Climate unpredictability

Hi folks!

Yesterday afternoon featured one of the fiercest storms I’ve seen in Ottawa for a while. The water running down the street was so voluminous it leapt the curb, the sky so dark it felt like nighttime in the middle of the afternoon. Walking around, the damage is apparent: trees down across the city, whole neighbourhoods still without power, and countless knock-on effects. This, coupled with the unseasonable temperatures the last few weeks, has me thinking yet again about an era of climate unpredictability—adapting to uncertainty seems to remain, as ever, a key skill to learn.

Drained from the weather, but hanging in! Will be brief today, as family’s visiting and we’re off to see some friends.

• Building from last week’s issue, which included a few links on transportation on logistics, here’s Rachel Premack on the follies of the shipping industry, in which bigger seemed to be better until the economics became too unwieldy. (I also enjoyed Premack’s article on truck inspections—announcing inspections may actually increase compliance. I love observations like this that don’t quite make sense at first glance, but reveal their logic once slightly peeled apart.)
• I like the different angles in this story profiling a new fish supply business introducing Great Lakes fish to commercial and home kitchens. From Indigenous food sovereignty to novel ways of preparing and sourcing fish to pushing back on overly industrial food supply chains—fascinating!

All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas