What’s being called “luxury pollution” by the mega-rich is having quite a moment in the media during the second week of COP26. That may be because space cowboy Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, addressed the representatives in Glasgow on November 2, where he shared his insights into the fragility of planet Earth and stated, “We must all stand together to protect our world.”

Hydro-Québec’s goal to be “the battery of North America” recently received a setback in Maine. Some 60 percent of voters in a November 2 referendum in that state decided to protect their forests and environment from the clear-cutting that would be needed to erect a massive hydroelectric corridor, but they may also have been responding to current scientific thinking that no longer sees all hydropower as “green.”

Is this the reason why the NDP’s foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière has also been so reactionary towards the Venezuelan government? It’s hard to know, but these days politically (and wherever you look) it’s usually always about the oil. Perhaps the Koch Brothers role in all this will prompt the NDP to listen to its Socialist Caucus.