Book Review “The End” by Joel Wainwright
This book is unlike the majority of books I have reviewed here. It is a very serious, academic treatise. The reason I wanted to read it was not because I am a communist (I’m not) but because the blurb I got suggests that it “confronts the planetary climate crisis”. I did my due diligence and flogged my way through the entire book – which was a bit like going back to university. This book has huge amounts of foot notes. Often the overflow exceeds the large amount of page space dedicated to them. After a while I realized that the diversion to the footnotes was a serious issue which was slowing down the reading and adding considerably to my confusion. You do need to look up quite a lot just to understand the text since the original works cited are often in German and arguments multiply about the translations – usually plural. There is a lot more of the analysis of really old books than there is about tackling present issues. Moreover, the edition I got is the uncorrected page proofs which does not include an index – which really puts a crimp in finding again the bits I might have quoted.
Because it is a planetary crisis that has to be confronted there is no tackling of the very specific problem of the current US administration which is not just opposed to dealing with the crisis, but is actually doing all it can to make matters worse, as fast, and as profitably as possible. What is needed is Simultaneous World Revolution – but there is not a real idea about how that might be achieved. Let alone alone what those three words actually mean. Greta Thunberg does get a positive mention but her achievements – so far – do not appear to be very significant at turning the tide. Moreover even the Canadian government – which used to think of itself as progressive – is now backing even more large fossil fuel investments. And we are still arguing about subsidies for electric cars – which have now ended in BC – and generally neglecting the obvious of allowing people to find ways to reduce their travel requirements. The Premier of Ontario is seriously requiring people to return to the office – which in the city where he works is ridiculous.
When it comes to objective analysis – relying on real science and not wishful thinking – there does seem to be a real majority for acting to reduce carbon emissions. There are even active projects designed to achieve this despite the continuing rise in the hockey stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_graph_(global_temperature) But it is hard to see any real prospect of actual change given who is sitting at the top tables. Our politicians are indebted for their jobs and prospects to rich corporations who are determined not just to continue with business as usual but want ever more at less cost to themselves. Most people can see this and would prefer something else, but that last bit remains a chimera.
And frankly this book does not seem to be likely to do very much to accelerate the process. Having spent a lot of time reading it, and trying to understand it, I have no feeling that it shows us how we are to “confront” the crisis.
“The End” will be published by Verso Books on November 25th 2025 Paperback original US$ 29.95 352 pages
“A Remarkable Man” Book Review
Dr. Suntaro Hida From Hiroshima to Fukushima by Marc Petitjean translated by Ariana Hunter published by Other Press New York
Hardback 170 pages no index – also available as an ebook
On August 6, 1945 the US Airforce dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Dr Hida was seven kilometers away but he headed straight towards the huge pillar of fire. His description of the victims is hard to read – but then the next section of the text covers March 12, 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami devastated north east Japan and reactor Number 1 at the Fukushima nuclear plant blew up. “You’ll see” he said, “it’ll be the same as Hiroshima and Chernobyl, we’ll never know the true extent of the damage.”
Lying by the authorities was standard procedure. People who had been coming to Hiroshima in the weeks after the bombing were becoming ill – they were drinking the water, breathing the air and eating the vegetables that were grown there. No-one then knew about internal radiation. And after Fukushima the responsible parties are still behaving as if it doesn’t pose any danger. You might also bear in mind that the fallout from the plant is still travelling across the Pacific and significant amounts are reaching our shores. In September 2012 Japan was orchestrating its propaganda – “The Fukushima accident is now over and there are no further dangerous effects in the region.”
Internal radiation is invisible and, for most of the history covered by this book, not well understood. And that was because of the policies that were designed to find new ways to use nuclear energy – not just in lots of bombs – though they were there too. We are still fighting the people who insist that there is no danger in peaceful use of nuclear energy. It is regarded as being a go to solution for the need for replacing fossil fuels even though renewable energy is not just much safer but also very much cheaper!
Given that this is a relatively short book I think it is probably not necessary for me to write a great deal about it. Indeed much of what is written above is taken from the book itself. I think it is also probable that the sort of people who would want to argue with the conclusions of the doctor, and the author, are probably unlikely to be open minded about the lessons that many clearly have not learned or chosen to ignore. But it is sobering, hard won experience that is now very convincing. There is not a good case for more – or indeed any – nuclear power. And a compelling necessity for understanding why cancer is one of the hardest things we still have to get better at fighting.
Year end
I have just heard that all the email that has been arriving in increasing shrillness is actually now shown to be otiose since the deadline for a tax rebate on charitable donations has been moved forward to the end of February. That’s in Canada – and not for political parties. A depressing amount comes into my inbox comes from the US, where I do not qualify for any tax relief so I usually don’t contribute to their Good Causes. Besides there’s a lot more people there than here. But it would be nice if their email programs took note of my location and dropped me from lists that offer US tax rebates.
I have been more active on Mastodon than I have on here even though I am getting a bit fed up with having to chop stuff into small pieces for my instance (mas.to) – but then I am not usually writing as opposed to cutting and pasting material that ought to published on the Fediverse but isn’t. This took a bit of a turn for me when I got a new iPad and loaded Ice Cubes onto it – but properly this time. In its predecessor I had skipped an obvious step in installation but now it works brilliantly. I used to confine my Mastodon posting to the MacBook but now I can use whatever device I happen to be reading. I didn’t think that apps would actually be needed but it does turn out to be useful.
Reading Cory Doctorow alerted me to an alternative to Google for web searches. kagi.com is faster, more accurate and avoids the current obsession with AI. Google searches have become increasingly unreliable due to AI. When the sales person in the Apple store said that the iPad I chose due to its reasonable cost would not include AI, I actually cheered. I don’t need it and don’t want it. Sadly when I run out of the limited initial batch of searches I will have to pay for kagi but that is actually preferable than bombardment of advertising that is now Google. To get kagi to run on my MacBook I installed the Orion Browser which has kagi as the default search, so now that is the fourth browser I can use. It also reduces my reliance on Chrome. Which is also a Good Thing.
This morning my whole daily routine was overturned. I usually just scan the email subjects, read the Guardian headlines and then make the coffee. This morning since I was on my iPad I turned to Mastodon early due to Ice Cubes and found a gift link to the New York Times obit for Jimmy Carter. Now the NYT of today is but a dull imitation of what it used to be but then they have had most of the obit on file for years – he outlived one of the obit writers! It is a very Long Read but well worthwhile. Though of course all the other media are doing their versions. But the best quote I saw was that while some people see trees and others forests, Jimmy saw leaves.
I had felt a bit guilty of my initial appraisal of Jimmy. This was when I was a part time student at the LSE and a fellow student, a delightful young American lady who was very much a fan, and did not share my skepticism, mainly bred by the whole President’s Men experience. Overall I think now he was underrated – and indeed undermined and not just by the Republicans but also his own party – as a President. What is now general wisdom is that he was one of the best examples of a human being.
I had hoped that the CBC music programs would wind down the church choir music now that the first few days of Christmas are over – but once again I find myself turning it off again. And as I am writing this three more mass mailings that got scheduled before today’s announcement but arrived after its publication. No, there is no longer a 48 hour deadline.
I hope that I will be around to read the Trump obits. The sooner the better.
When Insurance Rejects Life Saving Care
This is not my story. But having read it I wanted to post it somewhere in addtion to just hitting “boost” on Mastodon. The murder of health insurance CEO has very much stimulated discussion of how bad the American health care system has become as capitalism has emerged from the restraints that were being observed in post war era.
The reason I feel it is necessary to post here is that I think there may be more Canadian readers on here – and the way that the political pendulum is swimming is that the next government is likely to be Conservative which mean the government will be looking for ways to privatise health care. Not because that is a Good Idea, but becuase that is how Conservatives think all evidence to the contrary.
Not that our health care system is all that wonderful, but it just isn’t anything like as awful as the US but we still have right wing dogmatists who would use the excuses that our health care needs change is that they would quite deliberately make ours worse in order to get support for change. So I suspect that US readers will feel that they have probably heard this story – and worse – but I want to reach out to Canadians who think that somehow we ought be copying what our neighbours have done.
And that has already taken up many more characters than a Mastodon post.
Qasim Rashid is an American politician who writes “Lets Address This…” and heads his piece “A deeply personal and vulnerable story about our daughter, the power of resilience, and the desperate need for change”
POSTSCRIPT
Cory Doctorow (Whom God Preserve) has this morning added his thoughts: when I added a URL I was a bit surprised to find the entire thing got added not just a link.
Camino Ghosts by John Grisham
I started to write a review of this book about the time I finished it. I was thinking of copying the cover but did a search and found this link
I am a big fan of Grisham’s and try to get a hold of all of his books as soon as they come out. “Camino Ghosts” continues the stories that he started in earlier books (“Camino Island” and “Camino Winds”) but it can stand alone. It’s just nice for us regular readers to learn more about people we have already met – a bit like his previous book “The Exchange” which also revisits characters created for an earlier book.
The Good Thing about the link above is that is connects you with the opening chapters. So if you are unfamiliar with Grisham you can see if the book grabs you. Now if you are already a fan then reading this review is a complete waste of time. And you probably have read all the books already.
For me the problem I have is the way that I have to ration myself – otherwise I read the entire thing at one sitting and need to find another book straightaway. That ought to be enough to convince you. I hope so. Happy reading!
Corrections
I am currently waiting for open heart surgery. As part of that Waiting Period I was given a spiral bound book entitled “to the Cardiac Surgery Patient”. It was last updated in April 2019 and I am afraid that I have to report more than one shortcoming. It does have lots of space devoted to my questions but only has a general URL not actually designed for feedback. The St Paul’s Hospital Cardiac Surgery Team do have a web page https://www.heartcentre.ca
My first impression is simply the font they chose: Comic Sans. Ugh!
Section 2 page 13 is about Transportation
It states “Buses: Many buses run both north and south on Burrard and Davie Streets”
No, buses on Davie are running perpendicular to Burrard – east west might be more accurate. But why not say
Buses on Burrard: #2 to Dunbar Loop (some short running to 16th Ave only). #44 to UBC (Express)
Buses on Davie – #5 and #6 run in loops in opposite directions to connect downtown to the West End
The #23 on Pacific Boulevard connects to Yaletown
Then it says “The Sky Train is a short walk from Burrard Street. Contact BC Transit …”
Excuse me, but BC Transit has not served Vancouver since January 1, 1998! But at least they provide a working web link. Puzzling is the entire paragraph devoted to The Canada Line as if it was some separate entity.
They do mention the option of car rentals but provide no links and ignore the existence of evo. Similarly taxis are mentioned but no telephone numbers or web links are provided. Lyft and Uber are simply ignored.
They talk about safety in the area around the hospital but seem to be more concerned with “fairness” than reality. The hospital itself is providing services to drug addicts and homeless people. I find the greatest issue to be their unpredictability but I do not have any advice to offer. “Many people of all walks of life” really is to vague to be of any use at all.
Alaska, Washington Tribes condemn BC’s flawed consultation policy
This blog post will be a copy of the Press Release received today from prnewswire. The release is too long to be cut and pasted into a thread on Mastodon, but I think is very important and deserves to be read – on both sides of the border.
BELLINGHAM, Wash.—U.S. Tribal Nations along British Columbia’s northwestern and southern borders are denouncing a new proposal that would give them a separate and diminished voice in large development projects impacting their traditional homelands and watersheds.
In Alaska, a group of Tribes with ancestral homelands along BC’s transboundary rivers are seeking to be consulted on multiple risky and under-regulated gold mines that threaten the rivers, fish and the people in the region and their ways of life. In Washington, the Lummi Nation is asserting their transboundary rights to consult on a massive port expansion of the BC Roberts Bank Terminal that would harm Chinook salmon, Southern Resident orca whales and the Lummi people.
According to the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2021 decision in R. v. Desautel, Indigenous peoples in the U.S. whose ancestral lands were taken and divided by the U.S.-Canada border may assert rights as aboriginal peoples of Canada and engage in meaningful government-to-government consultation on projects affecting them.
However, BC’s Environmental Assessment Office recently notified the 15 member Tribes of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) and the Lummi Nation that their rights will be “distinct” and “differentiated” from those of First Nations in BC. Both SEITC and Lummi have asked Canada for recognition as a Participating Indigenous Nation to protect aboriginal and treaty rights and natural resources from reckless development projects.
“For hundreds of years, our way of life has depended on the fertile fisheries and clean waters of the Fraser River watershed,” said Lummi Nation Chairman Anthony Hillaire. “These waters are now directly threatened by the expansion of a busy, dirty, and noisy port. In Desautel, the Supreme Court of Canada described a process for Canadian public entities and our community to follow, and BC is ignoring that. Instead, BC intends to create a reductive consultation policy separate from the policy which has long been afforded to First Nations. We believe that BC’s theory of a separate process is wrong and harmful. While BC avoids meeting their duty to consult, they can continue doling out permits and creating facts on the ground that will poison our fish, degrade our waters, and violate our treaty rights. Approving projects like the Roberts Bank Terminal without engaging in deep consultation neglects a crucial opportunity to enact transboundary protection of our natural resources and our communities as the pace of global warming accelerates. Although this is an issue of Indigenous rights in which Lummi, Alaskan and many First Nations find common cause, it also affects every person who lives here and who depends on the clean waters, the rivers, and the fish of this region.”
“The remaining lands unexploited by resource extraction consist primarily of Indigenous territory,” said SEITC President Esther Reese.“We are the stewards of some of the world’s last wild salmon rivers that have defined our lifeways for thousands of years. The colonial border separating our rivers from their headwaters did not exist in our ancestors’ time. In response to efforts to seek deep consultation regarding the large-scale gold mining project, Eskay Creek in the Unuk River watershed, BC is now negotiating in bad faith. Inconsistent with “the honor of the Crown,” BC has come up with a proposal to artificially divide the rights of Canadian and US Indigenous peoples, but the law is clear: We have a right to sit at the same table where all those Indigenous to these watersheds belong. Our voices are critically important on all development projects affecting our watersheds.”
Judicial review of BC’s decision to grant permits for the expansion of Roberts Bank in violation of Lummi’s asserted rights will begin on Wednesday, June 26 in Vancouver.
BC is also expected to begin accepting public comments on Skeena Resources’ Application for an Environmental Assessment Certificate on the proposed Eskay Creek Mine in late June.
# # #
ABOUT LUMMI NATION
For thousands of years, the Lummi have been an independent and self-sufficient people. Today, we are a sovereign Tribal Nation within Washington state, and manager of 13,000 acres of tidelands on the Lummi Reservation. We respect our traditions, maintain our tribal values and invest in economic development for our people.
ABOUT SEITC
Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) is a consortium of 15 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Nations upholding their sovereign rights and defending the transboundary Stikine, Taku and Unuk Rivers from the rapidly expanding mining development occurring in the Canadian headwaters.
20th Anniversary – probably
In 2004 I found myself unemployed. By some strange coincidence this morning I read a post from Ben Parfitt “Thanks for the Great Ride“. It seems that just as I was looking for a new job he had found one: “my new capacity as a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office.”
I wasn’t exactly clear on the precise date of either event, so I went looking in my filing cabinet and came across this document
I had not been a member of ITE before but I did possess an ITE coffee mug. Sadly its gilt identity wore off many years ago but I still use it. They gave it to me years earlier as thanks for a talk I gave to their Vancouver chapter. I also got a really nice flashlight but that relied on a plastic part in its switch – which failed with age, and so has been recycled. I no longer can refer to its identity.
Some years later (June 2008 actually) I got a much sought after place on an ITE tour of the then recently completed Canada Line tunnel
I did not get very many offers of employment – and none were full time – so I have allowed my ITE membership to lapse. But Ben Parfitt has been very active in the same sorts of issues I concerned myself with. I belonged to a number of activist organisations and was even asked to run for MLA by the BC Green Party. I am not sure if I ever met Ben but our paths must have crossed so when I read of his intention to retire I did feel a bit sad – though he deserves a break more than most, I think.
I don’t do nearly as much political activity these days. About the only thing I am currently committed to is posting stuff to Mastodon. It is very frustrating that so many organisations like the CCPA or the David Suzuki Foundation have not signed up for Mastodon but continue to rely on X and Facebook – even though many people no longer wish to be associated with Musk or Zuckerberg. In fact I cut Ben’s post into ten pieces to fit mas.to’s format before I noticed the link I give at the top of this post.
Test post
Can I insert images just by relying on Flickr URL’s?
“Hyperion is composed of 5ton bundle of crushed rebar ripped from the concrete walls of a demolished Vancouver building that now emerges from its own concrete foundation. Pulsating neon is woven throughout the twisted rebar emulating its form while a chain rachet is bound tight around its center storing static energy within. A giant ship chain encircling and appearing to float around the piece is beginning to break apart seemingly unable to withstand the energy from within.”
The installation is part of Tap & Barrel Group’s ongoing commitment to supporting local artists and hopes that it will bring people together and spark meaningful conversations.
source: granville_island on Instagram
I only get a limited amount of space to upload the images to WordPress since this is a free account. But since I can use URLs this may not be a problem.
A bit awkward at first since the seat had been left far too forward for me, and can’t be moved manually but needs to have the motor running. No sunshine roof and the parking brake is operated by a button not a pedal. Excellent performance in traffic.
So the main question is does this use of the blog add to the reach of my posting things to Flickr – and then adding links on Mastodon and MetaPixl.
Comments are open for feed back
The new “Human Transit” arrives February 6!
Today I got a largish email from Jarret Walker, who I greatly admire. This blog post is just a cut and paste of much of what he sent me. I will be asking for a review copy of his new book and that could also lead to a review here in due course, but even without reading I would recommend you look at his offer of a discounted price.
There was going to be a picture of the cover here but WordPress tells me that at 123kb it is “too big”
| Our big news for 2024 is the Revised Edition of my book Human Transit, which goes on sale February 6.First published in 2011, Human Transit is one of the few books that explains public transportation concepts in plain language, to empower both advocates and professionals to think more clearly about their options. Now, I have updated and expanded the book to address the challenges of the 2020s. There’s new material on many issues, including: – planning for a diversity of riders – access to opportunity as a planning goal – on-demand transit – free fares – bus network redesign |
| To see more about what’s new, you can read the preface and Table of Contents, below. |
If you’d like to pre-order a copy from Island Press, use the code WALKER, which is good for a 20% discount. You can also order it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local independent bookseller.
If you have any questions or ideas for how to use the book in your own work, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at jarrett@jarrettwalker.com. I hope you enjoy the new Human Transit.
Preface to the Revised Edition of Human Transit
This book, aimed at a nontechnical reader, explores the challenging questions that you must think about when planning or advocating for public transit in your community. Ever since the first edition was released, public transit professionals have been thanking me for giving them something they can ask others to read, to help them form clearer expectations of public transit and see its real possibilities. Some public transit authorities have given copies to the elected leaders who make the big decisions. Over a decade later, the book is still widely read and used.
Why update it, then? The world has changed since the book came out in 2011, so there are some new issues to address. The new popularity of working from home, which began with the COVID-19 pandemic, has changed the patterns of travel demand. Some issues have become more urgent, such as land use planning and the suburbanization of poverty, so they are featured more. Rising concerns about racial and social justice have also driven an increased interest in free fares in some countries, so the chapter on fares is expanded to explore that issue.
Another big change since 2011 has been the flood of venture capital funding for companies attempting to “transform” or “disrupt” public transit in some way. These companies have unleashed enormous public relations campaigns to make us all focus on their inventions. They have produced both great innovations and a lot of hype and distraction, so in the opening chapters, I’ve put some energy into helping the reader sort through their claims.
Since the book first came out, I’ve continued working as a transit planning consultant, so I have another decade of experience to draw on. Our consulting firm, Jarrett Walker + Associates, now works in more parts of the world, so I have more international examples.
It’s become more obvious that people need help thinking about the diversity of people who find transit useful and resisting the urge to assign them to narrow categories, so I’ve added a new chapter on that, whose title comes from an instructive outburst by Elon Musk. There’s also a new chapter on my own specialty, bus network redesign.
The single most important change, though, is that in the last few years, I’ve become convinced of the importance of freedom, not just as a feel-good word but as a thing we can measure and plan for. So there’s a new chapter about access to opportunity—your freedom to go places so that you can do things—and many of the book’s arguments are restructured to refer to it.
But despite all these changes, the core idea of the book remains. The most important things to know about public transit—the purely geometric facts about why it matters and how it works—will always be current as long as we have cities. Explanations of these facts throughout the book are improved but need no correction. You can count on these things always being true, no matter what world events and technological disruptions come along.
I’m immensely grateful to everyone who’s told me how useful Human Transit has been for them, and those who have given me the feedback I needed to make it better. I hope this book is useful to you for many years to come, even after the next event or invention that seems, at first, as if it will change everything.
Introduction
What Transit Is and Does
What Makes Transit Useful? Seven Demands and How Transit Serves Them
The Wall Around Your Life: Access to Opportunity
A Bunch of Random Strangers: Planning for Diversity
Lines, Loops, and Longing
Touching the City: Stops and Stations
Peak or All Day?
Frequency is Freedom
The Obstacle Course: Speed and Reliability
Ridership or Coverage: The Challenge of Allocating Service
Can Fares Be Fair?
Connections or Complexity?
From Connections to Networks to Places
Network Design and Redesign
Be on the Way! Moral Implications of Location Choice
On the Boulevard
Take the Long View
Epilogue: Geometry, Choices, Freedom
Stephen Rees's blog 