Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

No family, no stability, no social fabric: the anguish of Gaza’s wounded orphans

1 1

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 19h

“Gaza health ministry statistics from early September, recorded 2,596 children who had lost both parents, and a further 53,724 who had lost either their father (47,804) or mother (5,920)” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

As the number of WCNSFs – wounded child no surviving family – grows, charities struggle to find adults to look after them

Banks' ties to LNG raise questions of greenwashing in 'thought leadership'

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“LNG exported from the US is worse than coal from a climate perspective. Moreover, IEEA and the International Institute for Sustainable Development have found that renewable energy better displaces coal and that LNG displaces renewables” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/10/n...

Should research published by banks be held to the same anti-greenwashing rules as other corporate documents? One shareholder advocacy group is pushing a Quebec regulator to decide, in a move that coul...

Opinion: What it really means to enter old age

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“Some will tell you that grief is the price of love, but they are wrong. As many have said, grief is the continuation of love.” www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

How should we think about our life as it draws to an end? Despite the challenges, there is still room left for beauty and happiness

Mutual aid makes a difference when disaster strikes. What about after?

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“What we really try to emphasize in this group is that you absolutely have something to give, whether it’s time or companionship … the single most scientifically supported secret to happiness is social ties” www.theglobeandmail.com/life/social-...

Neighbours who help each other in a crisis will often return to individualism when it’s over. Changing that habit could yield lasting benefits

Are Carbon Offsets Fixable?

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“Most offset programs overestimate probable climate impact by 5 to 10x … find and fund few types of high-quality projects while employing alternative finance and strategies for critical projects in conservation, renewable energy, and sustainable development” www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

This article provides a systematic review of the literature on carbon offsets. A growing number of studies have found that the most widely used offset programs continue to greatly overestimate their p...

www.annualreviews.org

Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in Toronto waterfront

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“We knew instinctively that seeds were there. Traditional knowledge has a story of today and future, but it also connects us to past. So when the first plants started reviving themselves, we realized something much bigger and more interconnected was unfolding” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton

Listen to Jane Goodall’s final — and urgent — messages

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

In reality, we’re on a planet with finite resources and, if we exhaust them, it could spell our own end. “Humans are not exempt from extinction,” Goodall said in the Wall Street Journal’s podcast, The Journal. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/09/n...

Her last interviews are essential listening for everyone.

Indigenous communities want major role in Ottawa's new housing plan

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“What we’d like to see specifically is Indigenous people controlling the way Indigenous housing is allocated across the country. It has to be for Indigenous, by Indigenous,” John Gordon said. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/08/n...

The new federal Build Canada Homes program could help solve the housing crisis — but only if the government delivers promised funding and ensures Indigenous communities lead the effort, housing advoca...

Enbridge investors to get billions as gas giant expands into small-town Ontario

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“Enbridge is fighting risk that as customers leave the gas network in favour of energy efficient options like heat pumps, the pool of customers to pay for its gas system shrinks, forcing higher rates on remaining customers; in turn, more people to ditch gas. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/09/a...

Enbridge executives know Ontario ratepayers are a cash cow for its gas business, and in recent calls with investors they said they plan to milk it for all its worth.

‘Planetary health diet’ could save 40,000 deaths a day, landmark report finds

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“People in US and Canada eat >7x the PHD’s recommended amount of red meat … food-related ill health and environmental damage costs society about $15tn a year. Investments to transform the food system would cost $200bn to $500bn a year, but save $5tn” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Diet allows modest meat consumption and would also slash food-related climate emissions by half, says report by 70 leading experts from 35 countries

Northern First Nations turn to signing bonuses and other incentives to attract teachers

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 2d

“High-school graduation rate for Indigenous youth living on reserve is 46%, compared with 91% of non-Indigenous … Incentivizing teachers to stay in a community for 5 yrs will help address high turnover on students in many remote First Nations communities” www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article...

Communities are struggling to recruit educators amid a persistent shortage that has been getting worse owing to living costs and housing gaps

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 2d

“By end of July there were 18,457 children named on the long official list of Palestinian victims of Israel’s war in Gaza. Over almost two years, that is equivalent to bombs, bullets and shells killing a boy or girl every hour of every day” www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

Opinion: Credit rating agencies are on a collision course with Trump

1 1

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

“Fitch Ratings says U.S. banks should focus on climate risks despite environmental policy pivots by White House ... extreme weather and decarbonization “enduring drivers” that threaten lenders’ operational resilience, credit performance and business models” www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

Debt raters are daring to do their jobs, challenging the President’s prevailing political narratives

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

"These trends and inequalities reaffirm the case for overcoming the dependence of nations on perpetual GDP growth4,5 and reorienting towards regenerative and distributive economic activity—within and between nations—that assigns priority to human needs and planetary integrity"

A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

www.nature.com

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

"The richest 20% of nations, with 15% of the global population, contribute more than 40% of annual ecological overshoot, whereas the poorest 40% of countries, with 42% of the global population, experience more than 60% of the social shortfall" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

www.nature.com

Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

“A separate report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that global renewables could more than double by the end of the decade, with 80% of new clean energy capacity expected to come from solar power” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Record solar expansion and steady wind growth driving world’s shift away from fossil fuels in 2025, report finds

Marine heatwaves to become more frequent off UK and Irish coasts, experts say

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

“During the heatwave, temperatures in the shallow seas around the UK, including the North Sea and Celtic Sea, reached 2.9C above the June average for 16 days. The extended period of time put sea life at risk of death” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Scientists find 10% chance that similar events to the ‘unheard of’ temperatures in 2023 could occur each year

An Inuit community installs Nunavut's first wind turbine

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

“People of Sanikiluaq have been consulted every step of the way. They must say “Yes” four times for the project to be built. Although this slows things down and adds expense, this level of engagement leads to much better outcomes and deep community support” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/06/o...

Clara Phillips is helping Nunavut return to quiet. As development project manager at Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation, this 25-year-old engineer-in-training from Newfoundland is leading the installat...

Jane Goodall’s gaze is still on us

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

“She loved world and it loved her back. … She saw personalities, rituals, grief and anger. She saw tool-use. She saw kin … We might be most 'intellectual animals' evolved so far, but we’re not intelligent. Intelligent creatures don’t destroy their only home” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/06/o...

In some deep sense, seeing is why she’s famous. She looked at chimpanzees and didn’t see objects or specimens. She gave the chimps in Gombe names instead of numbers, to outraged howls from the scienti...

Balfour Mount was the father of palliative care in North America

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

"His mother said, “Bal, I want to dance. I want to know that I danced on my grave.” … She showed him that death was not a defeat, but rather, a triumph of will and the culmination of a lifetime of experience” www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

He was a cancer survivor and surgeon when he went to England to learn about an innovative hospice facility, and he returned with the idea of bringing hospice into hospitals, starting in Montreal

Canadian tech helped U.S. strike alleged Venezuelan drug boats: report | CBC News

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

"International legal experts could make the argument that Canada is complicit in a way in the type of war crimes that the Trump administration has committed in the Caribbean basin," said Alexander Avina, associate professor of history at Arizona State University. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Canadian technology was used by the U.S. military in operations that blew up at least two alleged Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean in September, according to a report by Project Ploughshares.

www.cbc.ca

2

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

"West entertains proposals, like one currently hanging over the region, giving Israel the ultimate say over the future of Gaza. How is it that the country committing genocide is granted any say in the future of the people against whom it has committed genocide?” www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu

For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe

Zelenskyy accuses west of ‘zero real reaction’ to Russia’s bombardment

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

“Zelenskyy said weapons used in Sunday’s attack – about 500 drones and more than 50 missiles – included components from western countries, including the US and UK. Stronger export controls are needed” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Six people killed and 18 injured in heavy drone and missile attacks across Ukraine early on Sunday

Trouble brewing: Maya people in Yucatán fear new Heineken plant’s thirst for water

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“Will use water to support 28,000 families where 121,000 people lacked access to drinking water in 2020. Water availability fallen by > 50% since 2003 … Guardians of Cenotes filed a lawsuit against the state to secure legal personhood for the underground lakes” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Indigenous groups in Mexico opposed to the planned brewery say families already have little access to water – and that their way of life is also under threat