November 9 2017: Policy @ UBC with Professor Maria Holuszko: Urban Mining Engineering to Facilitate a Zero Waste Scenario

November 3 2017

Join us for a Policy@UBC presentation with Professor Maria Holuszko on urban mining and e-waste management and recycling. We will also discuss how to build collaborations with social scientists to address the policy perspective, governance, incentive structures of this important sustainability issue.

Urban Mining Engineering to Facilitate a Zero Waste Scenario

Thursday, November 9th
12:30 PM – 1:50 PM
Caseroom – Liu Institute For Global Issues

No RSVP required.
Light refreshments provided.

Welcome by Nadja Kunz, Assistant Professor at the Liu Institute for Global Issues and Norman B Keevil Mining Engineering

Speakers:

Maria Holuszko, Assistant Professor, Norman. B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, UBC
UBC Mining Engineering students

Photo Credit: Ken Lun from flickr Creative Commons

November 15, 2017: Green College Seminar
Hope in the Anthropocene Series
Speaker: Jeannette Armstrong

Click for PDF poster.

Re-Indigenizing the Planet in the Anthropocene.

Jeanette Armstrong

Location: Coach House, UBC Green College (6201 Cecil Green Park Road)
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 15, 5 pm

Abstract:

Much of my life’s work focuses on resistance to hopelessness as a way to find ways to provide hopeful agency to Indigenous Peoples’ efforts to continue to care for and to defend their homelands. I have found that many others are seekers of a way to be the change that is required to heal society and the planet. The fundamental task before all of us is to mobilize a shift in the social paradigm toward ecological sustainability. Resituating the concept of “sustainability” toward a focus on the creation of “communities of hope” is necessary. Finding collaborative ways to create viable local community mechanisms provides a way that assists in changing the relationship of people to their environment. Such change means actualizing in communities the concept of “we are people of this place.” Triggering a foundation for an ecologically sound shift takes place if there are consciously focused ways to “re-Indigenize” places that need its inhabitants to do things differently together. The human desire to be a “part of” community, when combined with immediate benefits to people with strategic long-term outcomes, may be a solution. People nourished by “place” embeds long-term sustainability as a part of their lives. They celebrate its value and the need to maintain it, because it is essential. Transformation of values toward place happens when new ways that meet life needs also brings fulfillment emotionally and spiritually. Hope and solutions are possible through supporting and empowering new relationships to place by finding ways to actualize “communities of change” through works that are beneficial in concrete and visible ways, for people and the environment.

Photo credit: Laura Sawchuk

Bio:

Jeannette Armstrong is Syilx Okanagan, a fluent speaker and teacher of the Nsyilxcn Okanagan language and a traditional knowledge keeper of the Okanagan Nation. She is a founder of En’owkin, the Okanagan Nsyilxcn language and knowledge institution of higher learning of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. She currently is Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Okanagan Philosophy at UBC Okanagan. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Ethics and Syilx Indigenous Literatures. She is the recipient of the EcoTrust Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership and in 2016 the BC George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. She is an author whose published works include poetry, prose and children’s literary titles and academic writing on a wide variety of Indigenous issues. She currently serves on Canada’s Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Jeannette will also be speaking on Thursday, November 16th in the IRES Seminar Series. Click here for more details.

Hope in the Anthropocene is co-sponsored by the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) at UBC.

November 9 2017: Workshop and Discussion on NAFTA’s Environmental Submissions Process & Public Engagement in Allard Law

Workshop and Discussion led by law professors and experts from Canada, Mexico, the United States, Peru, and Central America

November 9, 2017 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
at Peter A. Allard School of Law, Terrace Lounge, 4th Fl.
1822 East Mall, Vancouver, BC

Learn about the history of the CEC and NAFTA’s environmental submissions process, and engage in a roundtable discussion on the role of public engagement, including submissions related to the effective enforcement of environmental law in Canada.

Free and open to the public. Luncheon included. Limited seating.

Click for poster

Photo Credit: Reneete Stowe from flickr/ Creative Commons

November 2, 2017: Talks with Malini Ranganathan, Ecologies of Social Difference Social Justice Network

The Ecologies of Social Difference Social Justice @ UBC Thematic Network and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice are pleased to invite Dr. Malini Ranganathan to the UBC campus November 2nd (Thursday). Please invite students and colleagues to the following events:

Click for event poster

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 2nd

10.30- 11.30 am.

Informal Chat with ESD to discuss the Flint Water Crisis and associated issues with Dr. Ranganathan, Room 1099, Buchanan Tower. Her recent paper on Flint is attached here.

Please RSVP for the chat to esd.ubc@gmail.com

12 pm- 1pm

Talk: Racial Liberalism and the Colonially of Urban Ecologies

Please RSVP here:

https://grsj.arts.ubc.ca/rsvp-malini-ranganathan/

If you would like the opportunity to meet Dr. Ranganathan one on one, please write lharris@ires.ubc.cawith your interest.

BIO: Malini Ranganathan is an assistant professor in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC. Trained in critical geography, her scholarship focuses on urban environmental justice and grassroots struggles surrounding water, land, and housing in India and the United States. She is a 2017-2019 American Council of Learned Societies-Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Fellow.

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday for these events.

*Anyone is welcome to joint the Ecologies of Social Difference Social Justice Network. If you are interested in doing so, please write to esd.ubc@gmail.com to be added to our distribution list.

Our website for more information: www.esd.ubc.ca

Ecologies of Social Difference is a thematic network at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at UBC. We aim to promote research, engagement, student-faculty-community networking, and interdisciplinary understanding on questions at the interstices of social difference, inequality, and nature/environment. As such, our interests span fields of political ecology, critical nature studies, feminist and social justice research, environmental justice and activism, and affiliated fields.

More specifically, we aim to promote scholarship and interaction through talks by visiting speakers, panel and teach-in discussions, and workshopping papers in progress. To this end, we host several events per year, including a half-day workshop for papers in progress at the end of each spring term.

November 21-24 2017: Building SustainABLE Communities conference on Kelowna

The Foundation hosts a fantastic conference every 3 years called Building Sustainable Communities conference being held in Kelowna, November 21-24. Click on the website for the full agenda and schedule – https://freshoutlookfoundation.org.

This conference attracts fantastic speakers and participants, and is an amazing opportunity for students to network among scientists, decision makers, and stakeholders from Western Canada.

Click for poster of event

Photo Credit:Luis Barragan from flickr/ Creative Commons

Thursday, October 26: IOF Screening – Deep Blue Sea

The IOFF Student Society would like to invite everyone to it’s Halloween special screening of Deep Blue Sea (IMDB; Trailer)!

The screening will happen on Thursday, October 26th at 5:30 pm in Room 120.

Pizza will be served from 5-5:30pm in the AERL lobby.

Please RSVP here https://survey.ubc.ca/s/DeepBlueSea/ in order to estimate the amount of pizza!

Honestly, the plot couldn’t be better, so don’t miss it!

“Searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey, as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.”

Photo Credit: Knowmadic News from flickr/ Creative Commons

October 26 2017: Miners, Minerals and Minamata: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on ASGM & Sustainable Development

Miners, Minerals and Minamata: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on ASGM and Sustainable Development

Join us for a Policy@UBC and CIRDI seminar series event with Kirsten Dales, Director, Program Development, Canadian International Resources & Development Institute (CIRDI).

12:30 – 1:45 pm
Thursday, October 26^th
Caseroom – Liu Institute for Global Issues
Light refreshments offered.

The Artisanal and Small-scale Gold (ASGM) mining sector represents the largest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions globally. Despite known health and environmental impacts of mercury and its use in gold recovery, it remains widely used in ASGM due to its ease of use, fast returns and accessibility of mercury through informal trade networks. ASGM supports at least 20 million livelihoods, including >3 million women and children accounting for an estimated 15-30% of global gold production and 80% of all ASM activity for metals (excluding diamonds and gemstones). The artisanal mining of gold provides a significant source of income for rural communities compared to agriculture, fishing or forestry, but has been traditionally been viewed in a problem vs. a legitimate livelihood opportunity.

Consequently, ASGM has received a smaller proportion of development aid relative to its contribution towards poverty alleviation in Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. In recent decades, academic institutes, the United Nations, and development agencies promote advancement of ASGM as a rural livelihood strategy, with a growing body of literature and continued development of best practices to minimize adverse social and environmental impacts. Despite recent progress, complex challenges remain for scientists, practitioners, policy makers, bi-lateral and multi-lateral cooperation to support miners in the reduction and eventual elimination of mercury use in ASGM at global, regional and local scales.

October 27, 2017: IOF Seminar – Fish Wars

Fish Wars

Dr. Philippe Le Billon

Professor, Department of Geography and Liu Institute for Global Issues

Jessica Spijkers

PhD student, Stockholm Resilience Centre and James Cook University

Friday, October 27, 2017

11:00 am

AERL Theatre (120)

Conflicts at sea over fisheries is a rising concern. We provide a brief overview of fisheries conflicts, including typologies, escalation patterns, and prevention/resolution mechanisms. We briefly discuss specific case studies associated with territorial disputes, climate change impacts, environmental activism, and the militarization of fishing fleets and enforcement.

IOFSeminar-Oct27-FishWars Poster

October 26 2017: New Environmental Assessment Course at SFU

October 19 2017

Don’t miss this one day workshop where best practices will be examined through the lens of Environmental Assessment cases.

Offered through Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Environment’s Professional Programs.

Understanding Environmental Assessment Today: Cases and Issues
Instructor Chris JosephThursday, October 26, 2017; 9:00am to 4:00pm
Simon Fraser University, Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings, VancouverJoin Chris Joseph, MRM, PhD, as he leads environmental managers, consultants and others concerned about Environmental Assessment. Chris will shares his deep knowledge of a broad and comprehensive definition of what a good environmental assessment (EA) process looks like. Drawing from research and professional experience Chris will engage the participants in an in-depth learning conversation about EA and megaproject planning, international development, risk, stakeholder, expert, law, and findings from a survey of EA experts across Canada.Sign up today!

Course Objectives

What you will learn through presentations, class discussion and learning activities:

1. Review of EA Process (BC and Federal Cases)
2. Mechanics, Parties to an EA process
3. Provincial and Federal processes (in parallel)
4. Aboriginal (S.35) Issues
5. Best Practices Research
6. Current Issues and Cases

First Nations Shaping the EA Process – Ajax Mine, Kamloops
The Place of Social License – Enbridge Northern Gateway
The Question of Benefits – Kinder Morgan TMEP
Federal Reviews (Major project review process) New Directions
Project Level EA Vis-à-vis Regional Cumulative Effects Management Systems – Natural Gas Development in Northern BC

About Chris Joseph

Chris Joseph is Principal of Swift Creek Consulting and is also Senior Socio-economic Specialist at Canada’s largest engineering firm, SNC Lavalin. In a past life Chris was a freelance photographer/writer and mountain guide.

Chris’ most current research examines topics as varied as who should make final decisions in EA, how EA processes should be audited, legal obligations of involved parties, how experts should be engaged, and how Aboriginal rights should be addressed.

Photo Credit: Marys Peak ACEC from flickr/ Creative Commons

RES PhD Candidate Michael Lathuillière & IRES Faculty Mark Johnson’s new publication in Environmental Science and Technology

We are excited to announce that RES PhD Candidate Michael Lathuillière and IRES Associate Professor Mark Johnson have published a new article titled “Land use in LCA: including regionally altered precipitation to quantify ecosystem damage” in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. The article can be found below:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b02311

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