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What are we reading? December 5, 2019

Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web. Kirk LaPointe, editor-in-chief: The internet isn’t what it used to be. Don’t despair.
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Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.

Kirk LaPointe, editor-in-chief:

The internet isn’t what it used to be. Don’t despair. This special edition of the New York Times Magazine examines the likely future and it’s not all that bad. – New York Times Magazine

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/14/magazine/internet-future-dream.html

The inventor of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, admits it hasn’t worked out the way he thought. Still, he has a plan. – New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/opinion/world-wide-web.html

In case you missed it, or ICYMI in internet short-hand, this video of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen receiving the Anti-Defamation League’s international honour, is an exceptional takedown of the internet’s mess. He pays particular attention to Facebook and YouTube, which houses this. – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymaWq5yZIYM&feature=youtu.be

Nelson Bennett, reporter:

Can Europe slap a carbon tax on the U.S.? There are now more than two dozen countries with some form of carbon pricing. The U.S. does not, as yet, have carbon pricing a federal level. But the European Union is now considering a carbon border tax, which would be a levy on imports from countries that do not price carbon emissions. – Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-04/climate-change-europe-s-carbon-border-tax-will-enrage-trump

Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor

The fires of Britain’s long love affair with coal are fizzling out as the U.K. switches to natural gas and renewables for power generation. In 1950 coal was the source of virtually all of its electricity; now that share is about 3%. – Economist

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/12/03/britain-is-kicking-its-addiction-to-fossil-fuels

Canadian premiers stand together to demand faster bailouts for provinces in need, and more money for health care. The show of national unity kind of brings a tear to the eye, if you can forget for a moment that many of those selfsame premiers spend a lot of their time hammering wedges into regional rifts for cheap political gain. – CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/premiers-budget-fix-national-unity-1.5381166