Modern economies run on fossil fuels – oil, natural gas, and coal. With a wide spectrum of applications – electrical generation, transportation, industrial applications such as making cement and steel, plus heating and cooling buildings – fossil fuels generate more than 80% of the energy we use.
Focusing on oil, we refine crude oil to create transportation fuels including gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and maritime fuels. Beyond energy, oil is a critical petrochemical feedstock, producing...
While I love my spinach and quinoa salad with a balsamic reduction vinaigrette, there are times when you just crave the salty, fatty deliciousness of a juicy fast-food hamburger. There are all kinds of reasons to occasionally swing by your local drive-through: On the way to soccer practice with hungry kids in the van, a few minutes between meetings, on the road and need something that is not going to slow you down, or...
There seems to be a common belief that young people are selfishly going about their business while the elderly drop like flies during the COVID-19 crisis; that the youth of today do not really care about the virus’s impact on our society.
As a 23-year-old Canadian university grad about to do veterinary school in the U.K., I can tell you that I care a lot. And I am frustrated by the steady barrage of sensational...
The processed meat industry in North America is a $230-billion-dollar venture that produces more than 40% of the world’s beef, pork and poultry supply.
Robust growth is forecast for the industry as global demand and population increase steadily. In the United States, one of the world’s top meat-consuming countries, an estimated 96% of residents include a meat product as part of their daily diet.
Some Netflix documentaries would have you believe that the meat sector is a blatant...
One of the concerns associated with climate warming is rising sea level. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2019) estimates that global mean sea level will rise 30 to 110 centimetres (cm) between 2005 and 2100.
Media reports have regularly blamed climate change for rising sea levels threatening the homes and livelihoods of people along the Gulf of Mexico coastline in Louisiana and in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. We have seen many...
Coffee is as much a part of our society as television, music, and automobiles. Its provision of the stimulant caffeine is a functional answer to sleep deprivation, a low-key first-date proposal, a hangover cure, and it is a socially acceptable beverage to offer and consume any time of day. Beyond coffee’s engrained social status are significant health implications and a potent economic punch.
The history of coffee
850 B.C. – Coffee makes its appearance in the Kaffa region...
As COVID-19 continues to dominate North American media coverage, a drug-overdose crisis rages under the radar.
Deaths from drug overdose in Canada are up by an average of 54% during the pandemic.Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada - Public Health Infobase | Public Health Agency of Canada Some experts are calling on the government to make access to drugs easier as supply dwindles and demand is at a fever pitch.
In the province of British Columbia,...
There has been a lot of heated discussion about the recent weather-related electricity crisis in Texas. In case you somehow missed it, the temperature in much of the southern United States dropped to very unusual lows for several days in a row in February 2021. The low temperatures caused snowfall and freezing rain in many areas, creating havoc on the roads for drivers with neither winter driving experience nor snow tires.
Much worse, however, were...
Physical health has come under great scrutiny during the COVID-19 crisis, but related mental health factors may have a longer-lasting, further-reaching, and more significant impact on societal norms and demands on health-care systems.
A review of studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly in China but including the United States, Canada, and European countries, has highlighted alarming trends regarding mental health markers associated with elevated suicide rates. It is important to keep in mind that...
When one digs deeply into the sweeping sphere of cancer there is an abundance of misinformation and an endless stream of puzzling dilemmas and unanswered questions.
We have a cure; “Big Pharma” is preventing that cure from making it to market.
Cannabis cures cancer.
There is no cure for cancer.
Can anybody truly say they are an expert on cancer if they can’t cure it? Can you really understand the cause if you cannot...
