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Sociology prof., Kathy Bischoping’s first play a success

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The last two performances of York Sociology Prof. Kathy Bischoping's new play, The Demise of Ordinary Objects, are today and tomorrow at HUB14 Studio Theatre at Bathurst and Queen. The company performing the play is draft89. While this definitely counts as an avant-garde theatre experience for me (I don't get out much), it is a thought-provoking and inspiring play that is well worth checking out as an example of how interdisciplinarity can be energized and dramatized.

The play looks at how our society deals with life cycles, and in particular the end of the life span of all kinds of things - from disposable coffee cups to to people. Kathy is a good friend and colleague, and I was thrilled to learn that her sabbatical includes having her first play produced. The collective that she is working with includes graduates of York's theatre programme. While her sociological research and teaching includes Holocaust studies, and survey methods, and she has won the University Teaching Award, she also shares a huge interest with me in sustainability. In particular, that having to do with reducing one's ecological footprint, by inventive recycling and growing and canning one's own vegetables. Her play reflects these varied interests and experiences, and there are many comments about life cycles that are directly related to issues of sustainability. In sustainability, full life cycle assessment or cradle-to-grave analysis looks at the total amount of energy and resources that it takes to produce some object or product. It embodies the concepts inherent in full-cost economic accounting (and here, I have done the unthinkable for a professor and linked to a Wikipedia webpage - so I hope that all of the students who lost marks for referencing these pages in their research essays do not come back to haunt me!).

Dawn Bazely

Tax Shifting Debate Event

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Tax Shifting for a Greener Future

Download: a copy of the flyer

Wednesday April 9th 2008

Would you be willing to pay a higher tax on fuel and other polluting activities in exchange for lower income and payroll taxes? Tax shifting is about comprehensive tax reform to encourage sustainable development, better economic performances, social well-being and more jobs. Taxes are levied on resource and energy intensive, environmentally damaging activity and lowered on employment, income and investments.

Will tax shifting work?

Come hear experts speak both for and against tax shifting. The panel will include:

Opposed:

  • Hugh MacKenzie: Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
  • Finn Poschmann: Research Director for C.D. Howe Institute

In Favour:

  • Kate Holloway: CEO of Carbonzero
  • Toby Heaps: founding editor of Corporate Knights

Moderator:

  • Bernadette Hardaker, freelance journalist and former CBC Radio One broadcaster

Wednesday April 9, 2008 from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m at the Jane Mallet Theatre.
Admission is FREE. Complimentary tea and coffee will be served at 9:30 pm.

We Are the New Radicals

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[photopress:book.jpg,full,alignright]“We are the New Radicals: A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World” (McGraw Hill, New York) is a new book by Julia Moulden. I first heard of it while listening to CBC radio’s Sounds Like Canada where Moulden was describing this movement of baby boomers and others that are positive, constructive and hopeful, and are choosing to give something back to the world through their work. That is that they are doing good and making a difference by doing more than simply volunteering and philanthropy. I love this idea! Not only is it a feel good story of some 30 million Americans that are part of this movement, but there is a strong business case to be made as well. As employees achieve success and move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the needs to solve problems and be creative are more pertinent. Having a job that allows one to give back can be more engaging and rewarding than traditional work and can give companies an upper hand in the war-on-talent with higher retention rates, as well as giving them more productive employees. This book may contribute to the changing face of the workplace, especially on the CSR (corporate social responsibility) front as companies may choose to take on more ownership of their social or environmental initiatives to be able to meet the changing needs of their employees. Although it is nice to be able to do volunteer work in one’s own free time, this can sometimes be a challenge. Doing good while at work has the added benefit of making it somewhat easier to achieve work-life balance.

There will be a New Radicals Soirée April 15th in Toronto to celebrate the launch of the book, complete with food by Jamie Kennedy.

Earth Hour Events

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Dear friends, colleagues, faculty, staff, ENGO's and York University students,

The Environmental Outreach Team of York University will be hosting two Earth Hour events: Thursday March 27th, 2008 and Saturday March 29th, 2008 in the Health, Nursing and Environmental Studies Building, rm. 140 and the lounge as well. The event will feature guest speakers, music, short film clips, a discussion and a sustainability sampler tour (tour of the cogeneration plant on campus and more). I have enclosed the report of the events, which outlines specifics of the events. These event details will be finalized on Monday March 24, 2008.

Please circulate widely to all your contacts, staff, faculty, friends and departments at York and beyond.

It is important that York University receive a clear signal that campus groups are committed to sustainability projects at York University.

For further information on this exciting event, please contact Leslie Luxemburger, the coordinator of the Environmental Outreach Team at: envreach@yorku.ca; also visit our website for continual updates on the event: www.yorku.ca/envreach/attachments.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kind regards,

Leslie Luxemburger, BES
Coordinator, Environmental Outreach Team
York University
Faculty of Environmental Studies
Health, Nursing and Environmental Studies Bldg. Rm. 277
envreach@yorku.ca
(416) 729-0926
www.yorku.ca/envreach/attachments/

Colloquium on the Global South

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The Social and Environmental Implications of Extractive Industries in the Global South

Panelists: Kernaghan Webb (Associate Professor, Business Law, Ryerson), Uwafiokun Idemudia (Assistant Professor, African Studies, York), and David Szablowski (Law and Society, York)

Many aspects of our daily lives rely heavily on resources obtained from the South. Extractive industries such as mining and oil cause severe social and environmental degradation in many southern countries. This panel aims to discuss the consequences of these industries as well as address possible changes in the structure and governance of the mining and oil industries.

Topics covered will include: mining as a development model, governance of MNE Extractive Activities in Developing Countries as well as examining partnership initiatives that address the links between oil extraction and poverty reduction in the Niger Delta.

Wednesday, March 19 (2:30-4:30 pm)
Room 390 York Lanes, York University

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS).

Alberta Tar Sands documentary airs on CBC tonight

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A new documentary "Tar Sands, The Selling of Alberta" commissioned by the CBC, will be on channel 5 Toronto, tonight at 9 pm. In an interview on The Hour last night, the filmaker, Peter Raymont, pointed out that Fort McMurray, in Alberta, is the third largest Newfoundland city in Canada (that's an indication of the extent of within-Canada migration!).

For those of you who haven't paid much attention to exactly what the fuss about the Tar Sands is, imagine that you take a can of motor oil, walk over to your child's sand box (or the local park's kiddie sand box!), pour the oil into the sand, and mix it around. Then, someone tells you that you need to get that oil off of that sand and back into the can! That is the challenge with the Tar Sands - it's a huge fossil fuel reserve, but the oil is very difficult and energetically expensive to extract. When it comes to carbon emissions, the cost of extracting the oil is huge. The documentary explores the social impacts and geopolitics of this issue, moreso than the environmental aspects. But, all of these aspects are directly linked when it comes to sustainability. Highly recommended viewing.

Dawn Bazely

March 8th – International Women’s Day

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When I spent time in Tromsø University, Norway, in 2005 and 2006, developing a joint International Polar Year project with my colleagues there, I was very lucky to have my office in the Peace Studies Centre. While this very modern building reminded me of a Dalek from Dr. Who, simply sitting there, got me thinking about and paying attention to recent Nobel Prize winners (this is me with the bust of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Centre - ironically, he never won the Nobel Peace Prize, though he was nominated. I was so inspired by this bronze bust that I wrote an essay about Busts of Gandhi in Toronto and Norway).
[photopress:dawn_gandhi.jpg,full,centered]
I was particularly inspired by the story of Wangari Maathai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work on women’s rights and environmental protection in Kenya. Wangari Mathai is a feminist, environmentalist and human rights activist, who has, in the past, been jailed for speaking out. Her autobiography, Unbowed, is a fascinating read, and I highly recommend it. Women’s rights - access to education, political office, and simply basic human security - are as much an issue today as when I was learning about them, while growing up, attending all-girls schools, and reading authors like Germaine Greer. I am delighted with the support that the Nobel Foundation gives to women - visit their web site today.

IRIS & Toronto Net Impact Professional Chapter March Event

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March Event: Renewable Energy Panel Discussions

Join Tom Heintzman, the co-founder and CEO of Bullfrog Power, leading provider of 100% green electricity; Kerry Adler, CEO of SkyPower, the leading independant renewable energy developer in Canada; and Jose Etcheverry, a respected researcher with the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability ("IRIS"), as they discuss the future of renewable energy in Ontario.

TNIPC is proud to partner with IRIS for this, our first co-hosted speaker panel. Thanks to IRIS' generous support, there will be no fees for TNIPC and IRIS members and only a nominal - $10 fee – for non-members.

Who:

  • Tom Heintzman, President, Bullfrog Power;
  • Kerry Adler, CEO, SkyPower;
  • Jose Etcheverry, Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF)

What: Growing Renewable Energy in Ontario - TNIPC and IRIS speaker panel
When: Thursday, March 27, 2008 (6-8 PM)
Where: Osgoode Professional Development (Osgoode Hall Law School of York University),1 Dundas Street West Suite 2602 (at Dundas and Yonge), Room E
Cost: Free for all TNIPC and IRIS members, $10 for non-members
RSVP for this event is required – toronto@netimpact.org

Hydrogen Talk

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IRIS presents the following talk:

The Social Benefits of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology: Creating a Sustainable Infrastructure in the GTA
A Talk by Rymal Smith of Hydrogen Village

Ry has done extensive work in the fields of natural gas vehicles and hydrogen/fuel cell vehicles, and is a recipient of the Michael Grant Technology Award from Natural Resources Canada.

Wednesday, November 28, 4:30 p.m.
Room 013, Accolade East Building (At the east end, downstairs)
Refreshments will be served.

Lecture: The Culture of Flushing

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IRIS is pleased to announce a forthcoming lecture:

The Culture of Flushing
A social and legal history of sewage presented by University of Ottawa professor Jamie Benidickson.

At a time when water issues are rapidly gaining world-wide importance, even in an area so apparently well-endowed with water as the GTA, this lecture promises to be timely, informative and even entertaining (!). Please join us in the first of four anticipated IRIS lectures this year -- including ones on Hydrogen Fuel, Dirty Gold and, we hope, on Living Without Garbage.

Wednesday, October 17, 4:30 p.m.
Room 0016, TEL Building

York University refreshments and a book signing session (to mark the release of the paperback edition of the book) will follow the presentation.

Click here for a map of the campus. The Technology Enhanced Learning building is in the row behind (south of) the Centre for Film and Theatre and Accolade buildings which line the south side of the commons area (buses stop on the north side of the commons). Room 0016 is in the basement level.

For more information, download the poster (PDF).

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