March 21, 2018: Green College Seminar
Hope in the Anthropocene Series
Speaker: Jonathan Foley

March 21, 2018: Green College Seminar
Hope in the Anthropocene Series
Speaker: Jonathan Foley

Location: Coach House, UBC Green College 
Address: 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Date: Wednesday, March 21st 2018
Time: 5pm

 

“Planet Vision:  Why We First Need to Build a Shared, Positive Vision of the Future to Address Our Environmental Challenges”

 

Abstract: Learn more about PlanetVision, a multi-faceted campaign — blending museums exhibits, web and social media, and a future book and lecture series — to inspire people to take everyday actions to ensure a more sustainable future.  By seizing simple opportunities in our food, water, and energy systems, we can all make a real difference to issues like ecosystem decline & biodiversity loss, the degradation of our natural resources, and the mounting challenges of climate change.  PlanetVision shows us how, and gives us hope.

 

 Green College Poster for Jonathan Foley March 21

 

Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director, California Academy of Sciences

Bio: Dr. Jonathan Foley is the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences, where he is also the William R. and Gretchen B. Kimball Chair. In this role, Foley leads the greenest museum on the planet and one of the most future-focused scientific institutions in the world.

A world-renowned scientist, his work focuses on the sustainability of our planet and the ecosystems and natural resources we depend on. Throughout his career, he and his colleagues have contributed to our understanding of worldwide changes in ecosystems, land use and climate, global food security, and the sustainability of the world’s resources. This work has led Foley to become a trusted advisor to governments, environmental groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and business leaders around the world.

Foley joined the Academy in 2014, after spending over two decades leading interdisciplinary, university-based programs focused on solving global environmental issues. Most recently, he was the director of the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota, where he was also a professor and McKnight Presidential Chair of Global Environment and Sustainability. He is also a former professor of the University of Wisconsin, where he founded the Climate, People and Environment Program (CPEP) and the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE).

Foley has published over 130 scientific articles, including many highly cited works in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named him a Highly Cited Researcher in ecology and environmental science, placing him among the top 1 percent most cited global scientists.

He has also written many popular articles, op-eds, and essays in publications like National Geographic, the New York Times, Scientific American, The Guardian, Ensia, Yale’s Environment 360, and bioGraphic, among others. His research has also been featured on the covers of National Geographic, Nature, and Scientific American.

A noted science communicator, Foley’s presentations on global environmental issues have been featured at hundreds of venues, including the Aspen Environmental Forum, the Chautauqua Institution, and TED.

Foley has won numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (awarded by President Bill Clinton); the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award; the J.S. McDonnell Foundation’s 21st Century Science Award; an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; and the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. In 2014, he was named winner of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.

Originally from Maine, Foley enjoys a wide range of outdoor activities, including nature photography, backyard astronomy, gardening, kayaking, hiking, and exploring new places—often with his two daughters leading the way. He lives in San Francisco.

 

  • Jonathan will also be speaking on Thursday March 22 in the IRES Seminar Series  Click here for more details. 

 

 

 

New this year: With humanity’s creation of a new geological era marked by dominant human influences on planetary processes, the Anthropocene seems to offer little hope.

And yet, the same ingenuity that enables human domination over the Earth also allows a certain genius in addressing the many rising environmental and sustainability challenges.

Hope in the Anthropocene will showcase such inspirations and solutions in tackling climate change, harnessing energy, feeding humanity, governing states, and meeting our collective water and sanitation needs all while respecting Indigenous peoples and protecting nature and its benefits for people.

A collaboration between Green College and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, Hope in the Anthropocene will feature 6 accomplished speakers from around the world presenting in the IRES Seminar Series.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Kevin Gill from flickr/ Creative Commons 

February 8, 2018: IRES Student Seminar
Speaker: Michaela Neuberger and Kiely McFarlane

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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Renovation permits and the challenge of reducing GHG emissions from legacy buildings

 

Abstract

Vancouver is among a growing number of cities that have set an 80% GHG reduction target by 2050. Energy use and emissions from new buildings can be addressed using new building standards. The real challenge, however, is that roughly half of the existing building stock will still be in use in 2050. It is impossible to meet the City’s GHG targets without a mechanism to improve the energy efficiency and carbon content of the fuels used in these buildings. Since 2015, the City has introduced energy efficiency upgrade requirements when existing buildings seek renovation permits. This study examines residential building retrofits and permitting processes in Vancouver from the perspectives of those administering the program and stakeholders who have to respond to it. Stakeholder interviews, augmented by an online survey, were used to gather subjective perspectives on current challenges, ways of improving permitting processes, and energy efficiency regulation in the City of Vancouver.

This seminar will not be filmed.

Michaela’s bio:

Michaela joined IRES after six years of professional work experience as a commercial project manager in the construction industry in England, Germany, and France. This valuable experience has helped her understand the challenges and operations of a multinational business, as well as corporate roles in advancing social innovation and sustainability. For two years she led a project on energy efficiency obligations, a policy instrument aimed at reducing the energy consumption of buildings. She recently completed the Association of Project Management qualification, a recognized and transferable certification, rounding off her project management experience. With a background in economics, Michaela has long been interested in environmental studies and sustainability and volunteered to support ENERGIES 2050, a French NGO in the energy sector, in 2013. Her involvement included editorial work and translations of reports, aimed at enhancing citizen engagement. Energies 2050 believes that the impending energy transition also requires an evolution of our society. Not only will political, economic, and technological solutions be necessary, but active citizen engagement at the local scale.

Through her Master’s degree Michaela aims to gain additional competencies in the fields of energy and materials management and policy, and climate change. At IRES, she is working under the supervision of Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and French at the University of the West of England, Bristol in 2009. Her primary research interests include energy, public policy, and the built environment.

 

 

Embedded indeterminacy in the modernization of British Columbia’s water law

 

Abstract

Changing environmental conditions and knowledge are prompting new interest in how legal instruments may be structured to enable more adaptive, responsive management and governance of environmental resources. In Canada, British Columbia’s new Water Sustainability Act (WSA, 2014) introduced a range of mechanisms intended to enable the flexible, place-based, and adaptive management of water resources. Drawing on interviews with ministry officials and water experts in British Columbia, this study examines three key ways in which BC’s water law has been ‘modernized’. It critically interrogates whether and how these mechanisms are expected to improve the sustainable management of BC’s freshwater resources, as well as their equity implications. While analysis remains speculative at this point in the WSA’s implementation, the study identifies significant concerns over whether enabling provisions will be implemented, their variability across space, and the costs of implementation.

This seminar will not be filmed.

 

Bio:

Kiely is a PhD candidate in IRES working under the supervision of Dr. Leila Harris. Her research critically examines the potential of water law reform to drive significant changes in freshwater management and governance, through an in-depth analysis of the development and early implementation of British Columbia’s Water Sustainability Act (WSA, 2014). Before coming to Canada, Kiely completed her BSc and MSc (majoring in geography) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and worked as a research analyst for Auckland’s metropolitan government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Lakshitha Charith from flickr/ Creative Commons

January 11, 2018: IRES Student Seminar
Speakers: Nicolas Talloni and Alida O’Connor

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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Nicolas Talloni’s talk:

Climate change impact on Canada’s Pacific marine ecosystem: The current state of knowledge

 ABSTRACT:

Global warming is already affecting the oceans through changes in water temperature, acidification, oxygen content and sea level rise, amongst many others. These changes are having multiple effects on marine species worldwide, with subsequent impacts on marine fisheries, peoples’ livelihoods and food security. My PhD research consist of three components: 1) using a systematic literature review and meta-analysis, assess the current state of knowledge on how climate change is affecting fisheries in Canada’s Pacific marine ecosystems; 2) evaluate potential changes in fish supply and seafood budget of residents of British Columbia under shifting ocean conditions by combining biophysical and economic models; and 3) explore solutions for mitigating climate change impacts on marine fisheries by performing a vulnerability assessment. For this seminar, I present preliminary results from the literature review and meta-analysis component of my study.

BIO:

I am PhD candidate at IRES and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. My research focuses on the socioeconomic and management components of British Columbia’s marine fisheries facing climate change. I became interested in marine life and local communities during my undergraduate study in sociology, after realizing the depletion of several marine species in my country due to overfishing. Before coming to Canada, I worked in a Chilean NGO managing a project on access to public information on salmon farming. Currently, I am working under the guidance of Dr. Rashid Sumaila (supervisor), Dr. William Cheung and Dr. Philippe Le Billon (committee members).

 

 

 

 

Alida O’Connor’s talk:

 Conservation and Community Wellbeing

 

ABSTRACT: 

Conservation strategies have evolved from ‘fence and fine’ strategies to participatory approaches. It has become widely accepted that conservation initiatives should deliver both poverty reduction and biodiversity protection.  One of the best known examples of achieving this is the Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRM) in Namibia. In collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund Namibia, this study sought to understand how communities participating in the CBNRM programme define wellbeing. The study showed that moving beyond universal measures of socioeconomic wellbeing to a set that includes economic and social, environmental, cultural and political concerns, specific to local communities, is pertinent to understanding wellbeing. This talk will discuss preliminary findings from the study.

 

Bio: Alida is a MA student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability working under the supervision of Dr. Terre Satterfield. Alida graduated with a double major in International Development Studies and Environment, Sustainability and Society from Dalhousie University.  Upon completing her undergraduate thesis on the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area and a placement at a conservation project in Zimbabwe, her interest in what constitutes effective conservation deepened. Her current research is in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund Namibia, identifying wellbeing indicators in the communal conservancies in the Zambezi region.

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Jimmy Thomas from flickr/ Creative Commons 

February 22, 2018: No speaker due to Reading Week

March 19 2018: Liu Lobby Gallery exhibit “The Colours of Food Security” Reception with TED Speaker Dr. Jonathan Foley

The Colours of Food Security – Public Reception with TED Speaker Jon Foley

Monday, March 19, 2018

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Lobby Gallery – Liu Institute for Global Issues,
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

Please RSVP.

 

 

The Colours of Food Security is a series of bold and striking maps that paint a picture of global agriculture today. It pulls decades of scientific research into one exhibit to walk the audience through key issues surrounding the food system in the twenty-first century.

The exhibit will be introduced by acclaimed environmental scientist and TED Speaker, Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences. Join us for what promises to be a colourful and fun event accompanied by light refreshments and networking opportunities.

 

More about the exhibition: The Colours of Food Security is an art exhibit hosted in the Lobby Gallery of the Liu Institute for Global Issues and created by the Land Use and Global Environment (LUGE) research group in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at UBC. The exhibition is also hosted in collaboration with UBC’s Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program (ISGP).

 

The exhibition runs until March 31, 2018.

January 30 2018 Tuesday: IRES Special Seminar
Speaker: David Rutledge

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (TUESDAY)

Location: AERL 107,  2202 Main Mall

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Energy Resources for Climate Models

David Rutledge, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA

Abstract: In modeling climate change, the carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the most important factor.  The time frame for the climate response is much longer than the time frame for burning fossil fuels, and this means the total amount burned is more important than the burn rate.  Production of oil, gas, and coal in the long run is traditionally estimated from government geological surveys, together with an allowance for future discoveries of oil and gas.  Where these estimates can be tested, they have tended to be too high. In the latest IPCC climate assessment report, carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuels in the business-as-usual scenario do not decline until after 2150. In this paper, I will show that there is little historical evidence that supports this assumption of enormous resources. This may allow a “Goldilocks” outcome, slow enough to allow the development of alternative energy, but fast enough to mitigate climate impacts.

This seminar will not be filmed.

 

 

Bio: Professor Rutledge is the Tomiyasu Professor of Engineering at Caltech, and a former Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science there. He is a founder of the Wavestream Corporation, a manufacturer of transmitters for satellite uplinks.  He is a winner of the Teaching Award of the Associated Students at Caltech and a Fellow of the IEEE.

 

Note that this event is happening on TUESDAY, not Thursday. 

 

Photo Credit: RWE from flickr/ Creative Commons

March 29, 2018: IRES Faculty Seminar
Speaker: Laura Morillas

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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Resilience of natural and managed landscapes under increasing water scarcity and climate change

Abstract: Increasing water scarcity resulting from climate change and raising water global demand is one of the major challenges that ecosystems and humans are facing in the 21st century.  Research should provide answers to some crucial questions derived from this challenge: How will natural ecosystems respond to changing climatic conditions? What shifts can be predicted on the landscape as a result? How sustainably is water being used to feed humans? What can be done to reduce the water footprint of humanity? In an attempt to find some answers to those big questions, Dr. Morillas will discuss her past and present research regarding the resiliency of increasingly threaten natural and agricultural systems. Two study cases will be presented: 1) Piñon-Juniper woodlands in Southwestern USA affected by drought-driven tree mortality, and 2) agricultural systems in Northwestern Costa Rica threaten by ENSO-enhanced droughts.

Bio:  Dr. Laura Morillas is a Research Associate at UBC (EOAS and IRES) currently working with Professor Mark Johnson on the Agricultural Water Innovations in the Tropics (AgWIT) project. Her work at UBC has being focused on assessing and improving resiliency of tropical agricultural systems to climate change and increasing water scarcity, including research on the FuturAgua project. Previously, Dr. Morillas was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico where she studied the eco-hydrological consequences of drought-driven forest mortality (2013-2015). She completed her PhD at the Spanish National Research Council in 2013 focused on evapotranspiration modeling on semiarid landscapes.

 

 

February 15, 2018: IRES Professional Development Seminar
To Profit or Not? How organizational structures impact sustainability projects

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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For-Profit vs Non-Profit Consulting Work Panel

Organizations have different missions, ranging from maximizing profit, to ideological objectives. Non-profits, private businesses, and coops all fall into different places on this spectrum.Their missions impact not just the work that they do, but also how they go about it. This seminar will convene panelists with a range of experiences in different types of organizations to explore how organizational structures shape project selection and execution in the sustainability field.

 

PANELIST:

 

Michelle Bailey (Bailey Env. Consulting) has over 10 years experience as a professional biologist, and is currently a Senior Scientist and partner at a small local firm, though she previously she spent 9 years with the global firm Stantec. Michelle has extensive experience working with the oil and gas sector with experience leading assessments and environmental monitoring, marine mammal surveys, and land use planning.

 

 

 

Esther Speck (Lululemon) is the VP of global sustainability for Lululemon Athletica.  She has held environmental advisory roles for MEC, Whistler, and run her own consulting firm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Horne (City of Vancouver) has extensive experience working with both NGOs and governments.  Before joining the City of Vancouver in 2017, he spent 14 years with the Pembina institute with roles as the Associate Director in BC and the Director of the Climate Change Program.

 

 

Usman Valiante (Cardwell Grove Inc.) is a senior policy analyst and strategist with 26 years of experience in environmental science and economics, corporate strategy, public policy and regulatory design, advocacy, and communications. He has developed Extended Producer Responsibility programs and circular economy systems including those for beverage containers, pharmaceuticals, batteries and vehicles.

 

 

 

This seminar will not be filmed.

 

 

Photo Credit: Sharif Putra from flickr/ Creative Commons

January 25, 2018: IRES Professional Development Seminar
CV of Failures

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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CV of Failures

Abstract:

We all want to succeed in our careers, but what about the dark underbelly of success? We rarely expose our many failures, projecting a skewed version of reality that makes us feel isolated and embattled in the face of others’ seeming never-ending accomplishments. In this PDS, we will break the taboo of talking about our failures in order to acknowledge, understand, and perhaps even move past them. We talk to some professors in our department about the things that they don’t put on their CV. The CVs that made them better, and the ones that still haunt them.

This seminar will not be filmed.

 

Speaker Bios:

Stephanie Chang studies issues of community vulnerability and resilience to natural disasters. Her current projects focus on coastal hazard risk and resilience in British Columbia. Dr. Chang has written extensively on socio-economic impacts of disasters, and served on the U.S. National Research Council’s Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences.

 

Milind Kandlikar is a Professor at the Liu Institute for Global Issues and IRES. His work focuses on the intersection of technology innovation, human development, and the global environment. In addition to being the current IRES Director, Dr. Kandlikar has published extensively on the science and policy of climate change.

 

Terre Satterfield is an interdisciplinary social scientist and professor of culture, risk, and the environment. Her research concerns sustainable thinking and action in the context of environmental management and decision making. Dr. Satterfield is also a board member or scientist for several international initiatives that seek to integrate social science research into policy analysis.

 

 

Photo credit: Chris Shade from flickr/ Creative Commons

January 4, 2018: IRES Faculty Seminar
Speaker: Jocelyn Stacey
(First Seminar for Term 2)

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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The Rule of (Environmental) Law

 

Abstract:

Environmental issues strain a central concept of western legal systems: the rule of law. The rule of law is traditionally characterized as a system of predictable, general rules enacted by the legislature. Environmental issues are complex and some contain the possibility of catastrophe. The epistemic features of environmental issues undermine our ability to govern environmental issues through predetermined legal rules. Relying on examples of the National Energy Board and Gitxaala Nation v Canada (the Northern Gateway pipeline decision), I argue that understanding the rule of law from an environmental perspective focuses our attention on legal principles, rather than rules. I argue that the rule of (environmental) law requires decision-makers to justify their decisions on the basis of deep-seated common law principles that account for our ever-present vulnerability to environmental harm.

This seminar will not be filmed.

 

Bio:

Jocelyn Stacey is an Assistant Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on Canadian environmental and administrative law. She has a doctorate in law from McGill University. Her dissertation, “The Constitution of the Environmental Emergency,” was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal. She has a LLM from Yale Law School and an LLB from the University of Calgary. Professor Stacey has been the recipient of numerous academic awards including a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship for her doctoral work. Prior to graduate work, Jocelyn clerked for the Honorable Justice Marshall Rothstein at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Professor Stacey’s research focuses on the relationship between the rule of law and environmental issues. Her current work explores the potential implications of understanding environmental issues from the perspective of an ongoing emergency. A profile of her current work can be found on the Research Portal. She is a founding Board Member of the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation, a non-profit society dedicated to training law students and young lawyers in public interest environmental law litigation.

 

Photo Credit: Isaac Kohane from flikr/ Creative Commons