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

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Published April 12, 2008

by dbazely

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

Posted in: Blogs | Events | IRIS Director Blog

New Deans at Education & Environmental Studies

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Published April 11, 2008

by iris_author

IRIS would like to congratulate Professors Alice Pitt and Barbara Rahder for their appointments as deans of the Faculties of Education and Environmental Studies, respectively. Both professors have over ten years of faculty and administrative service at York University, and their extensive experience will be invaluable in guiding their respective faculties through the new era promised by York University's equally new president, Dr. Mamdouh Shoukri.

BarbaraProfessor Rahder is particularly close to IRIS as she serves as a member of both the IRIS executive and our sister research centre, the City Institute. Her areas of research interest include participatory research & planning, women & planning, social sustainability, diversity & equity, access to affordable housing & community services, and urban planning history, theory, & education. Students and faculty members alike see her as an ally and trust her judgement.

Congratulations to both Barbara and Alice!

Posted in: IRIS News

York wins TD Go Green Challenge Award

Published by

Published April 11, 2008

by iris_author

Go Green bannerIt is with great pleasure to announced that a York University group is one of four winners of the first ever TD $100,000 Go Green Challenge Awards. The project entitled, Greening Urban Community Centres: Public Inspiration and Education for a Sustainable Future, was one of 87 submitted by universities across the country. According to TD, nearly 300 students participated in all.

The York team consisted of Karen Petkau, Ian Malczewski, and Ellen Field, with our very own IRIS executive member Professor Arlene Gould serving as faculty advisor. The judges summarized the salience of their project as such:

In many major cities community centres are social gathering places for youth and loci of education. This team from York University wants to act on Toronto's vision of being a sustainable city by transforming the spaces where many of the next generation spend their time into models of green living. Proposing to employ a design charette, the team outlined a number of retrofits that could be made to community centres across the city. By transforming these popular community spaces into green spaces, the team convinced the judges that the leaders of tomorrow will eventually take for granted that all buildings should be sustainable.

A hearty congratulations to our team and all students who participated. Also, many thanks to the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation for starting up this competition. Grants like this can go a long way towards giving student initiatives the chance they deserve to get off the ground.

Posted in: IRIS News

Trouble in the Forest

Published by

Published April 10, 2008

by iris_author

A just published report from Greenpeace warns against a potential "carbon bomb" that could detonate through the over logging of Canada's Boreal Forests.

As the largest terrestrial biome, the boreal-taiga is particularly sensitive due to harsh climactic conditions and poor soil that prevail over its huge land area. This leads to stunted growth towards the tree line at its northern boundary, but also mixed forests towards the south. It is also largely unprotected, with more than 50 per cent allocated to logging in the form of clear cuts.

Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network, Forest Ethics, and local organization such as Earthroots have alternatively taken on Macmillan-Bloedel (now owned by Weyerhaeuser), Kimberley-Clark, Staples, and other companies that use boreal-derived products with some success. Staples has gone from being a laggard, to a company that earns respectable grades for its use of recycled products. However, with strong demand for their products, the timber industry still has a long way to go in ensuring a sustainable harvest. The Greenpeace report further raises the alarm over Canada's overall forest policy, and the potential dangers of tampering with an often forgotten, but vital biome.

Posted in: Blogs

Canada goes Rogue

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Published April 8, 2008

by iris_author

On April 2, Toronto Star revealed that Canada played the central role in thwarting a Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council resolution asserting water as a human right. In what could have been a landmark declaration protecting communities from the threat of expropriation or profiteering, water rights activists including respected environmental and civil society leaders from Canada left with a sense of foreboding, ever more fearful that without a clear verdict from the Council, corporate interests will increasingly take precedence over the right to life in a water-stressed world.

Sadly, this US-backed stance (with Canada possibly playing the role of proxy, as the US does not hold a seat in the body) is only the latest affirmation of the accelerating corporate tilt of Canadian policies in the international arena as witnessed recently in climate change talks in Bali. As acerbically noted last December by Peter Gorrie, talks like those held in Bali or for that matter in Geneva are beginning to follow a predictable script:

Long days of desultory talks are followed, as departure time looms, by chaotic – often angry – marathon negotiations. When agreement is almost at hand, Russia, pretty much invisible to that point, raises a furious complaint, only to be mollified by what amounts to a pat on the head.

Canada dominates the Fossil of the Day awards for obstruction, even though, as at the just-completed 13th annual meeting in Bali, it might have spent most of the two-week event on the sidelines. The United States remains intransigent until the last minute, when it dramatically relents.

A deal is made. It never exceeds the lowest expectations. Officials praise it; environmental advocates express disappointment.

While this trend preceeds the current government's gutting of climate change initiatives (Canada fell far behind its Kyoto commitments years ago), it has grown worrisome with Canada now joining a small but influential group of obstructionist countries who actively resist international initiatives and obligations. This was most odiously embodied in September 2007 by our stunning rejection alongside the US, Australia, and New Zealand of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This also led the Conservative minority government to favour the "Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate" in April 2007 as a strictly voluntary, technology-based alternative to Kyoto, making good on their promise to pull out of Kyoto's binding emission reduction targets.

While one may take umbrage from the fact that such treaties are often toothless and wildly ineffective, the "take my marbles and go home" attitude reflects a certain contempt for the international state system in favour of a looser and more opportunistic coalition of actors that reflect the interests of particular alliances such as NATO and governments with strong corporate ties. Moreover, the disrespect extends to the countless Canadians drawn from civil society who have played important roles in the treaty making process. Most alarmingly though, it represents a dramatic shift from a country that has for many years inhabited the respectable terrain of a consensus-forging middle power in the international imaginary, to a more naked role as a loyal lieutenant of Empire and servant of big business. Back to the Future indeed.

Posted in: Blogs

Tax Shifting Debate Event

Published by

Published April 8, 2008

by iris_author

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.

Posted in: Events

The Carbon Con?

Published by

Published April 5, 2008

by iris_author

Up until a decade ago, the concepts of carbon offsetting and carbon trading were deeply controversial. They were largely seen within the environmental community as a dangerous free market hijacking of the greenhouse gas problem that would allow rich countries and polluters to escape from the consequences of their actions while buying credits of dubious worth from less industrialized and thus less polluting regions of the world.

Unfortunately, this criticism has grown silent as Al Gore, who disappointed environmentalists in his eight years as Vice-President, has successfully rehabilitated his image in recent years. There is much to commend with his resurrection, as he has taken principled stands against the Iraq War, in defense of the US Constitution and science-based reasoning, and of course, his tireless advocacy on climate change. He has become the Oscar and Nobel-prize winning hero he never could during his tragic run for the presidency in 2000. However, one thing has not changed -- he remains a steadfast advocate of the emissions trading or "cap and trade" system, which he played a large role in introducing to Kyoto before the US abandoned the treaty in 1997.

Recently, the UK-based Independent, one outstanding newspaper that has covered climate change extensively, reiterated these critiques as voiced by mainline environmental and indigenous rights groups. Here's a sample of what they said:

"Taking a dodgy accounting proposition, which is that you can somehow identify the amount of carbon that any given new bit of forest picks up out of the atmosphere and sequesters, and make that correspond somehow to emissions elsewhere," is how Greenpeace sees carbon offsetting, according to its senior climate adviser Charlie Kronick. "It can't be done. The methodology is poor, and the logic isn't very good either. Once the carbon you've put in from fossil fuels is up there, nothing is going to make it go away."

Friends of the Earth's Marie Reynolds points out that not only is offsetting no substitute for real emissions cuts, but there is no guarantee, when you plant a tree, what the future of that tree will be. Robin Oakley, Greenpeace's climate and energy campaigner, agrees: "The issue with offsetting is that, fundamentally, it doesn't undo the damage done by carbon pollution. The vast number of players in the offsetting market are not reducing emissions in any accountable or measurable way."

In some cases, local people, far from benefiting, suffer when huge new plantations spring up. Survival International campaigner David Hill says: "Numerous reports show how indigenous peoples have suffered as a result of carbon projects: invasion of their land, evictions, the destruction of villages and crops, reduced access to or destruction of traditional resources, and violent conflict."

For a more detailed look at the history and record of the carbon trading concept, it would be worthwhile to check out the book, Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power, which through numerous case studies and economic analysis finds the entire regime to be both "ineffective and unjust." Sobering reading indeed.

Posted in: Blogs

Pangea Day and Our Networked Society

Published by

Published April 3, 2008

by iris_author

Pangea DayOn May 10, the first ever Pangea Day is being organized in communities around the world to screen films made by ordinary people for ordinary people. The event aims to build compassion and tolerance by bridging once formidable human borders through the power of visual media.

There is no doubt that the campaign includes some slick and affective outreach, perhaps a given since talented filmmakers, big thinkers, and even movie stars are at the helm of this ambitious project (Jehane Noujaim, director of the critically acclaimed documentary Control Room donated her TED prize money to this event). The use and deployment of new media is also impressive, as seen in their geo-assisted "meet-up" strategy of both decentralizing and propagating the event to hosted house parties.

Moreover, with the ubiquity and relative affordability of sophisticated electronic devices and internet access in all corners of the globe, this project has a real potential to leapfrog technological limitations that have diminished the effectiveness of such UN/MTV-type campaigns in the past. Here's one of their slick ads:

However, the potential downsides of these technologies, which Pangea Day indirectly promotes as democratization tools, should also be considered. In addition to the mountains of toxic waste produced by the high turnover of consumer electronics (check in with the Basel Action Network), the new networked society that Pangea Day celebrates may have dangerous unintended consequences. The possible rise of an "attention deficit disorder"-like approach to issues that sees a rush of enormous immediate interest but an evaporation of long-term commitment has been raised by some, although also disputed by others. The same is true of the notion of balkanization of the internet community, where group polarization tends to occur in highly politicized and rambunctious web forums and blogs (this would entirely upend the Pangea Day concept). Whether this has an impact on day-to-day behaviour or whether this only further reflects the democratizing potential of the web, has yet to be studied.

Regardless, the fact that Pangea Day sparks these thoughts is a step forward. And hopefully we'll be seeing some challenging works that break new ground rather than rehashing a very hokey and very cloying "We are the World/Live Aid" style event.

Posted in: Blogs

Step by step, York reduces its carbon footprint

Published by

Published April 3, 2008

by iris_author

York's carbon offset crew. From the left, front row, Alexis Morgan, Professor Dawn Bazely and Annette Dubreuil. Back row, from left, Steve Glassman, MES student Tony Morris and IRIS coordinator Melissa Leithwood (MES '07).

York's carbon offset crew. From the left, front row, Alexis Morgan, Professor Dawn Bazely and Annette Dubreuil. Back row, from left, Steve Glassman, MES student Tony Morris and IRIS coordinator Melissa Leithwood (MES '07).

The following appeared in the Wednesday, April 02, 2008 edition of Y-File:

York University is the first Canadian postsecondary institution to make its course kits part of a carbon offset program. Now each one of the thousands of course kits created annually by the York University Bookstore is "carbon neutral".

This means that kits are produced using environmentally responsible printing practices that include incorporating locally produced papers manufactured using sound forestry practices and increased recycled fibre content. York is also contributing approximately 10 cents per kit to the not-for-profit organization Zerofootprint, to purchase local renewable energy and support other projects such as tree planting. When factored together, the changes effectively bring the net carbon footprint of each course kit to zero, making the course kit program carbon neutral.

"While the best footprint is no footprint," says Steve Glassman, director of the York University Bookstore, Mailing & Printing Services, "making the course kit production at York carbon neutral is a very important step forward for the University.

"The University is leading the way in Canada in this area. Making the course kits carbon neutral is just the beginning of a University-wide effort to reduce its carbon footprint," says Glassman. "Furthermore, students will not pay a cent more for carbon neutral course kits as the University will contribute the funds to offset the carbon produced by the production of the course kits to Zerofootprint."

Working with Glassman on the project is York biology Professor Dawn Bazely. Annette Dubreuil (MBA '07), a graduate of the Schulich School of Business, and MBA student Alexis Morgan, created the business case for a carbon offset program at the University.

York, says Dubreuil, is the only Canadian postsecondary institution beginning to institutionalize a carbon offset program. "Creating this program is the first step in evolving a mechanism that will allow other business processes within the University to be carbon offset," explains Dubreuil. "Other universities have created links on Web sites to show you where you can go to offset your carbon footprint, but it is a complicated and challenging process to incorporate the idea of being carbon neutral into their financial, administrative, legal and purchasing processes."

The term "carbon neutral" was the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year in 2006, highlighting its importance in global warming. It is brought about by balancing the amount of carbon released with the amount of carbon offset. By purchasing carbon offsets, York University is able to mitigate some of the carbon produced that can not be avoided, says Glassman. While carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates do not actually remove carbon from the atmosphere, they prevent further carbon emissions from a particluar activity or process by supporting renewable energy, research and other activities that reduce carbon production.

Course kits, that provide access to course material, are used by students and are an essential part of the University's teaching environment. Developed by the University's professors, the content of each kit is customized to a particular course and may include the course syllabus, original material, course and lab notes, review questions, journal articles, chapters from books, or even an out-of-print book. The kits are produced through quick copying and are spiral bound, usually with a durable cover.

The idea to create carbon neutral course kits started with Bazely, who is also the director of the York Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS), a University-wide interdisciplinary centre dedicated towards the pursuit of multifaceted approaches to the contemporary challenges of sustainability. "It was Professor Bazely's idea," says Glassman. "She contacted me a little over two years ago and after some fundamental points were sorted out, we set out to establish what the impact on global warming of printing York's course kits was and to review the production processes we use at the York University Bookstore.

"We then looked into different organizations who could help us offset the impact on the environment of what we do to produce these course kits and settled on the Canadian organization Zerofootprint," says Glassman. "Zerofootprint follows international standards and ensures that every dollar they receive to offset so many tonnes of carbon emitted into the atmosphere is spent on local green initiatives."

The carbon footprint of course kits was calculated by Zerofootprint according to how the paper is made, the percentage of recycled content in the paper, the processes used by the paper mill and the transportation of the paper to York University. Glassman and Bazely then examined the impact of the actual printing process. "We came up with pennies per course kit that would offset the environmental damage imposed by the production of the kits."

York students Tony Morris (standing), IRIS graduate assistant, and Melissa Leithwood (right), IRIS coordinator, conduct a carbon offset survey in Central Square

York students Tony Morris (standing), IRIS graduate assistant, and Melissa Leithwood (right), IRIS coordinator, conduct a carbon offset survey in Central Square

"The course kit program is an example for the University," says Glassman. "We do about 2,000 titles per year for various courses. Some courses may have only 20 or 30 students enrolled in them; others have upwards of 500 students. There is quite a substantial volume. The cost runs anywhere from $60 to more than $100 per kit, most of which is related to copyright fees for the material reprinted in each kit. For example, the carbon offset contribution is 10 cents for every $110 course kit."

The next step is a University-wide carbon offset survey. Dubreuil and her colleagues at IRIS are currently conducting an online survey to gauge student attitudes to carbon offset programs. "The survey asks students if they know what a carbon footprint is and what carbon offsetting involves. We are asking them if they want an expanded carbon offset program at the University. The survey also measures the attitudes of students," says Dubreuil. "Are they willing to pay more for various goods and how much more? Some of the people we have spoken to have expressed a concern. They don't necessarily have the vocabulary. Many students want more information and have an interest."

To facilitate students' knowledge, the back of each course kit contains an information page to tell students about carbon offsetting. The program falls under the umbrella of the Yorkwise program, a University-wide initiative to reduce York's ecological footprint and improve life on the University's Keele and Glendon campuses.

Visit the IRIS Web site for more information on the carbon offset survey and sustainability research currently underway at York. To learn more about York's efforts to reduce its ecological footprint, visit the Yorkwise Web site.

The York community can keep informed on sustainability through the new IRIS blog. Input is welcome.

Story by Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor.

Posted in: IRIS News

Trash Talk today, on CBC’s The Current, with MP Bob Mills

Published by

Published April 2, 2008

by dbazely

[photopress:Capetown_car1.jpg,thumb,alignright][photopress:Captetown_car2.jpg,thumb,alignright]Wow! Bob Mills knows about garbage, land-fill, incineration and gasification, and he is passionate about them. His interview with Anna Maria Tremonti was really interesting. In the last few years, I spent 4 months of sabbatical and research time in Sweden, so I am well aware of what various European countries are doing with things like co-generation around incineration and mining of garbage dumps. The "con" position, to the gasification technology being expounded by Bob Mills, was provided by Clarissa Morawski, the principal of CM Consulting.

Bob Mills and his wife aren't the only people with a passion for recycling and garbage. In my Applied Plant Ecology and graduate courses, students invariably do seminars and papers on garbage, e-waste, etc. and, on my holidays, I always look out for how people deal with garbage and recycling.

In Cape Town, South Africa, you know that garbage is a valued resource for the very poor, who live in the shanties of the Cape Flats, because they turn it into unbelievable art, that they sell to tourists. Here's a true piece of modern, African art, that I bought from a street vendor in 2004. He and his family had walked into South Africa from neighbouring Zimbabwe, to escape the troubles. He did not make this, he was merely the seller, but I did not bargain with him for any of what I bought (and I do know how to bargain). This is a 15 cm long model of a VW Beetle. It's made from an aerosol can of bug spray. The wheels are made from bottle caps of Schweppes sparkling lemon, and Golden Pilsner beer. I doubt whether the average Canadian who, in 2002, was estimated to have produced 383 kg of residential solid waste, could be this creative with their garbage.

Dawn R. Bazely

[photopress:capetown_car3.jpg,full,centered]

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog

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