Dr. Kam Sripada is a neuroscientist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and currently manages the Centre for Digital Life Norway, a national biotechnology innovation centre. Dr. Sripada has studied how social and environmental factors influence child brain development and can contribute to global health inequalities. Dr. Sripada’s research, science communication and advocacy seek to strengthen international collaborations that promote healthy brain development starting in early life. Dr. Sripada’ is a member for the (ISCHE), an affiliate member of the University of British Columbia’s Social Exposome Cluster, and previously Research Fellow at UNICEF. You can learn about her work .

Speaking at the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research, Dr. Sripada explains that “children are uniquely vulnerable to climate change.” Childhood is a time of rapid brain development and growth, which means that trauma experienced during early childhood can have permanent, life-long consequences for brain development and health. Climate change creates sudden traumatic events, including flooding, heat waves and wildfires, and slower onset impacts like rising sea levels, water scarcity and the spread of vector-borne diseases. This has immediate, negative impacts families and for children, the effects may last into adulthood.

When water and food are scarce, children suffer from undernourishment. Vector-borne diseases experienced in childhood lead to worse health outcomes for these children as they grow into adulthood. There are other, less direct impacts of climate change for children. Confronted with decreased access to food and water, families may withdraw their children from schools to place them in paid employment or, for girls, into marriage. In these ways, climate change has far-reaching consequences for children, in the immediate and for the adults that they will become. Risks from climate change are compounded by early life exposures to air pollution, toxic chemicals, and other contaminants that are harmful to children’s health and brain development, said Dr. Sripada.

New actions are being taken to mitigate and to adapt to climate change in ways that protect children. Internationally, the United Nations Child Fund (UNICEF) has recently broadened its health focus to include the impact of climate change on children. Dr. Sripada co-led the creation of the new UNICEF programme, , which launched in 2021 and directs stronger actions by the organization to protect children from including . In addition, the new UNICEF Children’s Climate Risk Index seeks to measure the impact of climate change for children. In 2021, UNICEF estimated that one billion children worldwide are at extreme risk due to climate change, in particular through greater exposure to heat waves, cyclones, and riverine and coastal flooding. Fifty percent of victims of such “natural” disasters, caused or exacerbated by climate change, are children (Save the Children, 2007). For some, the trauma created by experiencing disaster and displacement can lead to lasting mental health problems into adulthood.

Locally, nationally and internationally, children are acting to call attention to climate change, on their own terms and in their own voices. , a climate change justice advocate from Kenya, is speaking out to challenge white saviourism and ensure that the children most immediately affected by climate change, in the Global South, have a voice and are heard. Around the world, Fridays for Futures climate change strikes by children remind both children and adults of the urgency of taking action to mitigate climate change, despite a difficult present and challenging futures. 

Dr. Sripada concludes that it is critical to engage the next generation about climate change. She observes that children are taking up the challenge, all the way up to high-level United Nations meetings, where they are demanding that governments do more to protect them and their right to healthy futures. “We are at a moment when the decisions we take to mitigate and adapt to climate change can aggravate risks, creating greater inequality,” Dr. Sripada warns, “or we can join with activists like Eric to protect children’s well-being now and into the future.” 

The post Children in a changing climate appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Written by Elaine Coburn, Director of the Centre for Feminist Research, 91��ɫ

Biography

is an Assistant Professor at the School of Environment at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on religion and environment, faith-based environmentalism, faith-based environmental ethics, and religious legal approaches to environmental protection. He is particularly interested in the themes of wastefulness, consumption, and simplicity. Dr. Yoreh is currently researching environmental engagement in faith communities in Canada, the United States, and Israel. He is the author of Waste Not: A Jewish Environmental Ethic (2019). You can find his talk .

At the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, Dr. Tanhum Yoreh (PhD Humanities, 91��ɫ) spoke about “Faith Based Environmental Action: The Jewish Experience”. In his talk, he considered possibilities and tensions around religiously rooted environmentalism, turning first to the words of the philosopher Roger S. Gottleib: “For as long as human beings have practiced them, the complex and multifaceted beliefs, rituals and moral teaching known as religion have told us how to think about and relate to everything on earth that we did not make ourselves.”

This observation is helpful, Dr. Yoreh argues, in part because it does not presume the usefulness of religion for understanding environmental questions. Rather, Gottlieb leaves open the possibilities that theology may be helpful or harmful to our interactions with the natural world.

Certainly, many religious people who are active in the environmental movement understand themselves as having a responsibility, even a moral imperative, to respond to the environmental crisis. If religion is life-giving and the ecological crisis is life-destroying, being a responsible part of the Created World demands action to protect life.

Practically, being able to mobilize religious communities around environmental causes, including their ability to organize and their financial and their political clout, makes them at least potentially powerful actors. The United Church, for instance, is actively divesting from fossil fuels. Diverse faith communities are present at events like COP-26 at Glasgow in 2021, asking that we make difficult decisions to reduce ecologically destructive practices and support life in the natural world.

At the same time, Dr. Yoreh observes, religious communities may have entrenched habits that make new engagement with environmental questions difficult or environmental questions may seem irrelevant to the central spiritual mission. In some cases, religious communities may hold ideas antithetical to ecological activism, for instance, theologically rooted fatalisms make action meaningless, since the Book of Life is already written. Some monotheistic communities may understand environmentalists as spiritually wrong-headed, even dangerous, associating “tree hugging” with idol worship.

Prevailing Orthodox understandings of Jewish law, the halakhah, view environmental commitment as morally good but as extra-legal, praiseworthy but not legally necessary. Yet, other aspects of Jewish law may support environmental activism. For instance, if environmental damage is viewed as a form of self-harm, the live-privileging halakhah would be activated in full force to protect human life.

Ecclesiastes Rabbah, a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes, includes a passage in which God reviews “each and every tree” in the Garden of Eden and warns Adam:

 “Behold my creations how pleasant and praiseworthy they are. All that I created, I created for you. Pay heed that you do not ruin and destroy My world. For if you ruin it, there is no one after you who will fix it.” (7:13)

Such passages speak powerfully to many contemporary Jewish environmental activists, enjoining all of humanity to take care of the natural world, understood as God’s Creation.

In contrast to those who understand Judaism as demanding stewardship for God’s Creation, Reform and Orthodox communities may rely on very different vocabularies, for instance, evoking the need for cleanliness to urge an end to littering and pollution. Varying approaches and vocabularies within a diverse Jewish faith community speaks to the need, within the environmental movement, to mobilize a range of language that resonates with different religious actors.

In short, these are matters of different worldviews, different motivations that bring people of faith to the environmental struggle.

What is clear is that faith-based actors are important to environmental struggles. Scientists can measure risks, but they cannot answer the moral and spiritual questions that the contemporary ecological crisis poses. For the faithful, theological imperatives and religious responsibility provide an impetus to act that they find nowhere else.

The post Faith-Based Environmental Action appeared first on Research & Innovation.

(91��ɫ PhD 2005) is Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Global Women’s Issues. She is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Professor Baruah specializes in interdisciplinary research at the intersections of gender, economy, environment, and development; gender and work; and social, political, and economic inequality. Her current research aims to understand how to ensure that a global low-carbon economy will be more gender-equitable and socially just than its fossil-fuel-based predecessor. She has published one book, Women and Property in Urban India, (University of British Columbia Press 2010) and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, working papers, policy briefs and professional reports, in journals like World Development, Feminist Economics, Development in Practice, Water Policy, and Labor Studies. Her work can be found .

In her presentation at the Centre for Feminist Research at 91��ɫ, “Gender Equality In Low Carbon Economies: Continuities, Contradiction, Disruptions”, 91��ɫ alumni and Canada Research Chair Bipasha Baruah observes that, “Globally, women represent only 22 per cent of the oil and gas industry and 32 per cent of the renewable energy workforce. Women are particularly underrepresented in the energy sector in jobs that require science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) training (28 per cent) compared to non-STEM technical jobs (35 per cent) and administrative positions (45 per cent).” For Baruah, this underrepresentation is not only a problem but an opportunity, as nations around the world are confronted with the urgent need to re-orient the energy sector for environmental sustainability. In developed, emerging and developing economies, the energy sector can be transformed to support more sustainable energy -- and better jobs and more equity for women.

This is true in the developed nations, like Canada, where skill shortages in the renewable energy sector are a challenge but, Professor Baruah emphasizes, also an opportunity, “to train, recruit and promote women, Indigenous peoples, new immigrants, workers with disabilities, and other groups that have historically been marginalized in the energy sector.” This requires support for women to obtain degrees and diplomas in the better-paid science and technology fields, for instance, but also more flexibility for women who take maternity and parental leave to return to work and mandatory quotas for women in upper management and administrative positions. 

Developing nations face their own challenges in the energy transition, but some offer useful models for ways forward for the rest of the world. In a chapter with Rabia Ferroukhi and Celia García-Baños López published in 2021, “Global Trends in Women’s Employment in Renewable Energy,” Professor Baruah and her colleagues point to Zambia’s gender-transformative approach as one helpful example. “Zambia’s National Energy Policy identifies measures to mainstream gender considerations in all energy access programs” they observe, “and highlights the role of women not only as beneficiaries but as also active energy providers and entrepreneurs within the sector.” They conclude that “This is a good example of a[n]…approach that views women not simply as primary end users and beneficiaries, but as actors in the design and delivery of energy solutions.” 

If the energy transition to sustainable industries is necessary and urgent, Professor Baruah’s work is a reminder that there is hope in this transition for creating a more gender-just world. This will require women’s active role as decision-makers, not just in the energy sector but in the social, political and economic structures that now reproduce inequities. They can and must be transformed to bring about both environmental sustainability and gender equity in the critical years ahead.

The post Gender Equality in Low-Carbon Economies appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Dr. is Assistant Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at 91��ɫ. A member of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, her research focuses on the political economy of oil and gas in Alberta. She is a co-investigator on the SSHRC-funded (Partnership Grant) Corporate Mapping Project, where she completed research with the Parkland Institute on Indigenous experiences in Alberta’s oil industry and its gendered impact on working families. Angele is also a member of the Just Powers research team, a SSHRC-funded Insight Grant, enabling her to produce a documentary called Pikopaywin: It is Broken. Featuring stories on the land, Indigenous traditional land users, environmental officers, and elders bear witness to the impact that the fossil fuel industry, forestry and climate change has on traditional Treaty 8 territory. With Dr. Deborah McGregor, Osgoode Hall Law School and Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC), Angele is co-investigator on the project, funded by 91��ɫ. 

“The ways that bureaucracy deals with Indigenous peoples is to assign a group of experts to talk to us and the rest simply continue as they always have,” observes Professor Alook. Government, often working hand in hand with corporations, together speak to Indigenous peoples. “But they do not consult us,” continues Professor Alook, “Nor do they respect their treaties with us.” In the words of community Elders, the consequence is that the land that makes up Treaty 8 territory is now broken, devastated by oil and gas wells and the infrastructure that supports them.

In the film produced by Professor Alook, Pikopaywin: It is Broken, she speaks to Elders from her community who bear witness to the devastation that the oil industry has wrought. “We care for the water. We care for the land. Because it is our diet, it is our livelihood,” emphasizes Elder Albert Yellowkneee. Since the oil industry has destroyed much of the land that gives life and livelihood, Yellowknee fears that he is the last generation to experience the land in this way: “What about my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren? Will they have a place to go out into the woods and meditate? Like we do?” For Professor Alook, such conversations were difficult: “Elder Albert brought me and the film crew close to tears. Because he has a trapline, which has been in his family for many generations, and it has been literally cut down, destroyed, by the oil and forestry industry. He is no longer able to offer traditional, land-based teachings in the same way. We are no longer able to practice our treaty rights.”

To create a future for the children of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory means challenging the government, for its failure to respect treaty rights. This demands confrontation with corporations, who fail to consult with the Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory, much less respect Indigenous self-determination. If this is a very unequal struggle, it is a vitally necessary one. As Elder Verna Orr observes, “If we have no trees, there is no life out there.” And she continues, “My hope is for people to stand together, pray together and be strong. And hopefully, the government and the oil companies will stop taking our trees.” 

Pikopaywin: It is Broken is available through the website.

The post Bearing Witness to Climate Change in Treaty 8 Territory appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Dr. Byomkesh Talukder is the inaugural Planetary Health Fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, where he works at the intersection of health, sustainable development, climate change and food and agriculture systems. He is currently project co-director in four research projects: (1) Mapping Canada’s Imported Food Supply Chains to Identify Climate Change-Related Health Risks, (2) Ecological Footprint Health Indicators, (3) Complex Adaptive Modelling of Health Impacts of Climate Change in Malawi & Paraguay, and (4) Climate Change, Salinity & Public Health in Bangladesh. His past research applies a complexity science approach to designing sustainability assessment models of food and agricultural systems in Bangladesh. Dr. Talukder also has over 15 years of interdisciplinary field and training experience, including supervising more than 2,000 emerging leaders in sustainable development programs and policy design in Bangladesh. Since 2016, he has been a Mitacs Postdoctoral Fellow at Parmalat Canada and the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. Dr. Talukdar holds a PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada), a MES in Environmental Studies (Queen’s University, Canada), a MSc in Development Science (Hiroshima University, Japan), and a MSc in Geography and Environment (Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh).

By Elaine Coburn, Director of the Centre for Feminist Research

In his seminar, “Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, and Community Planetary Health in Bangladesh”, Dr. Talukder observed that if traditional medicine is concerned with health within the human body, planetary systems are concerned with external systems, including the climate, that affect people’s health. This enables a more holistic, non-linear approach to understanding complex issues, including rising salinity associated with rising seas in Bangladesh due to climate change. 

Today, the coastal areas of Bangladesh are home to more than 40 million people. It is estimated that by 2050 about 27 million people will be immediately affected by climate change, including heavily populated areas along coastal rivers. If sea levels rise by just 1.5 metres, more than 80% of people in Bangladesh will be affected since the vast majority of the population lives in a flood plain. In addition, frequent cyclones originate in the Bay of Bengal. Annually, they bring water, now heavily salinated because of rising seas, that kills all vegetation, rendering previously fertile lands barren. Combined with more than 290 dams in India and more than 100 dams in China, which aggravate penuries of water during the dry season, and Himalayan ice melt due to climate change, Bangladesh suffers from significant water shortages and increased salinity. Not only water but soil is becoming increasingly saline.

Development projects along rivers in Bangladesh, including dams, have not worked well but create waterlogging that makes agriculture impossible. In response to changing conditions, farmers have shifted agriculture to saline-water crops, like shrimp, moving away from previous staple crops like rice. If shrimp farming has created economic benefits, the decreased agricultural diversity – in dramatic decline from the 1970s to about 2014 – because of the concentration on the monoculture of shrimp, has created attendant health problems, due to food insecurity and diminished biodiversity. Shrimp feed has aggravated problems by interfering with the natural ecosystems. As mangrove forests decline, water is no longer retained by trees, making communities more vulnerable to the devastating effects of floods. 

Primary negative health impacts include the scarcity of freshwater. This is especially burdensome for women who must travel 5 to 10 km to search out fresh water. Many communities are using rainwater or open pond water for their daily household water needs. This creates communicable diseases, including skin infections, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery and ocular diseases. Hypertension increases due to salt in water and in food systems. 

Secondary negative health impacts include high rates of miscarriage among women who live close to coastal areas. Women stand in saline water for many hours a day, creating problems for women’s reproductive health, an under-investigated health concern observed by many local community groups. A lack of a diversified food given the concentration in the shrimp, creates vitamin D deficiencies, including rickets. 

Tertiary negative health impacts include the increase in breast and ovarian cancers in women. Women are harvesting drinking water in plastic containers and since plastics are unregulated, some are contaminated, which may be the cause of the increase in these cancers among women. There is increased mental health stress, especially among women, given the long distances they must travel to obtain basic needs, like water for the households. Internal migration often means a concentration of formerly rural people in urban slums, creating attendant health problems given the conditions in these slums which have weak sanitation systems. 

Overall, health inequities are increasing, especially in coastal areas.

Resolving these health impacts demands complex solutions from multiple stakeholders, everything from weather predictor systems to public health expertise. We need to listen to different stakeholders and the connections among the different challenges that they face to develop complex models that can help us understand the links among climate change, extreme weather events, internal migration and conflicts and public health, all of which are, in addition, gendered. This means taking into account biodiversity, vector-borne disease and the causal relationships among these different factors to create data beyond current tendencies to work in silos. Dynamic modelling is required if we are to develop scenarios, forecasting and support local communities and other stakeholders in developing community-based interventions to salinity and to enable monitoring to understand the present and better predict future health impacts. 

But modeling is not enough. We need interventions that take into account complex systems to support the government of Bangladesh’s 100-year delta plan, as the state seeks to ensure the sustainability of ecosystems for better livelihoods and intergenerational health in Bangladesh. We must prepare for different futures, knowing that if we do not take action now on climate change we will not be able to adapt to climate change in the future. We need to adapt today and we need to do this for many reasons, including for the health of people like those living in coastal areas of Bangladesh who are already being affected in their everyday life by climate change, especially rising sea levels and increasing salinity of coastal waters. 

Related Work

Talukder, B., Ganguli, N. & VanLoon, G. W., (2022). Climate Change Related Foodborne Zoonotic Diseases and Pathogens Modelling. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 100111.

Talukder, B., Ganguli, N., Matthew, R., VanLoon, G. W., Hipel, K. W., & Orbinski, J. (2022). Climate Change-Accelerated Ocean Biodiversity Loss & Associated Planetary Health Impacts. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 100114

Matthew, R., Chiotha, S., Orbinski, J. & Talukder, B. (2021). Research note: Climate change, peri-urban space and emerging infectious disease. Landscape and Urban Planning, 218, 104298.

Talukder, B., Ganguli, N., Matthew, R., VanLoon, G. W., Hipel, K. W., & Orbinski, J. (2021). Climate change‐triggered land degradation and planetary health: A review. Land Degradation & Development 32 (16), 4509-4522.

Talukder, B., vanLoon, G. W., Hipel, K. W., Chiotha, S. & Orbinski, J. (2021). Health Impacts of Climate Change on Smallholder Farmers. One Health, 100258.

Talukder, B., Matthew, R., Bunch, J. M., vanLoon, G. W., Hipel, K. W. & Orbinski, J. (2021). Melting of Himalayan Glaciers and Planetary Health. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 50, 98-108.

Talukder, B., van Loon, G., Hipel, K. W., & Orbinski, J. (2021). COVID-19's Implications on Agri-food Systems and Human Health in Bangladesh. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, 100033.

Talukder, B., Blay-Palmer, A., & Hipel, K. W. (2020). Towards Complexity of Agricultural Sustainability Assessment: Main Issues and Concerns. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 100038.

Talukder, B., & Hipel, K. W. (2019). Diagnosis of Sustainability of Trans-Boundary Water Governance in the Great Lakes Basin. World Development, 129, 1-12.

Talukder, B., vanLoon, G. W., & Hipel, K. W. (2018). Energy Efficiency of Agricultural Systems in the Southwest Coastal Zone of Bangladesh. Ecological Indicators, 98, 641-648.

Talukder, B., Hipel, K. W., & vanLoon, G. W. (2017). Developing Composite Indicators for Agricultural Sustainability Assessment: Effect of Normalization and Aggregation Techniques. Resources, 6(4), 66.

Talukder, B., Saifuzzaman, M., & vanLoon, G. W. (2016). Sustainability of Changing Agricultural Systems in the Coastal Zone of Bangladesh. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 31(2) 148-165.

Talukder, B., Nakagoshi, N., & Shahedur, R. M. (2009). State and Management of Wetlands in Bangladesh. Landscape and Ecological Engineering, 5(1), 81-90.

The post Preparing for Healthy Futures in Bangladesh in a World of Climate Change appeared first on Research & Innovation.

This March, 91��ɫ's Organized Research Units (ORUs) host the first Climate Change Research Month with more than a dozen events aimed at generating awareness of climate change research and mobilizing the community to take action.

News

Hosted by various Organized Research Units (ORUs), 91��ɫ celebrates its first annual Climate Change Research Month this March with events taking place just every few days. Organized by Professor , director of the Centre for Feminist Research (CFR), ORUs have come together to contribute varied and broad-ranging discussions and screenings focused on various aspects of climate change.

The commitment to creating an annual Climate Change Month is another crucial step towards widespread education and another example of how 91��ɫ is committed to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

“The climate crisis stands to impact every aspect of our lives, including areas such as employment, equity, health, and the wellbeing of our communities,” says 91��ɫ’s Vice President Research and Innovation, Dr. Amir Asif.

Events

Gender Equality in Low-Carbon Economies: Continuities, Contradictions, Disruptions
March 3, 2022
12:00-1:30 p.m.
The Centre for Feminist Research presents a talk by Canada Research Chair in Global Womens Issues and a Professor at Western University, This presentation identifies opportunities and constraints for women’s employment in renewable and clean energy in industrialized, emerging and developing economies, and makes recommendations for optimizing their participation.  

March 4, 2022
12:00-1:00 p.m.
The 91��ɫ Centre for Aging Research and Education presents a talk by , a political economist and health services researcher. This talk explores how climate change actions engage with inter-generational tropes. It highlights fault lines, raises questions about inter-generational blame and points to how we might consider inter-generational solidarity for climate action moving forward.

Pikopayin — It is Broken (Film)
March 7, 2022
3:00-4:30 p.m.
The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages presents a documentary video project. Taking place in the oil sands regions of Alberta, Pîkopayin (It is Broken), the film foregrounds Bigstone Cree Nation members’ perspectives and insights on energy projects and industrial activity within Treaty 8 Territory. The video project documents Bigstone Cree Nation members’ experiences of resource-extraction projects and activity within the First Nation’s traditional territory.
Learn more and register.

Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, and Community Planetary Health in Bangladesh
March 9, 2022
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Increasing salinity induced by sea level rise is causing planetary health impacts in the world's coastal communities. The coastal area of Bangladesh is no exception; the health and well-being of communities in coastal areas in Bangladesh have been strongly affected by increased water and soil salinity. These planetary health impacts can be categorized as (1) primary (communicable and non-communicable diseases; scarcity of potable water), (2) secondary (food and nutrition security; migration and related health impacts), and (3) tertiary (adaptation-related emerging diseases; disaster-related health vulnerability). Dr. Byomkesh Talukder will explore these multidimensional health impacts and associated salinity factors and present a collective intelligence-based framework to address the challenges currently being faced by coastal communities in Bangladesh.
Learn more and register.

March 10, 2022
1:00-2:00 p.m.
The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies presents an event that addresses how can renewable energy be transformative for communities and what new research areas and opportunities this provides for current scholars wishing to pursue a just renewable energy transition in research and in practice. The event features , an associate professor at the University of Victoria's department of geography.

March 14, 2022
12:00 p.m.
Hosted by the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, (University of Toronto) will deliver a talk about examining faith-based environmentalism and the ways that specific Jewish values are emphasized. His talk highlights how faith leaders and activists are increasingly vocal about environment and climate issues.

March 15, 2022
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Towards the formal launch of the Consortium of Excellence for the 17 Goals, please be invited to the organization's 2nd gathering, a.k.a. Café 17, at 9-00 am EST on March 15, 2022. The topic of the conversation this time is quantifying the contribution of inclusive insurance to helping the "missing middle" avoid poverty and climb the socio-economic ladder in the era of limited data.

Host: Professor , University of Lausanne;
Special Guests:  and , International Labour Organization;
Panelists: Professors , University of Liverpool;  and , 91��ɫ.

March 17, 2022
1:00-2:30 p.m.
Cities cause climate change. What are we doing about it? Dr. will provide an informative and timely discussion of the issues and challenges of cities and climate change, drawing upon her experience in the Toronto area. Cities are undergoing a paradigm shift to deal with climate change through a variety of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy use and to prepare to be more resilient to climate impacts, while promising environmental justice and social equity.

Agents for Change: Facing the Anthropocene
March 21, 2022
11:00-12:30 p.m.
Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology presents a curated and artist talk featuring Liz Miller, Jane Tingley and Nina Czeglady.
The presenters are  (Feminist Media Lab, Concordia),  (Leonardo Network) and  (SLO Lab, AMPD).  A listening booth will also be set up to show Liz Miller’s work The Shore Line (2017) that week, an interactive Documentary that features over 40 collaborative videos made with individuals who are confronting the threats of unsustainable development and extreme weather with persistence and ingenuity. 

March 22, 2022
11:30-1:00 p.m.
The 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research presents a talk featuring speakers: Teti Argo and . In the wake of the failure of talks at COP 26, scholars and activists have taken grassroots actions to build for communities an alternative infrastructure they need for climate change adaptation. This talk presents a discussion about what we can learn from the local residential knowledges of residing alongside rivers in Jakarta; how the residents develop their own sense of risk and coping mechanism in and through social media; how they work at the local level with scholars, designers and activists to provide a shared structure of knowledge and practice below the formal system of adaptation and mitigation plan.

UN World Water Day - Human Environmental Health, Engagement with Indigenous Communities, and Engineering Scientific Solutions 
March 22, 2022
9:00-12:00 p.m.
Co-hosted by CIFAL 91��ɫ and the Office of the Provost, in partnership with the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, 91��ɫ and part of CIFAL 91��ɫ’s In-Focus Knowledge Exchange Series for Nature, Climate, and People.

The impacts of climate change and ecosystem degradation are experienced by local communities regionally and around the world. These experiences are exacerbated by underlying social inequities. World Water Day is an opportunity to contextualize research that sheds light on these experiences against the backdrop of global efforts to boost ambition on adaptation action, and strengthening inter-regional and cross-boundary adaptation to the impacts of planetary stressors  — e.g., food systems, water, agriculture and fisheries, and energy — with special focus on human and environmental health. This one-day event will have presentations from convenors Drs.  and   and a keynote address from Dr. James Orbinski. As well, Dahdaleh Institute’s Global Health and Humanitarianism Fellow Dr. Syed Imran Ali (and many others) will engage in discussions on the science and governance of freshwater, including Human and Environmental Health; Local Actors and Communities; and Engineering Scientific Solutions. 
Learn more and register.

March 23, 2022
9:00-12:30 p.m.
As part of the commitment to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals, Risk and Insurance Studies Centre at 91��ɫ is delighted to invite everyone to a one-day workshop that brings together renowned international scholars from distinct disciplines and influential leaders from the private sector, aimed at generating awareness of climate change risks and mobilising the community to take action.
Presenters , Mathematics, University of Liverpool, UK; , Biology, 91��ɫ, Canada; , Finance, University of Lausanne, Switzerland; , Engineering, 91��ɫ, Canada.
Panel lead: , Canadian Business Coalition for Climate Policy.

Children’s Brain Development in a Changing Climate
March 24, 2022
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research will be hosting a climate change seminar on "Children’s Brain Development in a Changing Climate". Brain development in the early years lays the foundation for lifelong cognitive function, productivity, and mental health. How does the changing climate threaten children's brain development globally? This presentation will provide an overview of impacts on child health and development of both the sudden climate change effects, including extreme weather events, extreme heat, and effects on natural systems; and consequences of the changing climate, such as displacement, migration, and social instability. Some key challenges towards to studying and modelling these impacts will be shared. Finally, action and commitments to protect children from climate change will be highlighted. The session concludes with reflections in small groups.
Learn more and register.

March 28, 2022
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas features a special event with , , . Marcondes Coelho is a forest engineer and holds a Master's degree in Environmental and Forest Sciences. Dr. Chrislain Eric Kenfack's research is at the heart of the critical issues of our times. His questions concern the grounds for solidarity among social movements. Balikisu Osman is finishing her PhD in Environmental Studies at 91��ɫ. Her doctoral research focuses on climate risks, household responses and sustainable food security in northern Ghana. 

Climate Change in the Caribbean: The Role of Capital in the Climate Crisis and the Movement for Climate Justice
March 31, 2022
6-7:30 p.m.
The Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) is pleased to present and to discuss Climate Change in the Caribbean. Join us for an important and timely presentation that will discuss the role that capital plays in the Climate Crisis and the movement towards Climate Justice in the Caribbean. Malene Alleyne is a Jamaican human rights lawyer and founder of Freedom Imaginaries with a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School and a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. Dr. Esther Figueroa is a Jamaican independent film maker, writer, educator and linguist with over thirty-five years of media productions.

The post Climate Change Research Month appeared first on Research & Innovation.

is a podcast about academic research and why it matters. Join podcast host (professor of Accounting at Schulich School of Business) for a special 10-part series featuring extraordinary researchers and creators at 91��ɫ and their innovative methodologies and approaches. A new episode is launched every month.

Podcast or Perish is supported by 91��ɫ’s Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Schulich School of Business.

Episodes:

, of 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School, holds a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice. Her work examines the problematic jurisdictional reality that shapes the transition to a green economy, as Canadian mining companies seek to develop resources on land belonging to the First Nations.

 of 91��ɫ studies motherhood from a profoundly feminist perspective. Deconstructing the taken-for-granted, culturally normative image of mothers has led her to publish over 20 books on mothering. Her most recent work explores the inordinate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers.

, of the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, studies the impact that the core beliefs and values of teachers have on classroom practice. She talks here about the emotional experience of online learning and how this has affected teachers and students during the pandemic.

, Chair of the Department of Dance at 91��ɫ, is an award-winning filmmaker whose documentaries capture the beauty of motion and the dreams of possibility among dancers in the Philippines. His work is gorgeous and human, with carefully framed images and haunting, evocative soundtracks.

, Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Management at the Schulich School of Business, is a leading expert on the subject of supply chain disruptions. His research on quality management, mass customization, and supply chain relationships has helped supply managers and public policymakers minimize disruptions.

, of the School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health, studies the emotional, psychological, and contextual factors that shape how healthcare workers do their jobs. Her research has helped thousands of oncologists and neurosurgeons understand how they process grief and how their emotional connection to patients influences life-or-death decisions that they face every day.

, James and Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering at Lassonde School of Engineering, studies emerging contaminants in wastewater. She creates the techniques to identify new pollutants such as pharmaceutical compounds that are hazardous at extremely low concentrations, and then eliminate them in ways that contribute positively to the ecosystem.

The post Podcast or Perish appeared first on Research & Innovation.