Dear Readers, it is with a heavy heart that I announce the cancellation of April Fools’ jokes for this April 1, 2026.  Due to the vast surfeit of actual April fools, AI fakes, and a disillusioned, disheartened and dissatisfied society, our world needs more than a joke.

What our world really needs is a complete and thorough cleansing of all of the April fools who are causing so much angst and anger across the globe. At the top of the list are the three Supreme Leaders who are now having a pissing contest in the Middle East: Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald J, Trump, and the mysterious Mojtaba Khamenei.

The biggest joke in this unholy trio is Mr. Trump, who has now “totally obliterated” the same military and nuclear targets many times over. Now, even the neediest students in my first Grade Five class knew that the word obliterate meant ” to destroy, to totally wipe out.”  Obliterate was what the Chicxulub Impactor asteroid did to the dinosaurs. However, the very existence of these three fools may put that event into question.

Along with Mr. Trump on the North American side of the ledger are the hyper masculine displays on the public stage by the bombastic and theatrically aggressive Pete Hegseth, the President’s Secretary of Defense, of War, of Excursions and most recently, of Endeavours. “Kill  ’em all” Pete does not believe in taking prisoners or leaving survivors, an attitude which serves Mr. Netanyahu’s interests quite nicely.

Sadly, no one in Palestine, Iran, and the other Middle Eastern countries is laughing after being drawn into a war started by Israeli-USA aggression. Before this conflict began the Strait of Hormuz was open to shipping. The global disruption to energy, fertilizers, food and other goods has been caused totally by Israel’s ultra-orthodox quest for total control of the Middle East, and MAGA mega stupidity. The most cruel joke is that Mr. Trump is asking the other Gulf states who have been targets of Iran’s defensive response to pay for the cost of his Iran war.

Hilarious. That’s like starting a gang fight in a schoolyard and then asking all the innocent bystanders who got hurt to pay for your bandages and broken baseball bats. As former President Barack Obama said In a recent interview, “You cannot make this stuff up. If you saw it on Saturday Night Live you’d say “Oh, that’s going a little too far.”

They may be laughing in the Knesset and the White House, but the rest of the world finds these April Fools guilty of very unfunny war crimes against  humanity. Consider this: Israel has been ranked as one of the happiest ten countries in the world, How can you be happy when 75,000 dead lie scattered around your borders, the victims of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), what “Bibi” calls the “most humane and moral army” in the world.

T.S. Elliot was right. “April is the cruelest month of all.” That’s not a joke.

The way I see it.

When I was researching my Earth Hour blog for March 28. 2026, I was startled to discover that the human population of Earth had just reached 8.3 billion, give or take a few million. For the last few years in speaking engagements, I had been using the 2011 milestone of 7 billion. It was catchy to say that the world’s population had tripled since I was born in 1946. Time for an upgrade.

From historical estimations, the relatively small human population of a few million in Africa, East Asia, and Europe was kept in check by high mortality rates. From there it took over 200,000 years to reach a global population of 1 billion in 1804. But it took only 200 years to reach 8 billion by 2022. Gotta love that Industrial Revolution.

When we moved into our little home in North York, Ontario in the 1950’s it was heated by a coal furnace. I remember driving down with my Dad to an industrial warehouse on Mount Pleasant Avenue in Toronto to pick up bags of coal and charcoal. That ended when Hurricane Hazel flooded our basement and our coal furnace blew up.. A new oil furnace replaced it with a storage tank at the side of the house.

But we still had an icebox refrigerator. My serious job was to empty the water tray under the fridge every day. The fun time was chasing the ice wagon down the street to steal ice chips.

Then one day we got the first electric refrigerator on the street. A Westinghouse with a butter keeper. All the neighbours lined up to see it. Entertainment was all piano, harmonica, singsong, and radio … until the first black and white TV arrived. I was allowed to watch three shows on the weekends: Lawrence Welk, Ed Sullivan, and the Wonderful World of Disney. Then we added The Dick Clark Show – rock & roll, and wild dancing!

How times have changed. I remember getting my first “smart” phone, taking a picture on a hike, sending it to my daughter overseas, and my shock in realizing she had received it instantaneously. No more long distance letters that took weeks and months to arrive from “the colonies” to relatives in Europe.

You see, it’s not just the population and the temperature that are on the hockey stick curve. It’s also the amount of stuff that has pushed us faster into the future, as one mentor described it: ” driving at high speed towards the edge of a cliff looking in the rear view mirror.”

When I look back, my favourite times were going through our neighbour’s backyard to explore the Don Valley ravine. They were making up radio shows with my Dad on his new tape recorder, where we created all of our own sound effects. They were watching my uncles and aunts sing around the piano. They were canoe trips with my students when we moved with the rhythm of the wind and the water.

Perhaps time seemed to move more slowly then, and we were allowed to enjoy the moment. 8.3 billion of us, moving fast, consuming more, does not seem to be bringing us community happiness in the North American world of my childhood. Certainly not in the global community. Perhaps it is time to slow down and listen to the grand liturgy of the universe, as Thomas Berry would implore.

Time to get humble again. The way I see it.

***

Historical footnote:

1 billion at the start of the Industrial Revolution to 2.5 billion in 1946 to 8.3 billion in 2026

CE 1: million

1804: 1 billion

1927: 2 billion

1946: 2.5 billion

1960: 3 billion

2016: 7 billion

March 28, 2026 : 8.3 billion

You draw the chart.

First, I apologize to my regular readers for my prolonged absence from the blog. I was deep into finishing off several stories during a month’s sabbatical in Exeter. And then I returned to an operation on my wrist and came home with both wrists in braces that made keyboarding a trifle difficult. And then I got an invitation from a former student to speak to his organization … Ontario Nurses for the Environment. Whoa!

It was suggested in the invite to this engagement that the membership check out my website. Oh, Oh. When I checked my last blog, it was a satire piece on peace, but not really suitable for Nurses for the Environment. Time for an update.

How good is this: two of my favourite beings: nurses and the environment together for one presentation. The environment is a given favourite, but why nurses? Specifically because the dedicated nurses at Toronto General Hospital spent months getting me back to health. The Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at TGH is staffed by some of the most professional and caring medical staff you will ever encounter. Secondly, because I didn’t know that an organization called Ontario Nurses for the Environment even existed.

Just imagine the dedication and energy devoted to a crusty old heart patient being extended to an entire planet. I was sold. Invitation accepted.

So, dear Nurses, if you are reading this now, let me tell you that the patient, Earth, is in need of much better stewardship. And your linking of personal and community health with planetary ecosystem wellness is brilliant. As I have often said, we and the environment are one. Just ask the citizens of Tehran, Iran, living under the toxic cloud of oil rain.

Which is why I spend so much time exposing stupid politicians. We need far fewer populist polluters and far more nurses caring for our planetary wellness.

The way I see it.

***

p.s. More to come, just for you,  at our engagement …

This is the face of Donald’s Board of Peace.

Note: this is NOT the Board of Peace as proposed by the United Nations in Resolution 2803 on November 17, 2025. No, no. This Bored of Peace is made of real estate vampires, mass murderers, and puppet politicians.

For a billion dollars, you can get a permanent seat. Guess who is in first. Yep, international war criminals, oligarchs and oil sheikhs. Under Donald’s rule, it’s an invitation only club.

The Hegemon has not invited Prime Minister Carney of Canada to join, claiming, “He wasn’t so grateful.” In other words, If you don’t kiss the ring of the king, you’re not in. Besides Canada, other countries who are NOT on board include UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Slovenia,  Ukraine, The Vatican, and the head of the European Union.

Of course, the Chair of the Board will be The Donald, aided by devotee “Little Marco” Rubio (USA Suckretary of State), and “Cushy” Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-out-law), property developer Steve “Wicked” Witkoff, “Teflon” Tony Blair (failed former UK Prime Minister), and Ajay “Wasn’t Me” Banga (President of the World Bank). Add war criminals like Vlad the Destroyer, Benny the Butcher, and Mohammed the Slayer and you have a leadership team capable of global apocalypse now.

A Board of Peace? I don’t think so. But a world in pieces, cut up and sold to the highest bidder?  Palestine knows. Ukraine knows, Sudan knows. This is the way our world could end … with a bang and a whimper. The way I see it.