Feb 10, 2021: CBC featured research from David Righter’s IRES Master’s thesis, showing that 75% of coastal communities in Nova Scotia are implementing climate change plans ordered by the province.
Dr. Jiaying Zhao on behavioural sustainability
Feb 10, 2021: In a podcast episode, Dr. Zhao discussed the necessity of putting psychology to use in sustainability; if we know how people come to their decisions, we can design policies that help them make good decisions on their own.
February 11, 2021: IRES Student Seminar with Joanne Nelson and Kyoko Adachi
IRES Seminar Series
Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)
Via Zoom
View video.
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Visualizing Urban Indigenous Water Knowledge
Water is of central importance to Indigenous peoples the world over, therefore water governance is of particular interest for our communities and Nations. Current Indigenous water governance debates call for a shift in water governance that meaningfully includes Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) or Indigenous Knowledge (IK), Indigenous laws and ontologies to address water challenges. Despite the fact that over half of Indigenous peoples in Canada live in an urban area, the voice of urban Indigenous people has been largely absent from the growing literature on Indigenous water governance, water stewardship, and TEK, which has an on-reserve or rural focus. This presentation will describe my proposed doctoral research which will use arts-based methods to investigate urban Indigenous relationships to water, and related implications for water stewardship and governance, in the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples (Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwu7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh) occupied by Metro Vancouver.
Joanne Nelson
IRES PhD Program
Bio:
Joanne Nelson is a Tsm’syen woman who grew up in the northwestern BC communities of Port Edward and Prince Rupert where she gained a tremendous appreciation for nature, in particular the ocean environment. She is from Lax Kw’alaams on her mother’s side and Kitsumkalum on her father’s side. Her passions include traditional Tsm’syen art forms as well as paddle sports such as dragon boat and outrigger canoe. She is a PhD student at UBC’s Resource, Environment and Sustainability program. Her research will focus on using arts-based methods to engage with urban Indigenous peoples regarding traditional knowledge, water governance and water stewardship that centre Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Joanne had lived on the unceded land of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwu7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh people on and off for over 30 years before returning to Ts’msyen territory, Prince Rupert.
On the Acceptance of Intergenerational Legacies: A Comparison of Canada and Japan
Justice negotiations for climate change, as with other multi-generational issues, have been challenging. Parties in such negotiations clash on how to treat outcomes of past actions. Two challenges often emerge: 1) how to treat positive legacies and recompense for negative legacies, and 2) whether to differentiate between actions leading to known harms and those with unintended outcomes. We aimed to shed light on these two challenges via a cross-cultural lens by operationalizing legacies in inheritance of riches and debt. We collected reasoned responses from participants in Canada and Japan on whether and under what conditions they would accept inheritance and settle debts. The findings highlight strong influences of culture, gender, and age on accepting responsibilities for historic actions and willingness to provide compensation. They also support abandoning the debates on intentionality and framing compensation differently.
Kyoko Adachi
IRES MA Alumna (July 2020)
Bio:
Kyoko Adachi completed her master’s degree in July this year at IRES, UBC under the supervision of Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi and Dr. Jiaying Zhao. She was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to Toronto 6 years ago where she earned her BA in Environmental Ethics. Her research interest lies in exploring cultural differences and influences in international negotiations, especially those of climate change. She currently resides in Tokyo, Japan.
Farm protests highlight complex India trade outlook
Feb 5, 2021: Dr. Shashidharan Enarth commented on the complex relationship between B.C.’s Indian diaspora and its home country amidst the recent #FarmersProtest.
Feb 4, 2021: Second Annual Water Research Roundup
Virtual Webinar: The webinar will feature a panel of student researchers working on topics related to freshwater governance, including stewardship, protection, and Indigenous laws and ways of knowing. This is the second annual “Water Research Roundup” offered as part of POLIS’ Creating a Blue Dialogue webinar series.
February 4, 2021: IRES Faculty Seminar with Mary Collins
IRES Seminar Series
Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)
Via Zoom
View video.
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Targeted pollution management, toxic emissions reduction, and jobs in US manufacturing over time
Analyzing the relationship between employment and toxic emissions at over 25,000 US manufacturing facilities between 1998 to 2012 demonstrates that significant reductions in toxic pollution can be achieved while avoiding equivalent effects on employment. Three simulations provide a comparison of the effects on employment of pollution management strategies targeted at highly polluting industries and facilities compared to strategies targeting a random or median subset of facilities and industries. Targeted strategies are effective because toxic emissions are disproportionally distributed; a handful of facilities and industries account for the majority of toxic emissions released in the US manufacturing sector. Moreover, these highly polluting facilities and industries do not employ significantly more workers than peer, lower polluting facilities and industries. The research challenges the narrative that protecting the environment must come at a significant cost to economic activity.
Mary Collins
Assistant Professor, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York
Bio:
Dr. Mary Collins is an environmental social scientist and Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York (SUNY-ESF). Dr. Collins uses hierarchical models to assess inequalities in pollution generation between US-based industrial facilities and potential human health impacts. Currently, she is working on the temporal dimensions of hazardous waste generation as it relates to links between specific chemical exposures and rare cancers in New York State.
Spooked by COVID-19, B.C. government invests in food processing, supply chain
Feb 3, 2021: Dr. Hannah Wittman said in an interview with National Observer that free trade deals like NAFTA have consistently made it more difficult for smaller, regional food processing facilities to compete with imported foods.
Feb 2, 2021: Natural Capital Conversations
The next Natural Capital Conversations features IRES’s Ale Echeverri and Rocio Lopez de la Lama! They will discuss how to measure nature’s non-material benefits: the Cultural Ecosystem Services of Water.
January 28, 2021: IRES Professional Development Seminar with Zia Mehrabi
IRES Seminar Series
Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)
Via Zoom
(This seminar will not be recorded.)
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What makes a good researcher?
A few months back, I led a short workshop at the Land Use and Global Environment Laboratory on this topic. One of the PhD students thought that other Masters/PhD students at IRES would benefit from me running the same workshop for the wider grad student body. So here you are. Come along to explore what makes a good researcher.
Zia Mehrabi
Research Associate, School of Public Policy & Global Affairs and the Institute for Resources Environment & Sustainability at UBC
Bio:
Zia Mehrabi is a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia, where he works on the food system, climate change, digital technology, and biodiversity conservation. At UBC he helps teach and mentor students, develop ideas, data sets, software and data science on sustainable food systems. He is an active member of the Global Land Programme, a contributing author to The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and a co-author on Ceres2030: Sustainable Solutions to End Hunger, and the forthcoming World Bank’s World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives.
Changes in Indian farm laws will ‘be good for Canada’ as well: experts
Jan 21, 2021: Dr. Shashi Enarth, an adjunct professor at IRES, gave comments to The Canadian Press about how a freer market in India would help corporations and countries that see it as a destination to sell produce.