Wake up! The world is burning! Does anybody care?

"Today . . . we live in a world that is burning, both because of global warming and armed conflicts"

- Pope Leo XIV, July 2025

This summer, Pope Leo spoke out strongly about the threat to our earth and to humanity, as did his predecessor, Pope Francis.  In July, Leo interrupted his two-week summer holiday to issue a stark warning about a world that is burning.  He described the global situation as an "ecological crisis"  

I wish that more world leaders would express a deep concern about climate change and war.  Of course, I don't expect Donald Trump and his followers to express any environmental concerns.  Trump thinks climate change is a hoax and that wind turbines (he calls them "windmills") cause cancer.  He doesn't like wind energy at all.  Nor does he like solar energy.  All he wants to do is cut environmental regulations.  He has tried to dismantle the American wind and solar energy industries.  It is symbolic of Trump's attitude that he's paved over the rose garden at the White House, turning it into a concrete patio.  Remember what Joni Mitchell sang about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot?  

Trump does not support renewable energy.  He prefers fossil fuels.  He likes coal. There has never been an American leader so hostile to environmental protections/  Even Richard Nixon, a Republican, called for the establishment of an Environmental Protection Agency.  With the world burning, this is the worst time possible for someone like Trump to be in the Oval Office.

What has former U.S. Vice President Al Gore been up to lately?  Gore has spoken out strongly about the dangers of climate change.  The 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, chronicled his efforts to alert the public to the dangers of the environmental crisis.  I checked to see what he's been doing these days.  Al Gore is 77 years old now, and he recently attended an event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil called The Climate Reality Project, which focused on political mobilization for climate action.  During his visit to Brazil, Gore stated that America's position on the climate crisis changed depending on whether the Democrats or Republicans held power.  Between 2017 and 2021, Trump withdrew the United States from Paris Agreement and its attempt to limit global warming.  When Joe Biden became president, the United States returned to the agreement, only to withdraw again during Trump's second term.

Al Gore

I read this from the Weather Network yesterday.

B.C. and Alberta roast in late-August heat as records fall, relief out of reach

"The last week of August is turning into a scorcher in Western Canada, with B.C. and Alberta experiencing relentless heat.

Records are falling, wildfires are raging and meteorologists expect that summer-like conditions will persist until September."

Despite the wildfires in her province, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is determined to build more pipelines and lessen environmental restrictions.

It's not just Western Canada and B.C.  Here's a headline from August 24, 2025.

Northwest Ontario Wildfire Update: 28 Active Fires, Thunder Bay Area Sees Elevated Risk

Here in Canada, the federal Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, have no interest in taking measures to combat climate change.   Poilievre was a vocal critic of former PM Justin Trudeau's carbon tax.  Poilievre vociferously opposed the carbon tax, using the slogan "axe the tax."  Public opinion supported Poilievre's stance and it seemed as if the Conservative leader was going to win an easy victory in the federal election.  Suddenly, everything changed.  Trudeau resigned and Mark Carney became the new Liberal leader and prime minister.  Carney still had to face an election.  He knew he couldn't win the election with the unpopular carbon tax hanging over his head, so he immediately cancelled the tax and led a resistance to Trump's tariffs and his threat to make Canada the 51st state.  Carney's Liberal Party won the election.   

Prime Minister Mark Carney

Mark Carney is a former central banker.  He is also a global advocate for climate action.  Given the wildfires in Canada, I wish he would make the environment more of a priority.  I wish he would speak about a green future for Canada and green jobs.  I wish he would make our nation a leader in the sustainability movement.  

Carney is in a difficult situation.  He has to deal with a volatile, unstable, authoritarian U.S. president.  Right-wing conservatives and their leaders such as Poilievre and Daniel Smith, are pressuring him to abandon environmental concerns.  Big Oil wants to drill, baby, drill.  Much of the public is more concerned with inflation and housing.  People are worried about putting food on the table.  They don't want to think about the environment.  Sadly, they can't see the forest for the tress, and the forest is burning.

- Joanne

Why are so many athletes wearing zero on their uniform? Is it really a number?

It's been called a doughnut and a goose egg.  Mathematically speaking, 0 (zero) is a number.  It represents an empty quantity.  Adding or subtracting 0 (zero) to any number never changes that number.  Therefore, in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers etc.  Yet, 0 is not a counting number.  When children learn to count, they are not taught to say 0, 1, 2, 3 . . .

The topic of this discourse, however, is not mathematics.  It is sports. I have noticed an increase in the number of athletes who wear 0 or 00 on their uniform.  Wearing zero or double zero is not new, but it has always been rare.  Now it seems to be gaining popularity. It is becoming trendy, although not in the National Hockey League, where it is not allowed.  Only one non-goalie in NHL history has worn zero.  Neil Sheehy, wore it while playing for the Harford Whalers during the 1987-88. season. 

Here's what Sheehy stated about wearing zero: "When people asked me why I wore it I had some fun with it.  I would tell them it was the furthest number from 99 and talent-wise I'm the furthest from Wayne Gretzky, but just remember opposites attract.  At the time, the Battle of Alberta was pretty tense and my job was to play against Gretzky a lot of the time.

"I also told people I wanted to get the "O" back in my name, for O'Sheehy, my Irish ancestors.  The truth is, in Ireland, our name was MacSheehy.  I just tried to have some fun with it.  Fans used to yell at me, 'Is zero your IQ?  then somebody would say, 'Hey, this guy went to Harvard, you know.'  It was hilarious."

Although Sheehy was the first skater to wear 0 in the NHL, he was not the first player to do so.  In 1943-43, Paul Bibeault, goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens, wore zero.  Over the course of his 102-game NHL career, Bibeault  also wore 1, 14, 16 and 21.  It seems he had a habit of changing his number.

Paul Bibeault

Goaltenders John Davidson and Martin Biron wore 00 briefly.  Davidson was the first player in the NHL to wear double zero when he played  for the New York Rangers during the 1977-78 season.  he was influenced by Phil Esposito.  When the Rangers acquired Esposito from the Boston Bruins. Phil wanted his usual number 7.  However, it already belonged to Rod Gilbert of the Rangers.  So, Phil decided to wear number 77.  Double digit numbers were rare in the 1970s, but Esposito convinced the goaltender to also wear double digits.

Martin Biron wore double zero as a rookie with the Buffalo Sabres.  In late December and early January of 1995-96 season, Biron was an emergency call-up from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.  He played in three games for Buffalo that season, becoming the last player to wear double zero in the NHL.

Hockey card with Byron wearing 00

Davidson wearing 00 with Rangers

Goalie Bernie Parent actually wore double zero before Davidson and Byron, but not while playing in the NHL.  Bernie wore 00 while playing for the 1972-73 Philadelphia Blazers of the World Hockey Association (WHA).. Below is a photo of Bernie wearing 00 when he played for the Blazers.

 No player has worn zero or double zero since Martin Biron.  The league banned those digits in the 1990s for database reasons.  Its database couldn't handle the null value. When NHL statisticians found a bug in their new stat-tracking software, the "Biron rule" was put into effect, restricting sweater numbers to whole numbers between1 and 99 (later limited to numbers between 1 and 98 after the league retired 99 in honour of Wayne Gretzky.  One wonders why the NHL's software has not been upgraded to handle the nil value.  Could it be that the league, for some reason, does not want its players to wear zero and double zero on their jerseys?

On my hometown baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, second baseman Andrés Giménez sports a zero on his uniform.  He is the first member of the team to do so since Al Oliver in 1985.  Oliver was the first player in Major League Baseball (MLB) to wear 0.  When he was traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Texas Rangers after the 1977 season, he reportedly chose zero as a symbol of a new beginning with a new team. When Oliver and Cliff Johnson were teammates in Toronto in 1985, Johnson wore 00.  At the time, the Blue Jays had a zero and a double zero on the same roster.

Andrés Giménez  

       

Oliver wearing 0 with the Expos

The National Football League (NFL) approved zero on uniforms for the 2023 season. Below is a photo of Miami Dolphins cornerback Jack Jones when he played college football with Arizona State. He wore zero for two seasons in Arizona before being being selected by the New England Patriots in the 2022 NFL Draft.  "It represents where I'm from," Jones said in 2020.  "I want to retire the number," he added.  "I want to be the first guy to ever do it and the last guy to ever do it."

Jones was quite excited when the NFL approved zero on its jerseys.  He changed his Twitter name to "0" and referred to himself as an "Agent Zero" in his biography.  

What about the Canadian Football League? Does the  CFL permit zero on player uniforms?  Yes, CFL players can wear 0 to 99 inclusive.  I assume that means double zero is not permitted in the CF.  Although, I would never choose zero for a uniform number.it seems to be gaining popularity among athletes.  I much prefer the number 16, of course.

- Joanne

The Unholy Trinity: Putin, Trump and Netanyahu

Here we are in the 21st century and three men have unleased untold suffering and death on the world.  What do they have in common?  They are all Alpha males in their 70s.  They are all cruel.  Together they form an unholy trinity of evil, a triumvirate of criminals who lack basic humanity. 

Vladimir Putin of Russia, 72 

Putin launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine in 2022.  He is responsible for the death of civilians  He is a war criminal.  The International Criminal Court  (ICC), located in The Hague, Netherlands, has issued a warrant for the arrest of Putin on charges on of crime against children in the Ukraine,  A former big wheel in the KGB, the Russian leader is absolutely ruthless.  His government tortures and murders political opponents such as Alexei Navalny.

Below is a photo of Putin c.1980 in a KGB uniform.

Putin: Attribution Kremlin.ru

Donald Trump of the United States, 79 

Donald Trump has been twice impeached.  A New York criminal trial has convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsified business records.  In a civil case, a Manhattan federal jury found him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.  On January 6, 2021, he encouraged an insurrection in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in which he was defeated by Joe Biden.  His ICE agents are harassing, imprisoning and deporting immigrants, legal and undocumented.  His government is attempting to dismantle USAID and other foreign spending, causing disease and starvation.

Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, 75

The prime minister of Israel faces bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges in multiple cases.  He continues his relentless assault on Gaza, spreading death, malnutrition and famine in the region, including the starvation of children.  He has created a humanitarian crisis.

- Joanne

Why I could not watch last night's Blue Jays game. I'm not pleased about it!

Readers of Number 16 know that I am a huge fan of the Toronto Blue Jays.  Last night, the Jays won a comeback thriller and Alejandro Kirk recorded his first career stolen base. The Jays' catcher led the team to 6-5 victory over the Texas Rangers with a two-run homer in the seventh inning and a deciding two-run single in the eighth inning. Unfortunately, I was unable to enjoy the game on television or stream it. Why?  Because the game was not shown on Sportsnet, which regularly covers the Jays. Instead, it was streamed on Apple TV.  Many fans, including myself, do not subscribe to Apple TV.  I already pay a monthly fee to subscribe to Netflix.   I have no intention of subscribing to Apple TV to see the occasional Jays game. It's a ploy to squeeze more money out of the fans.

Alejandro Kirk

Sports fans get the short end of the stick.  They are overcharged and underappreciated.  I have always been on the side of the fans, more than the owners and players.  All they can expect is for ticket prices to increase and fewer games to be shown on conventional TV.  The players and owners are making millions of dollars off the backs of ordinary Joes.  It's the fans who make the game, but fewer and fewer ordinary Joes can even afford to go to the games.  Now they are even being deprived of watching them on television.  

Once in while, s player will mention how great the fans are.  At the end of the season there is a fan appreciation day and someone will win a car provided by an advertiser.  These are just crumbs.  Fans deserve more.  At the very least, they should be able to watch every games on television.  I don't think that's asking too much.

- Joanne