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Canadian Government Scraps Long-Form Census

An appalling decision from the Canadian federal government today, reported by the Globe & Mail here: “Tories scrap mandatory long-form census” The census is a vital data source for all sorts of transportation and land use planning.  A voluntary census is nearly useless, since the sample will suffer from voluntary response bias.  This will do nothing [...]

Asides

• The Copenhagenize blog has some interesting thoughts on cycling and subcultures: do the various cycling subcultures (racers, couriers, mountain bikers) in North America get in the way of making cycling appealing to normal citizens? The subcultures define themselves by gear or attitude - and I think this is quite offputting for normal people. It's like a world where choosing to drive made everyone think you were a Formula One fan or a fix-your-own-car-guy. That said, the various European cycle chic blogs are perhaps guilty of pushing another subculture: beautiful people. #
• Joe Romm discusses a plausible worst case scenario for climate change. The UK's Hadley Centre model was used to look at the effects of continued growth in fossil fuel use, including carbon feedbacks - and the results aren't pretty. In 10% of the model runs, very high temperatures are seen as soon as 2060, and the North American numbers are 6-12°C rises. #