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We Are the New Radicals

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Published April 2, 2008

by afdubreu

[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.

Posted in: Blogs | Events

Earth Hour has Come and Gone

Published by

Published April 1, 2008

by iris_author

Well Earth Hour is over and there has been no shortage of opinions on the effectiveness of the event in various media sources. The point was awareness and stemming from that, hopefully, an understanding of ways individuals and groups can make a difference. In the Excalibur it was stated that York would not participate in the event, citing security concerns. These concerns are legitimate, but perhaps the University could look more deeply into unnecessary lighting on campus and dimming the lighting in certain areas. Other, Ontario universities participated to varying degrees. In light of the recent carbon offsetting inititative at York, which has involved administrative recognition of the need for university practices to reduce their ecological footprint, it is not unrealistic to think the university could explore options to reduce its energy consumption. In the Toronto Star on Saturday, there was a feature page on what HBC has been doing to reduce its carbon footprint. In addition to participating in Earth Hour, the company has made extensive strides into other environmentally sustainable intiatives. They are continuing to retrofit stores and distribution centres with T8 lighting (highly efficient) and Building Automation Systems (BAS). BAS are store level central tracking systems that monitor daily consumption and minimize energy use by controlling lighting, heating, cooling, and ventilation. Through these and other initiatives, HBC has reduced its emission intensity by 20.5%, which is an emission reduction of 146,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Before thinking that this might be corporate greenwashing, HBC's efforts have been commended by National Resources Canada and BC Hydro, which has designated HBC as one of only nine companies to be a Power Smart Certified Energy Efficiency Leader. Check out www.hbc.com/globalmind to see these intiatives and others underway at HBC to become a socially responsible corporate citizen. Some of these efforts would be worth looking into for an institution like York that desires to become practically engaged in sustainability efforts. Earth hour may be over, but its legacy should involve fundamental and practical changes that are realistic through the increased awareness brought about by these events.

Posted in: Blogs

Gore’s $300 million gamble

Published by

Published April 1, 2008

by iris_author

Former vice-president and eco-warrior Al Gore has just announced that the Alliance for Climate Protection, an NGO he founded, will spend upwards of 300 million dollars in an advertisement and citizen mobilization blitz ("we" campaign) during the upcoming presidential election campaign and beyond.

Here's an example of one of the ads:

Perhaps the largest and most expensive campaign of its kind, Gore hopes to mobilize enough support among average Americans of all stripes to force politicians to take climate change seriously. Such an effort was sorely lacking when the Clinton-Gore Administration watered down and finally walked away from Kyoto as it faced certain defeat in the House and Senate in the 1990s.

However, such a campaign faces huge hurdles that have derailed new environmental legislation in the past. Many of the most ardent opponents of environmental legislation are themselves insulated from democratic pressures due to the vagaries of American congressional system, where smaller states with low populations hold disproportional power (each of the fifty states is represented by two senators regardless of their population). Along with an industry-friendly administration over the past eight years, the US government's regulatory bodies have been gutted, environmental laws reversed, and scientists across the country demoralized due to the government's ideological intransigence.

The next president will need to repair the enormous damage, let alone advance a progressive environmental agenda. At the very least however, none of the frontrunners on both sides are climate change skeptics and Gore's groundbreaking strategy can be witnessed by his strange bedfellows ads:

A clip aired on CBS showed the Reverend Al Sharpton sharing a sofa with the conservative preacher Pat Robertson. The two men acknowledge they agree on almost nothing - barring the need to deal with global warming.

Other spots will feature the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, alongside Newt Gingrich, the conservative Republican who once held the same post.

The support from such conservative figures as Gingrich and Robertson marks a victory for Gore in his efforts to make global warming a cause for all Americans: evangelical Christians and fiscal conservatives as well as those on the left.

Incidentally, Gore will be in Montreal this weekend.

Posted in: Blogs

Interview on Earth Hour

Published by

Published March 30, 2008

by iris_author

Dawn was recently interviewed by the Toronto Star for her views on Earth Hour. Amidst all the naysayers' grumbling about the ineffectiveness of such a token endeavour, Dawn was able to put the event into proper perspective:

But what exactly was Earth Hour meant to accomplish? Was it intended to have a radical impact on our energy habits?

"It's obviously a symbolic event, it wasn't meant to be anything else," said Dawn Bazely, the sustainability director and a biology professor at York University. "Turning the lights off for Earth Hour shouldn't make you feel virtuous or pious.

"But, on the other hand, it has gotten everyone thinking about how much energy they use, and how they can reduce their consumption – and that's what the point was."

Bazely, who got involved in the environmental movement as a student in the '70s, isn't bothered by the commercial nature of Earth Hour. "That's just how it is in North America. It has to be hip and has to be trendy for people to want to participate."

But she urges those who may be content with cutting their power use just for an hour this evening to think bigger. "The problem with this kind of event is that it focuses on one hour, when people should be thinking about the larger picture."

Posted in: IRIS News

Excellent Water Articles in today’s Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Mag

Published by

Published March 28, 2008

by dbazely

There are 3 excellent articles by Andrew Nikiforuk, John Lorinc, and Eric Reguly, plus a book review of Dry Spring by Chris Wood, in this morning's business mag. They all discuss how demands for water in Canada (and the world) are impacting the environment, business and ordinary people. It's well worth the price of today's newspaper (And, no, I am not being paid by the Globe to promote their paper!). The first, Liquid Asset, by Andrew Nikiforuk, is a great follow-up to the recent doc about the Tar Sands, aired on CBC. If you haven't yet read Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow and Marq de Villiers, these articles will get you up to speed on the issues, fast.

When we began collaborating with colleagues from the National University of Mongolia, I was really struck by how little water Prof. Sonya Nergui used when she washed her hands in the sink at my house! Water conservation and respect for water is utterly ingrained in her culture. Canadians can learn an awful lot about water conservation from our Mongolian friends and colleagues.

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog | Sustainability News

Earth Hour Events

Published by

Published March 27, 2008

by iris_author

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/

Posted in: Events

What’s your March Break ecological footprint?

Published by

Published March 27, 2008

by dbazely

At current rates of resource consumption, we need at least 2 more planet earths to sustain our North American lifestyles. The NGO, Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF), develops sustainability curriculum content for schools across the country, and since their offices are in IRIS, I am constantly awed by their hard work and innovation. Now, I have two school-aged children, and therefore, some first hand experience through the homework that I see, of which sustainability issues are being integrated into classrooms and which aren't. I recently chatted with LSF Director, Pam Schwartzberg, about the fact that the biggest contributing factor to the ecological footprint of students in many Ontario schools is likely to be any family vacations that involve airplane travel. So, I wondered what sustainability education was doing to address this. Now it's one thing to vermicompost in class, but what would happen if little Johnny or Jane, in Grade 5, demanded that their March Break ski/Florida etc. vacation be cancelled, in order to reduce their family carbon emissions? And how likely is this to happen? I certainly hope that a conversation about the relative ecological footprint of local travel versus flying (or, if doing that, an understanding of how to purchase reliable carbon offsets) could be stimulated through current sustainability school curricula.

My older daughter and husband have flown for March Break and I am of the opinion that they should carbon offset their flights. In contrast, my March Break involved a rather more local trip to Niagara Falls. Given the limited outdoor options that exist in Niagara Falls in March, I decided to become a sustainability detective with my younger daughter ("BORING", she told me), and to search for evidence of our reduced holiday footprint. I was delighted to find that every toilet I inspected in both of the Niagara Falls hotels that we visited was a low-flow loo. The worst aspect of the trip, from an ecological footprint perspective, were the "meal-deal" components of the hotel package, which seemed to consist of huge meals and huge portions of steak. I couldn't eat it, and it certainly made me feel guilty, especially when one considers what most families around the world get to eat in one week (What the World Eats - Time). Check out this photo of our doggie bag - at least 8 oz of uneaten steak leftover from a family meal for 3 adults and 1 child. But, there were veggies, although simply boiling them did not make them very appetizing. Gordon Ramsay would not have been impressed.

I would love to see the emergence of challenges, in which, following classroom and school-wide calculations of ecological footprints, entire schools or classes compete to reduce their collective footprint. It would also be fascinating to use these calculations to explore the nature of the relationship between overall prosperity/family income level of the school population with the mean ecological footprint of a student in the school. I predict that the same kind of trend that we see globally, would emerge at local scales, with students in wealthier Toronto neighbourhoods having much higher ecological footprints than their counterparts in lower income neighbourhoods. Dawn Bazely

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog

Climate Change’s Biggest Threat

Published by

Published March 26, 2008

by iris_author

Collapsing ice shelfs? Nope, perhaps the gravest impact of climate change on humankind will stem from the melting glaciers of the Himalayas. These enormous ice fields feed the river systems that have sustained Indian and Chinese civilizations for millennia. With their rapid retreat, the lives of over 2 billion people are at risk due to rivers like the Ganga, Yellow, and Yangtze being reduced to a seasonal trickle for the first time in recorded history.

The timeline for the near disappearance of these glaciers has been moved up due the accelerated pace of melting. Many could disappear altogether even before the mid-century mark. These alarming trends and their grave impact on food production have been noted by Lester Brown and the folks at the Earth Policy Institute. You can also listen to a podcast of this issue, which is also part of the general discussion on their latest book, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.

Posted in: Blogs

Earth Hour 2008

Published by

Published March 23, 2008

by dbazely

Next Saturday, 29th March, is Earth Hour, when, at 8 pm, the Toronto Star and World Wildlife Fund Canada is asking Canadians to turn off the lights for an hour. Various events are being organized by York students (we have asked them to let us know, so that we can let YOU know on this website). My husband, has, naturally, signed up our family and I am trying to figure out how we can take this further... What do we do as a family, once the lights, the computers, the tv (maybe my fridge?) and other electrical equipment, is all unplugged? Will we walk to our local park and look at the stars, free from light pollution? Since there has been massive sign-up in Toronto, I expect it to be quite dark. What are you doing for Earth Hour?

Dawn Bazely

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog

Yesterday was World Water Day

Published by

Published March 23, 2008

by dbazely

What with Earth Hour and Earth Day coming up and International Women's day come and gone, I totally forgot about World Water Day. But, last year, 2007, York University students, led by Korice Moir, who was helped by Roberta Hawkins (see the gender and water poster), and Paul Marmer, the 3 Master's students, who went to Mongolia for 3 months in 2006, as part of our Sustainable Water in Mongolia project, organized a great event with fellow Faculty of Environmental Studies students. Here are a few pictures. We had a hike around the campus (see our former Campus Planner, and IRIS exec. member, Andrew Wilson, in the central picture at the bottom) and learned about lost rivers, and the First Nations land claim that still remains to be settled. There were also posters and displays in Vari Hall and students taste-tested the difference between tap and bottled water (top photo).

[photopress:world_water_day4.jpg,thumb,alignright] [photopress:world_water_day1.jpg,thumb,alignright] [photopress:world_water_day3.jpg,thumb,alignright]

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog

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