in 2018 though CBD hemp oil was easy to find before that without having to find a dealer in a back alley somewhere. Since it became legal however it has become popular as a ‘natural’ remedy for many ailments. In the U.S. sales of CBD products could hit $4.16 billion CAD ($3.04 billion USD) this year and in Canada sales are expected to reach $300 million CAD ($219.2 million USD) in 2025. There is only one U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CBD drug for human use. A 2022 study found that use of CBD drops, topicals, edibles, vapes, and capsules is common and on the rise in Canada and the US even though consumers had “relatively low levels of knowledge and understanding”.
While the sales figures are impressive and the fans and proponents of CBD products are many, a new clinical trial suggests there is little evidence of its efficacy and questions about its safety according to an NBC story earlier this month. The new study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study evaluated CBD usage based on dosages reported by consumers of CBD products. Most of the people in the study did not show any problems but 5% showed signs of liver damage. That might not seem a lot, but participants receiving a placebo had no signs of liver damage and the authors considered the results significant.
While some claims about CBD's benefits are disputed, some research has indicated that it may have certain positive effects.
Over-the-counter CBD is marketed as a supplement and not as a medication which means the testing, rules, and regulations are different so as is the case with most supplements, the common sense rule applies: Consult your doctor before using this product.
As the talk of more pipelines ramps up in the halls of political and corporate power in many parts of Canada, there is no shortage of ideas about where they should run. Each route comes with questions about how it would affect the environment, the impact on Indigenous communities, and what it will mean to the bottom-line numbers for oil companies and for the economy.
One of those options started to get more attention back in February and this week a CBC headline said it may be time for Manitoba to prepare for year-round shipping access carrying everything from oil and gas to grain to construction materials. Almost unnoticed last week was a decision by the Canada Energy Regulator to allow liquified natural gas exports through Hudson Bay.
It seems to have become inevitable.
Hudson Bay and the Port of Churchill have a history dating back to fur trading days as a hub for import and export traffic because it is the shortest route from Western Canada to Europe. Though whaling and fur trading brought it to prominence, when a rail line was completed in 1929 (at a cost of $45M) it became a major centre for agricultural exports from the West.
Apart from the political and economic drivers of the renewed interest in the Port of Churchill, climate change and major advances in ship design is bringing it closer to become a year-round route to Europe.
The environmental cost of turning it into a major shipping route is significant.
A 2021 report prepared by Calgary-based Western Energy Corridor Inc. is worth taking the time to read both for what is says as it lays out the case for a corridor ending at Hudson Bay, but also for its glossing over of environmental considerations.
It ignores the ever-present threat of an oil spill or that the route will cross and likely alter or destroy wetlands and peatlands. Given that Churchill is famous for its polar bears and now equally for the environmental threat to those bears, the report does not say a word about it. Inevitably an energy corridor from the West to Churchill will increase shipping traffic and roads which will break up habitats and ecosystems. With greater access to a port, we’ll see increased fossil fuel development and mining which is of course the whole purpose of the corridor, but each one of those developments, regardless of size and scope, carry an environmental impact.
The threat to Hudson Bay land and marine life is not all down to increased shipping or pipelines. Much if it is climate change, pure and simple.
I may not be writing about it anymore, but I’ll be following the development closely.
My last story for my last newsletter is fittingly about something I have written about many times.
Coffee. (or any of the slang terms for your favourite brew)
Ground coffee has gone up in price by 19% since the start of this year. Considering we average 2.7 cups of coffee a day in Canada (Americans knock back 3 per day), that will start to hurt eventually.
We could blame the US tariffs for the jump but unless it passes through an American supplier, coffee is mostly unaffected by tariffs here in Canada. In the US however, if the 50% tariff on products from Brazil takes effect on August 1st, there will be a lot of unhappy sleepyheads first thing in the morning.
Growing coffee is a risky business at the best of times but climate change has made it significantly worse, and it is the price of the green beans from producers that is jolting your pocketbook as much as the caffeine jolt you are after. A 2022 literature review in the journal Plants, said that temperature extremes, precipitation extremes (drought and waterlogging), and disease and pests are all driving down yields while demand continues to increase. Brazil, the top coffee producing country, is at one end of the spectrum with the worst drought in decades, while Vietnam has experienced severe flooding.
Coffee chains like Tim Hortons, which serves up 5 million cups a day, and Starbucks have full time departments focused solely on securing long term coffee supplies so you may not notice those price changes as dramatically as buying your home coffee supplies, but that too will not last.
What choice do those of us hooked on the black brew have? Well, there are coffee substitutes, which apart from not having the same taste, usually lack caffeine. I have tried several of the alternatives and the only one that I have stuck with is Camp Coffee, which is a blend of coffee extract and chicory that has been around since 1885. It doesn’t really taste like coffee, but it is pleasant tasting and does contain some caffeine. You won’t find it on the average store shelf and will need to track it down in shops specializing in British imports, but they tend to run out regularly.
So now that you have the final edition out of the way, pour a cup of what is increasingly becoming liquid gold, and listen this podcast from The Big Story. It has everything you need to know about the future of coffee in Canada.
Thanks for all your support over the years!
Great discussion Mike! Wishing you the best with your novel and other writing endeavours.