Noteworthy: If Saudi Arabia is in, maybe this climate change thing is serious

By Bruce Penton on December 27, 2023.

Most of us won’t be around to see what possible cataclysmic events global warming may or may not ultimately cause, but at least history will show that our generation at least tried to do something to stem the globe’s temperature.

Having world leaders agree to move away from the use of fossil fuels certainly isn’t cheered in Alberta, where the economy flourishes thanks to oil production, but when one of the countries agreeing to support the drive to survive is Saudi Arabia, which has a bigger stake in oil production than Alberta, then you know there’s far more at stake than just oil-related profits.

The most recent numbers I could find were that Saudi Arabia had 268 billion barrels of oil reserves and Alberta had 165 billion barrels.

Meanwhile, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. is projecting that 2024 will be the warmest year in the world since instrument records began to be kept, saying the odds of that happening are 99.5 per cent. The 2024 warmest-year record won’t last long, say meteorological experts, because 2025 will be warmer yet.

– The year 2023 will come to a close with the future of the proposed Alberta Pension Plan blowing in the wind. Provincial Finance Minister Nate Horner recently announced a ‘pause’ in the government’s efforts to convince Albertans of the merits of the APP, but whether it will come back in 2024, or just be quietly dropped, remains to be seen.

At issue are two things: 1. Albertans are far from unanimous in their desire to create an Alberta Pension Plan; 2. Alberta and Ottawa are far, far apart on how much money would be transferred to Alberta, with the Alberta government saying we’re due about 53 per cent of the current CPP pot and Ottawa countering that the figure should probably be closer to 15 per cent. That’s a Grand Canyonesque gap that not even the late Evil Knievel, in his prime, would consider leaping.

– Abandoned gloves: In the narrow space between one of my favourite walking trails and a homeowner’s fence on my regular route sits a pair of men’s black insulated gloves, probably worth $40 or more when they were new.

They’re close to new, I believe, and for the past month, at least, I’ve seen them sitting on the grass, as if someone had been doing some work on the fence, removed the gloves and then forgotten to pick them up when the work was done. Meanwhile, no one who uses the much-travelled route has walked away with them, even though our lack of snow has left them completely visible. If you’re reading this, and you’ve recently misplaced some nice gloves, and remember doing some work on a fence near a Medicine Hat walking trail, they might be yours.

– Ninety-five per cent of Hatters, or more, do the right thing when out for a walk with their dogs. They pick up the dog poo. But here’s my suggestion for the five per cent of no-gooders: 30 days in the slammer.

– As I get older, I start paying more attention to seniors’ issues. One that hit home the other day is that more than half of us will likely need long-term care as we age. So here’s the double whammy: Our life expectancy is lengthening, and our generation had fewer children than those before us, so there’s fewer kids around to take care of ma and pa.

– Now that Christmas is out of the way, Medicine Hat Tigers have a great opportunity to build a huge lead in the Central Division of the Western Hockey League. Following a game tonight in Red Deer, Willie Desjardins’ crew – which went into the Christmas break with a 21-9-2 record – plays eight of its next 10 games in front of friendly fans at Co-op Place. By the time that long homestead ends on Jan. 19, there’s a good chance teams trailing the Tigers in the divisional race will need binoculars to see them.

– Stolen directly from yahoo.sports is this list of unusual names of college football players. (Whatever happened to Bob, Bill, Jim and Tom?) The list: King Large, Air Noland, Sanfrisco Magee, Exodus Ayers, Decker DeGraaf, Legend Journey, Tycoolhill Luman, Crews Law and Commandre Cole.

– An encouraging statistic as we approach 2024 (the info is from the U.S., but it’s safe to assume Canadian figures are similar): Cancer mortality rate has fallen 32 per cent since the early 1990s.

– Until next Wednesday … have a Happy New Year!