Carlyn Zwarenstein
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carlynzwaren.bsky.social
Carlyn Zwarenstein
@carlynzwaren.bsky.social
Science writing & literature / biology, nature & power structures.

✍🏼recently: Salon, MEE, Undark, Filter & others.
📚 On Opium (‘21, ‘23): drugs, pain, capitalism, & the consolations of literature.
www.carlynzwarenstein.com
Signal: carlynzwarenstein.29
Pinned
& part 2. Every day, new horror, but this 10K wd (in 2 parts) look @ Israel’s assault on every aspect of healthcare & life in Gaza still most detailed journalistic account I’ve seen in English, w/ answer 2 the age-old Q: so IS it legal 2 bomb a hospital? Or 36 of them?
www.salon.com/2024/11/11/h...
What a corrupt and stupid province we live in.
A sad day for cyclists. Bill 60 - which prohibits the conversion of motor vehicle lanes to bike lanes (or any other prescribed purpose) - has passed Third Reading this morning which will kill various cycling projects in Toronto & across Ontario. #shame #BikeTO #BikeSky #TOpoli #ONpoli #VisionZero
November 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Unexploded ordnance in Gaza poses grave danger, civil defence warns
<article data-history-node-id="431898" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/unexploded-ordnance-gaza-poses-grave-danger-civil-defence-warns" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/unexploded-ordnance-gaza-poses-grave-danger-civil-defence-warns" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Unexploded ordnance in Gaza poses grave danger, civil defence warns</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>A spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defence on Monday warned that unexploded Israeli ordnance in the enclave poses grave danger, "threatening the lives of citizens daily," and that immediate action must be taken to clear out the explosives.&nbsp;</p> <p>Four Palestinians were injured in two separate incidents in Gaza City on Monday, one of whom was critically injured "while tampering with an Israeli military leftover," the spokesperson said.</p> </div> </div> </article>
www.middleeasteye.net
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
COP30 overpromised, underdelivered, empowered distractions, backtracked on issues and once again gave big oil and big ag a free pass.

Unfortunately, the suspicions of climate scientists (here in Brazil and abroad) were confirmed again.
November 22, 2025 at 7:47 PM
This is why Israeli leaders are so comfortable with the hard-to-Nazi right. The embrace of colonialist Zionism was rife with the antisemitic desire to rid Europe of Jews from the start. Diaspora Jews have been failed fatally by mainstream Jewish institutions who know/don’t care, or fail to see this.
Mike Pence wrote an opinion piece for Fox News. Reading the headline, I was like, "Okay, seems like a normal take."

Then I read the subheadline and... bro, what?
November 21, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
If you email us proof of cancellation of your New York Times subscription (send to help@currentaffairs.org), we’ll give you a FREE year-long digital subscription to Current Affairs.
NYT continues its long history of publishing op-eds pushing criminal wars of aggression
November 17, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
can't overemphasize how joyful and proud the fascists of the 20th century would be at how well the 21st century fascists are being treated by mainstream companies and media outlets
Instagram is hosting a thriving neo-Nazi marketplace. Influencers like Hayden McDougall and Dylan Shane push Nazi imagery and extremist merch to massive audiences — content that violates Meta’s own rules. The platform isn’t just failing to stop it; it’s enabling extremist propaganda to scale.
Instagram’s Antisemitism Economy
Instagram has become a marketplace for antisemitism. Influencers like Hayden McDougall, Dylan Shane, Jake Shields, and Myron Gaines are using the platform’s massive reach to glorify Hitler, deny the H...
globalextremism.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
At COP30 Canada just got awarded the fossil of the day — first time since 2014 (the harper years). Clear sign of how Carney’s pro fossil fuel agenda and backsliding on climate policy is being noticed internationally.
November 18, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
“Not just the building sector emissions would have been down, but overall emissions wouldn't have increased this year, if not for the significant increase in electricity generation emissions,” said Bryan Purcell of @atmosphericfund.bsky.social. New from me for @nationalobserver.com
Toronto-area emissions rise as Ontario burns more natural gas
A new report from The Atmospheric Fund found that emissions went up one per cent in 2024. While the increase is slight, it comes in the context of emissions needing to go down by 11 per cent each year...
www.nationalobserver.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
A lot of people didn’t like the Washington Post journalist who was tortured and dismembered with a bone saw for writing critically about the man sitting next to me
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 18, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
We've seen some remarkable outcomes in people with advanced, refractory cancers, including pancreatic, melanoma, and renal, with personalized neoantigen mRNA vaccines.
But this work is now endangered.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/pers...
November 18, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Cartel de Los Soles is the new Antifa
November 18, 2025 at 6:44 PM
It is absolutely infuriating that tho my Canada-published 2nd book appears to have been used 2 train AI (or may have been: it was on the initial Anthropic list published by the Atlantic), because it's not registered w/ US copyright I am not eligible for the initially-proposed settlement nor this.
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Ethiopia faces its first Marburg outbreak, which has proved deadly www.cidrap.umn.edu/marburg/ethi...
Ethiopia faces its first Marburg outbreak, which has proved deadly
www.cidrap.umn.edu
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Nuzzi's fawning coverage of the sociopathic conspiracy crank she was having an affair with aided his rise to political power, which he is using to perpetrate the worst intentional public health catastrophe of our unnecessarily shortened lifetimes, and THAT is the STORY.
November 15, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
I really did not enjoy Jay Bhattacharya & Matthew Memoli’s screed against pandemic & virology research for the flagship blog of a “free-market think tank." Instead of getting mad, I accepted @jeremyfaust.bsky.social's kind invitation to take a factual & scientific blowtorch to it.
November 16, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Health Canada convened an independent expert advisory group in 2020 to provide guidance on safer supply. Health Canada heavily redacted its final report, but unredacted version obtained by CBC shows the expert group said drug crisis is driven by prohibition and recommended expansion of safer supply
November 16, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
It is incredible — the blind spots you develop when you’ve never, ever been poor.
Trump claims that food stamps "puts the country in jeopardy. People that are able-bodied can do a job, they leave their job because they figure they can pick this up, it's easier."
November 11, 2025 at 12:34 AM
This is all insane.
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Hi Bluesky 👋

Small life update: I’m at the centre of a multimillion dollar lawsuit in Alberta launched by a failed candidate for Jason Kenney’s UCP

It may be the longest and most expensive media trial in Canadian history

I’m ready to go public about it and I want to share more details with you 🧵
November 7, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
I remain absolutely confused that people *ever* thought screwing with the abyssal sea floor would "get better" after mining.
November 6, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
This story is so twisted. A Toronto student group hosted an event to celebrate literal members of the IDF (aka war criminals) and now they are claiming to be victims because they were protested.

It isn’t + never will be antisemitic to decry Israeli genocide or to hold those responsible accountable.
November 6, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
For years Canada pointed to private refugee sponsorship as the future of resettlement - a model to be emulated elsewhere. Canada is cutting private refugee sponsorship by about 30%: www.canada.ca/en/immigrati...
Supplementary Information for the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan - Canada.ca
Supplementary Information for the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan
www.canada.ca
November 5, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
Little things become symbols. And symbols are what stick with people.

This budget is full of very very dumb symbols.
Out of budget lockup. I recently wrote: "Ottawa imposes a 10 percent luxury tax on yachts... yet a family buying a semi in Scarborough pays the equivalent of 15 percent in [DCs] and land transfer taxes."

Today the gov't addressed this by eliminating the luxury tax on yachts.
November 4, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Carlyn Zwarenstein
At the end of the day I'm not sure how much difference it makes. But it is striking to put out a budget that axes a luxury tax on yachts and adds a co-pay for refugee claimants accessing drugs and dental care.
November 4, 2025 at 10:57 PM