@thebeaverton.com joked that Ontario Premier Doug Ford would build more spas to fight wildfires. It may well be that soon, the only place we can go in summer to beat the heat and the smoke, if we can afford it, is one of Doug Ford’s domed pleasure palaces. lloydalter.substack.com/p/when-parod...

As Canadians and others try to wean themselves off USA products and services, we should also try to give up USA holidays like Pi Day. Only 3 countries in the world write dates with M-D-Y, which gives us 3.14. Everyone else should celebrate today- 22/7. Happy International Pi Day!

I have been thinking about this as I watch the endless lines of BMWs and motorcycles that almost outnumber the bikes, The whole thing is an orgy of fossil fuel consumption and promotion.

Aluminum has been described as "solid electricity." You cannot economically make the stuff in the USA even if you reopen every coal-powered generator in the country.

This is insane, just because Carney got to shake hands with the Spanish football star who ignored Trump. Or something equally stupid.

The demographic reality is inescapable: We are going to have millions more older drivers with diminishing capabilities, in cars that are too big and too dangerous for everyone around them, with few satisfactory alternatives to driving. It will not end well.

Every year I watch the Tour de France and every stage I cannot believe how stupid the fans are and how many cars and motorcycles there are, today is insane.

It’s hard to believe that it is 25 years since Robin Williams lit up the Oscars dancing to “Blame Canada!” and Americans are still doing it.

"every year we work around the clock to ensure that we create the right circumstances to send thousands of litres of smoke across the Great Lakes and into the eyes and throats of people in the U.S.”

This actually makes sense, as we will not be able to go outside because of the heat and air quality; our kids will be lucky to have glass bubbles. And instead of Science Centres, he will build Joni Mitchell's Tree Museums.

In his book Values, @mark-carney.bsky.social wrote about climate change: "It imposes costs on future generations that the current generation has no direct incentives to fix.” But how about this for an incentive? The country is burning. PM2.5 pollution shortens lives and kills. This is now.

Every day Mark Carney finds new ways to break my heart (I had such high hopes) Surely he knows what a farce this is. My explanation of pathways: open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

I am angry and upset that my kids and my neighbours were put at risk because of gun violence in our quiet and polite neighbourhood. But I am outraged that two completely innocent people have been killed by traffic violence, and nobody seems to care at all. lloydalter.substack.com/p/two-killed...

The smoke from the wildfires is rolling in, and the air quality is deteriorating. Last year, I wrote about how dangerous PM2.5 particulates are and how governments downplay this because they come from burning stuff like fossil fuels as well as forests.

@carintobuilding.bsky.social paging

Fortunately we are coming into the season where this is not hard to do. Also fortunately, many canadians have been boycotting American produce for a while. But this is still excellent advice...

A lot of people think age-based driver's tests are ageist, but we have to face the fact that we have lifespans, how long we live, and healthspans, how long we live well. We have to recognize that we also have a drivespan, how long we can safely drive. lloydalter.substack.com/p/we-have-a-...

We got fucked. We got blackmailed. I suspect the resentment from this will last a long time, even with the brave face Canadians are putting up right now.

I try to avoid wading into culture wars, but this one, about New York Mayor Mamdani asking people to raise their thermostats to 78°F, is just beyond stupid, and only serves the fossil fuel interests who would happily lock us into our air-conditioned houses and cars.

I was obsessed with the TV show The Prisoner and have like six rolls of screenshots of it from when it first came out, and now I am watching it again!

When I was 13, I wanted to be a photographer and took my camera to Expo 67. I just found software to digitize my negatives, and here is Bucky's geodesic American pavilion, the first negative out of the can!

Interesting thread about how aging baby boomers, who now need toilets, were big fans of cutting services like public washrooms and reducing taxes, and now it's coming back to bite us. They are not wrong.

We need more public toilets. The demographic reality points to a serious problem for aging baby boomers- we need to pee a lot, and we are not drinking enough water because we are often worried about finding a place to do it. This will be a problem with 71 million of us over 65 in the US.

I was feeling bad about voting for Mark Carney after his pipelines and climate cutbacks, but then I saw this, and I also cannot stop laughing, we are so lucky to have dodged this bullet

"You cannot deny the problem exists one year and demand emergency solutions to it the next." Yes, you can if you are in the fossil fuel biz and you want people to spend their lives in AC houses and AC cars and burn more energy in both. This fake culture war is just too neat.

The New York Times discusses building tech which sniffs out pathogens and then zaps them with UV and cranks up the ventilation. I wonder if there are not better, simpler ways of dealing with the problem, including public health, education and vaccination. But good luck with that these days

Mark Carney calls current storms "biblical" while he launches a new pipeline and downplays climate change as a priority; the CBC falls into line. Let's go wakeboarding in a ditch!

I have complained about fireworks for years, about the particulates and the perchlorates and the fires and the dead birds and the terrified dogs and the burned children, and it has always been futile, with even my wife saying “There he goes again, sucking all the fun out of life.” Here I go again...

A few years ago, I calculated the heat emitted by cars in New York City as patio heaters, to give people an idea of scale in a measure they could understand. Every day there are 157,000 patio heater equivalents running around New York. Turn them off! www.treehugger.com/cars-add-hea...

This is Ottawa yesterday but don’t worry, Mark Carney says we don’t have to worry about climate change for a while.

In Mark Carney's latest "Forward guidance," he claims that we need oil and gas development in the short term to "establish stability amidst this chaos." I worry that stability is hard to find in the current climate chaos. The thermometer is telling us that we have run out of time.

We have been arguing about the future of 24 Sussex Drive, the Canadian Prime Minister's residence, for decades. In 2009, I wrote about why it should be restored rather than demolished; I think it holds up rather well. lloydalter.substack.com/p/the-greene...

“Billy Bishop Airport is the main commuter airport in Toronto.” This is simply not true, there are many times more people flying out of Pearson to the same “commuter” cities like Ottawa, Montreal or New York. It is convenient for a small subset of passengers. We do not need it.

While writing a story for Monday about Mark Carney’s decision to renovate 24 Sussex Drive, the Prime Minister’s residence, I found this 1972 photo of future Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Pat Nixon’s lap, which I think is hilarious.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford raises speed limits and removes speed cameras while encouraging drinking and reducing emergency services. It's a dangerous mix that will increase deaths and injuries, but hey, his political base of suburban drivers needs more pandering!

One thing to consider during a heat wave is banning cars for the duration. I did the math a few years ago, and every car puts out the heat equivalent of four patio heaters. On a typical day in Manhattan, it is the heat equivalent of 157,336 heaters running around town.

Another episode in the "Why is Doug Ford trying to kill us?" WHO says "every 1% increase in mean speed produces a 4% increase in the fatal crash risk and a 3% increase in the serious crash risk.” lloydalter.substack.com/p/why-is-dou...

Climate change and an aging population mean we need air conditioning for all, but we need passive measures (insulation, shading) first to reduce AC demand. And what happens when the grid fails? We need resilience and backups. Watch me on French Teevee discussing this...

Surely this is the Captain Queeg strawberry moment where they lock him up.

I had no idea that Canadians changed prime ministers even more quickly than the UK does. And this was in the days before the internet or for that matter, heads of iceberg lettuce.

So is Doug Ford.

The Line project in Saudi Arabia is dead, but we shouldn’t write off the idea of linear cities. I look back at a few of them that have been proposed over the years. lloydalter.substack.com/p/the-line-i...

This is the Ford ad that enrages me the most, why do we have encampments? Because he cut back social services and safe zones, and supportive housing. He made this bed.

And here we are in the age of AI, and our house and who knows what data centre will know not only what we are wearing, but also how we sleep, what we eat, and what we poop. That’s too much information. lloydalter.substack.com/p/what-will-...

I love this Chevy press release; they really do want to intimidate us off the road. “The goal with the new Silverado was to create a truck that looks stronger, more modern with demanding presence at first glance." Chevrolet Global Executive Design Director Phil Zak said.

For 2 weeks the newspapers have been full of letters to the editor praising the Toronto cops for beating up on scofflaw cyclists for “blowing through stop signs.” Here’s why they are wrong; this is not a legal problem, it is a design problem. open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

Finally got my hard copy of @ecominimalnick.bsky.social and Jon Broome's The Good Building Book, via this gentleman at @cavershambooks.bsky.social which moved into the neighbourhood and is my new local go-to bookstore.

Why am I not surprised prospect.org/2026/06/12/n...

TTC's Kipling Station is pretty wonderful, with its vaults and cantilevers. It feels more like an airport than a bus station; according to @spacing.bsky.social it was supposed to have a light rail line out to the airport, so it makes sense. spacing.ca/toronto/2015...

We should hire FIFA to replace the RCMP and the Toronto Police, neither of which can find or charge anyone for the Greenbelt or speeding or bike theft, but FIFA can suss out the smallest bong seller, the tiniest bar, they are omniscient.