Published September 25, 2012
by iris_author
Posted in: Events
“Climate Change is NOT a Hoax” (B. Obama) Blog #1: Cognitive Dissonance and Denial
Published September 24, 2012
by dbazely
The relevance of Twitter and Tweets to my life and society at large continues to elude me, even though we have had an IRIS twitter account for several years. Mostly, Twitter reminds me of the Roald Dahl book, The Twits! (By the way, the Roald Dahl museum in Great Missenden, UK has a Sustainability programme)
Nevertheless, I felt compelled to Tweet what President Obama said about "climate change not being a hoax", during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. A ton of other people also tweeted this! Obama's comment has inspired me to write a series of 10 blogs exploring why the president of the USA actually had to make this statement. He might equally have said "there is no evidence that mermaids are real."
I spent a good part of the last year, while living in the USA, trying to wrap my head around why so many of its citizens are able to dismiss the evidence of human-induced climate change. I have given a lot of thought to the link between science, policy and politics. As well, I have been reading about personality types, learning styles, economics, etc. etc.
Which brings me to Cognitive Dissonance. This is the state of holding conflicting cognitions. As in, for example, refusing to believe that IPCC scientist reports that carbon emissions from human sources are causing climate change, while at the same time, happily living in a country where most of the infrastructure is directly based on technology that comes from the very same scientific method. To a rationale thinker, who respects the power of peer-reviewed research and logical thought, this particular example of cognitive dissonance is puzzling and unfathomable. But it's so widespread that I have been compelled to ask - what's the science behind this?
Two excellent CBC radio programmes about Risk in the IDEAS series currently being (re)broadcast in the afternoons, directly address my question. Additionally, in a study published earlier this year in Nature Climate Change, Yale University researchers found that climate change denial was associated more with cognitive dissonance than scientific illiteracy.
Here's a summary: "On the simplest level, we take risks to derive benefits. If the benefit outweighs the risk, we've made a good decision. But decisions are subject to bias, even those of experts. How do we live with uncertainty and make good decisions? Vancouver broadcaster Kathleen Flaherty talks with risk takers, risk managers and risk assessors to find out." (from the Ideas with Paul Kennedy website)
Clearly, if human-induced climate change is real, then NOT taking serious steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions constitutes extremely risky behaviour. Why aren't people in the countries with the highest carbon footprints, such as Canada and the USA NOT acting more decisively? Obviously, they must be thinking that the experts are biased. Even though we are talking about widespread scientific consensus!
The interviews and conversations with researchers and authors in the programmes explain how and why people react to uncertainty and risk with inaction. Basically, people avoid thinking uncomfortable thoughts by convincing themselves that everything is ok. How so? Well, for a start, they tend to hang out with others who have similar outlooks and beliefs, which leads to all kinds of fundamentalist and dogmatic denialist thinking, because there is no one there to challenge them.
The example of the consequences that can come from surrounding oneself with "yes men", that is given in the programme, is that of Lord John Browne, former CEO of BP. BP had failed to address poor safety practices at the Texas City oil refinery where there was an explosion in 2005. Apparently, Lord Browne has said in subsequent interviews that he was not questioned and challenged enough by those in his immediate circle, or something to that effect. But, of course, as Kathleen Flaherty pointed out, the membership of his top management team was his choice.
I strongly recommend this programme to everyone wanting to understand how denial arises in the face of bad news and uncertainty - and climate change. This is the process of self-delusion. Of course, the extreme irony about using Lord John Browne as an example of the tendency to avoid those speaking inconvenient truths to power, is that in 1997 he was one of the only Big Oil executives to publicly endorse the IPCC consensus on climate change being related to human activities, and to refer to its second assessment. Browne also rebranded British Petroleum as BP, and "Beyond Petroleum", and is considered a visionary.
And, one last thing: the programme gave an alarming statistic that 30% of US white males interviewed believed that all activities are risk-free. This contrasted with women, and African American men and women amongst whom there was hardly anyone holding this view. This lack of ability to detect and acknowledge risk would, logically, be occurring amongst white male bankers. And, we all know what happened on Wall Street a few years ago! You can download the podcasts here
Dawn Bazely
Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog
Food Blog no. 10 – cities as sources of food – The Toronto Urban Veg Tour 2012 & 2011
Published September 21, 2012
by dbazely
The City of Havana, Cuba produces a tremendous amount of the food for its citizens, as we see in the BBC show, Around the World in 80 Gardens. In the 2004 documentary, The End of Suburbia, the futurist, James Kunstler talked about how people living in the 'burbs, will, in the future, use their front gardens to grow food.
Just how close are we to this being the case in Toronto? Based on my experience across the city, with schools, neighbours, various botanic gardens and teaching the Plants course, I would say that we are still pretty far off. But, there has been movement and a steadily increasing interest amongst youth (for me, that's everyone under 30) in gardening and growing food over the last 5 years - the same trend is happening for knitting. One example of why I think we are far off this, is that I spent a good chunk of my volunteer time in the mid 2000s on my knees, digging, with other dedicated parents (see Catherine Majoribanks, Pete Ewins, myself, Sheila O'Connell and Jeff Hanning above), and restoring an overgrown public school butterfly garden to have a focus on food and herbs, and installing a new native species garden. My various strategic attempts, at that time, to make the sporadic efforts of parent-driven efforts in school gardens more sustainable and widespread over incoming generations of parents, teachers and children, failed. There was simply not a broad enough interest and uptake on multiple fronts - in other words, the tipping point hadn't been reached.
In 2011, The Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto became a part of the local urban food movement. In an initiative led by Beth Kapusta, a resident of the High Park-Roncesvalles, the Society supported the highly successful Veg Tour 2011. When Beth was looking for local gardens to include in the tour, my family's garden got volunteered as a stop on the tour by the owner of our local cheese shop, the Thin Blue Line.
In 2012, instead of a public Veg Tour the local gardeners previously involved in the tour visited each others' gardens as well as new gardens, and exchanged ideas, as well as a taste of food grown in our' gardens (those are my tomatoes and nasturtium pesto on the tray - photo by Howard Rideout, used with permission).
It was very interesting and educational. This year's tour was an illustration of the principles of successful grass-roots movements. First, it was notable that the leads and participants in the Veg Tour were neighbours who are activists, gardeners, writers, etc. with lots of background knowledge and experience. For example, the 2011 Veg Tour included gardening writer Lorraine Johnson and social innovator Tonya Surman, while the leader, dynamic Beth Kapusta, grew up in Delhi, Ontario, a farming community. What the tour did, was to allow us to aggregate as a group. Reaching critical mass is important for grass roots efforts. As we say at IRIS, "if you're not networking, you're not working".
There are two main challenges for local urban food movements like the High Park-Parkdale Veg Tour. The first is to broaden the community participation to include diverse gardeners from varied cultural backgrounds, who might not normally think about getting involved with such a group. A few years ago, the Toronto Botanical Garden held a workshop aimed at figuring out how to be more relevant to the broader Toronto community. I, along with others suggested the idea of asking culturally diverse gardeners to plant gardens characteristic of those that various waves of immigrants to Toronto created when they arrived: so many immigrants have brought with them knowledge about growing crops. Many of us at the workshop also suggested increasing engagement with school gardens.
A second challenge facing these urban food movements is to transfer the knowledge to less experienced and skilled, but interested youth. Bottom line, is that sustainability-ideas such as growing more local food in urban locations is not new. It's about getting to a tipping point where a critical mass sustains the movement. In Cuba they had no choice. In Toronto, it's more of a choice, at the moment.
Here are some of my favourite veggie gardens in my west Toronto neighbourhood.
Dawn Bazely
PS Through the Veg Tour events, I discovered some interesting York University connections. Clement Kent, the president of The Toronto and Parkdale Horticultural Societies is a post-doctoral fellow in the Biology Department. He was featured in a Y-file article, about the Pollinator Advocate Award that he received for his Pollinator Garden Project.
Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog
Graduate Student Orientation to CERLAC + 8th floor YRT Open House
Published September 15, 2012
by iris_author
An open invitation to all Graduate students at York
with a research interest in Latin America and/or the Caribbean
Come to our
Graduate Student Orientation to CERLAC
The Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
956 YRT (9th Floor, York Research Tower), York University
Learn more about CERLAC - its graduate diploma program, essay prizes, documentation centre, events, resources for students, etc.
Meet faculty & other grad students working on Latin American & Caribbean issues.
Tell us how we can best support you and what activities you would like to see!
Join us afterward for a reception in the 8th floor lounge of YRT (see below)
Also of interest to graduate students: 2013 Graduate Student Research Conference
See: http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/grad-conf2013
And: Do you want information on events, opportunities, and resources relating to Latin America and the Caribbean? Do you want to receive links to analysis and commentary on current events throughout the region? Subscribe to CERLAC'S listserv, LACYORK. Send subscription requests to cerlac3@yorku.ca
_____________________________
CERLAC, CERIS, CRS, and YCAR invite you to their annual
Beginning of the Year Reception / 8th floor YRT Open House
Wednesday September 19, 2012, 3:30 - 5:00 pm
8th floor lounge, YRT (York Research Tower)
Please join us at our annual welcoming event to start off the school year and to meet with new and old friends and colleagues.
All are welcome! Food, drink, music and good company are guaranteed.
The 8th floor YRT research centres are:
The Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC)
The Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) – The Ontario Metropolis Centre
The Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS)
York Centre for Asian research (YCAR)
| Do you want information on events, opportunities, and resources relating to Latin America and the Caribbean? Do you want to receive links to analysis and commentary on current events throughout the region? Subscribe to LACYORK. |
Posted in: Events
Canadian Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the Trudeau Period
Published September 15, 2012
by iris_author
Thursday, 20 September 2012 | 2:30 to 4pm | 305 Founders College | York University
The Trudeau period was a golden age in the history of Canadian Official Development Assistance (ODA) after Canada began its ODA with the Colombo Plan to South and Southeast Asia. During this period, many unprecedented achievements were achieved in aid scale, policy making, aid channels, and regional distribution of recipients, aid program contents and aid purposes. The great development of Canadian ODA during this period was not only prompted by the demand for a fair economic order from the third world, the aid supply sharing policy of the United States and the ODA theory transition, but also by Canadian economic growth, public support, just society building, a new conception of world security and by nationalism as a middle power. The Canadian ODA during the Trudeau years was full of much more humanitarianism and altruism than before, in spite of the fact that it also served Canadian economic interests in the developing countries to some degree.
This paper focuses on the following three aspects: the achievements of Canadian ODA made during the Trudeau period, the factors making these achievements possible and its goals.
Jiantao He is a Visiting Graduate Associate at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) and a PhD Candidate at The Canadian Studies Centre, Nankai University. He is also Director Assistant and Assistant Researcher at the Centre for Canadian Studies at Fujian Normal University, China.
This event is hosted by the Development Studies programme and the York Centre for Asian Research.
For more information, email ycar@yorku.ca.
Posted in: Events
Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI) Seminar Series Launch Event
Published September 15, 2012
by iris_author
Storage Options for Renewable Energy: Developing RE to Commercialization
featuring keynote, Ms. Annette Verschuren
*Sponsored by City of Toronto Councillor Anthony Perruzza and The City of Toronto Better Buildings Partnership.
When: Friday September 21st, 2012 from 9am-11am. Breakfast and registration begin at 8:30am.
Where: Metro Hall, room 308 (55 John Street)
Details: Join the Sustainable Energy Initiative Co-Chairs Mark Winfield and José Etcheverry as they launch the 2012/13 Sustainable Energy Initiative Seminar Series. The first event of the series will be held on Friday September 21st, 2012 at 9:00AM at Metro Hall (room 308) and is entitled Storage Options for Renewable Energy: Developing RE to Commercialization. Our keynote presenter, and honoured guest, is one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs, Ms. Annette Verschuren, Chair & CEO of NRstor Inc., and former President of The Home Depot Canada & Asia. Ms. Verschuren will discuss the development of green technology through electrical storage park development, as well as the discovery of new storage options, thermal storage solutions, such as compressed air storage, Flywheel technology & others. As Chair and CEO of NRstor Inc., Ms. Verschuren will also discuss some new storage technologies the company is working to develop commercially. Panel discussion to follow on the implications of energy storage for institutions, municipalities, industry, and the future of sustainable energy.
Panel participants include: Tyler Hamilton (Editor-in-Chief, Corporate Knights & FES adjunct professor), Peter Love (President, Love Energy Consultants Inc. & FES adjunct professor), Curtis VanWalleghem (CEO, Hydrostor Inc & Senior Manager, Energy Strategy Consulting, Deloitte) &Fernando Carou (P.Eng. - Senior Engineer, New District Energy & Community Energy Planning, City of Toronto Better Buildings Partnership). José Etcheverry, FES faculty & SEI Co-Chair to moderate panel discussion.
Event is free, but due to limited seating, please RSVP to tarob@yorku.caby Wednesday September 19, 2012
Posted in: Events
Sustainability Applied 2012
Published September 15, 2012
by iris_author
The Bloom Centre for Sustainability (BLOOM) is presenting Sustainability Applied 2012 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, October 17-18, 2012. Over 300 leaders, decision-makers, and doers from across Canada and around the world will participate in hands-on workshops and interactive discussions to explore best practices and market opportunities, showcase new products and services, and celebrate outstanding accomplishments in sustainability. http://sustainabilityapplied.com/
The early bird registration deadline of July 31, 2012
If you have any questions, comments or would like more information on communication support opportunities, please contact my colleague Warren Cathro at wcathro@bloomcentre.com
Posted in: Events
‘Better than TIFF – York U screens Return of the Far Fur Country Friday 14th 7 pm
Published September 13, 2012
by dbazely
The last time I attended TIFF was in 1983 because a friend of mine had helped a friend of his out by appearing as an extra in a movie! It was not a particularly memorable film.
TOMORROW'S (FRIDAY) EVENT WILL BE BETTER THAN THAT AND BETTER THAN SCRAMBLING FOR TIFF TICKETS - come to Nat Taylor Cinema (Ross North 126) tomorrow night, for an event organized by Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, and supported by IRIS, to see Return of the Far Fur Country, featuring rare archival footage shot in Inuit and First Nations communities in 1920, by cinematographers from the Hudson's Bay Company, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the venerable company (founded in 1670). As the arctic melts, these records and stories constitute the legacy of what was once there and what will, in all likelihood be much reduced or radically altered.
Whether or not you are a fan of the current incarnation of HBC, which was bought in 2008 by a USA-based company - the parent of Lord and Taylor, every Canadian should be aware of the hugely important role that the Hudson's Bay Company played in the history of Canada. Peter C. Newman's 1985 book, the Company of Adventurers, is a fascinating read. It was followed by two other books and a PBS tv series, Empire of the Bay.
Personally, I have been very impressed with how an American company has marketed and merchandized the iconic Hudson's Bay logo and products such as the classic Hudson Bay pure wool blanket. My sister is an archaeologist, and a couple of years ago, we gave her a small version of the blanket and the accompanying book about its history as a gift. She loved it.
Dawn Bazely
Photo from the HBC archive, of a 1920 cinematographer
Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog
Robert Watson, then and now: the former chair of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change who was removed by President George W. Bush in 2001
Published September 13, 2012
by dbazely
In May 2012 , Professor Sir Robert Watson FRS gave a very informative lecture at Oxford University, entitled:
Climate change and biodiversity loss - the importance of scientific assessments to national and international policy formation
The talk was sponsored by the Biodiversity Institute (which hosted me during my sabbatical time at Oxford this year), one of the interdisciplinary Oxford Martin Schools. It was important for several reasons.
First and foremost, Robert (Bob) Watson is an excellent example of a scientist who is actually well versed in the ways of anti-science politics. He gave a detailed explanation in his lecture of how evidence-based policy ought to be formulated. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment, of which he was co-chair provided a case study.
I was excited to be able to ask him my current standard question for colleagues in the science community:
"What can Canadian scientists based in Universities do to bring attention to the current anti-climate change science and anti-peer-reviewed research policies of the Harper government?"
Who is better placed to be asked this question than the man who was was pushed out of IPCC by George W. Bush in response to pressure from Big Oil? Was Robert Watson demoralized by his experience? Absolutely not - he's dynamic, positive and inspirational. This makes him an important public voice in advocating for evidence-based policy. He has continued to serve in a series of high-level science-policy roles as well as being a professor at the University of East Anglia.
In responding to my question, Prof. Watson indicated that he is very up-to-date on the Harper government's track record on Kyoto. He is also well aware of its gutting of Statistics Canada and of the political ideology driving this and other cuts. Why wouldn't he be? He was, himself a victim of political ideology.
In a nutshell, he advised that scientists MUST go directly to the public to advocate for the importance of peer-reviewed research. So, scientists must invest in learning to not "be such a scientist" outside of their labs and field sites. (For most of my colleagues in the natural and physical sciences, I immediately thought "well, good luck with that - I really don't see it happening!").
I will end this post with the text of his 2000 speech to the COP 6 of the UNFCCC. I have bored many second year Ecology students (BIOL 2050) by reading chunks of it out loud during lectures, when I was teaching this course from 2000-2006....
It might be boring but it's important - so much of it is coming to pass - WE WERE WARNED BY SCIENTISTS...
OK - on balance, perhaps it's more fun to listen to Robert Watson in person, Dawn Bazely
Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog
Sustainable Furniture Design Workshop
Published September 9, 2012
by iris_author
Date: Monday, October 15th, 2012
Location: Driftwood Community Centre, Room 2
Time: 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
A Seat for Change is a grassroots community-university project to design sustainable furniture for the future Centre for Green Change in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood of Toronto. This new community hub will house the growing environmental education and green employment programs of the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre’s Green Change Project.
We have been working to design furniture for the Centre for Green Change for a few months now. On July 26th, we hosted a “Design Jam” to start generating ideas with residents about what the space could look like.
We heard a whole slew of ideas and key questions about how we could breathe life into the Centre for Green Change’s programming and space, both inside and out. What could the furniture look like? How could it be flexible and adapt to a wide variety of programming and participant needs? How could we ensure that it reflects our values for a just and sustainable community?
We hope that you will join us on October 15th as we continue the conversation about the Centre’s furniture. We will be working together to develop designs for potential furniture pieces, in anticipation of a two-day build workshop in York University’s woodworking studio on November 2nd and 3rd.
This event will be interactive and engaging. Please come prepared to fully participate and take a hand in our green change!
Please RSVP to Clara at clarasr@janefinchcentre.org or 416-663-2733, ext. 235
*We are also looking for designers, builders, ideas people, photographers, and other creative folk to help facilitate the design process and build furniture. Please contact us, if you are interested in getting involved.
Want to help us spread the word about the upcoming design workshop?
On Facebook you can post: A Seat for Change on October 15th is proudly hosted by the Green Change Project and York University's Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS). The Centre for Green Change is coming soon and you should be a part of designing and building furniture for it! Visit http://www.irisyorku.ca/2012/09/furniture-workshop-design/ for more details.
On Twitter you can tweet: #Seat4Change October 15th @DriftwoodCC, The Centre for Green Change is coming and you can help us design it! #OurGreenChange #irisyorku
Check out our Facebook page and don't forget to tweet to @OurGreenChange about #Seat4Change!
Supported by: The Fulbright Canada-RBC Eco-Leadership Program
Posted in: Events
