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October 8, 2020: IRES Faculty Seminar with César Rodríguez-Garavito

Climate litigation based on human rights is proliferating around the world. From the Netherlands to Mexico, from Canada to South Africa to the Philippines, from the Arctic to the Amazon, from domestic to international courts, litigants are bringing legal challenges against governments and corporations to hold them accountable for massive human rights violations associated with global warming. This talk presents the first systematic study of the universe of rights-based climate litigation around the world. The talk discusses the origins and the emergent legal doctrines as well as the impact and limitations of rights-based litigation in advancing climate action.

October 1, 2020: IRES Student Seminar with Anthony Persaud and Ilana Judah

September 24, 2020: IRES Faculty Seminar with Areef Abraham

Areef has worked for over three decades with underserved communities who struggle to pay their energy bills. This presentation will discuss how and why it all began, and the successes and pitfalls he experienced along the way. Areef’s learned experience speaks to the importance of working effectively at the interface of communities, governments and tradespeople to improve outcomes for all.

September 17, 2020: IRES Faculty Roundtable with Milind Kandlikar, David Boyd, and Claire Kremen

In March and April of 2020 as COVID-19 lockdowns were put in place around the world, observers noticed a palpable change in environmental conditions. As economic activity and movement of people stalled environmental quality improved. For example, air quality in places with notoriously bad levels of pollution became a lot better, observations of animal and bird life went up, and emissions of carbon dropped. However, six months into the pandemic we seem to be back to where we were in early 2020. This panel will address what we have learnt from this episode, and whether it provides lessons for a longer term transition to improved environmental and human health protection, including: the relationship between emerging infectious diseases, wildlife trade and deforestation, and the importance of actions to prevent future pandemics; how the covid 19 reveals the many frailties of our food system; and the future implications of CoVID for air quality and climate change.

September 10, 2020: IRES Awards Session with Kai Chan (First Seminar in Term 1)

Want to write an application that you’ll be proud of for an NSERC or SSHRC master’s or doctoral award? Nervous about crafting a research proposal that will make your application stand out? Join this Awards Info Session and kick-start the writing process with some great tips and direction for creating a successful application.

February 13, 2020: IRES Student Seminar with Juan Diego Martinez and Andrea Byfuglien

February 6, 2020: IRES Faculty Seminar with Mark Harris

On December 1, 2019, for the first time in history, Indigenous communities from across Australia danced in unison at the same time, dancing for Country, for ancestors and for healing. For the first time in over 150 years, Corroboree took place on Gundungurra Country (in south-eastern New South Wales). In this presentation I want to juxtapose this moment with the recent history of moves to achieve Reconciliation in Australia that began with the establishment of a Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 1991 and was followed by the attempts to comprehend Australia’s history of forced removal of Aboriginal children from the 1900s through to the 1970s (dubbed the Stolen Generations). This presentation will consider this historical context and the question of whether Reconciliation is possible in a settler-colonial society such as Australia and what lessons (if any) might be drawn for non-Indigenous peoples seeking to achieve Reconciliation.

January 23, 2020: IRES Faculty Seminar with Lenore Newman

The global environmental impact of rising consumption of animal products presents serious environmental challenges. One alternative is cellular agriculture: the production of animal products in-vitro. Such “clean meat” technologies promise improvements in environmental metrics, animal welfare, and human health. This discussion highlights research into the potential impact of cellular agriculture on the dairy industry; though cellular dairy could offer significant ecological benefits, these could be countered by intensification of agricultural activity in equatorial regions for the production of feedstocks for cellular agriculture. Using the concept of telecoupling, an umbrella concept that refers to socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances, this talk examines the policy landscape needed to prevent unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of alternatives to animal products.

January 16, 2020: IRES Student Seminar with Bronwyn McIlroy-Young and Harold Eyster

January 9, 2020: IRES Faculty Seminar with Rashid Sumaila

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was tasked with eliminating overfishing fisheries subsidies way back in 2001. This is yet to be accomplished. To support the ongoing WTO negotiations, the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at UBC has been providing fisheries subsidies data and analysis to the global community since the early 2000s. Dr. Rashid Sumaila will present his latest findings and describe the state of play in the struggle to discipline harmful subsidies.