A Green Leader we miss: David Miller

Despite the critiques of David Miller's mayorship of Toronto, he is and will certainly be remembered as a leader in the environmental and sustainability realm. This Globe and Mail articles features Miller's thoughts about Transit City and how  transit is critical to any successful city like Toronto. I wrote about an idea I had to Transit City's financial issues back in May 2010. You can view that post here.

The article from the Globe also provides an update about what Miller is doing these days. He continues to practice his green ethos through a new position as Future of Cities Global Fellow at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, a post he landed after chairing the C40 group of mayors. He is also going to teach a course to senior engineers and graduate planning students (at NYU) that will use an existing derelict site as a case study in rebuilding cities.

Good on you, David. If only Toronto's current mayor was half as sensible, Toronto would be able to renew its hitherto impressive environmental record, thanks largely to Miller's leadership.

The Enviro Boys Graduate

Chris and I graduated at Trent on June 3rd, 2010. It was a wonderful day spending time with fellow graduates and collectively cherishing the accomplishment of receiving our undergrad degrees. Both Chris and I had very fulfilling undergrad experiences from the courses we took, to the faculty research we assisted with and to our culminating honours theses. Trent is a school we will dearly miss.

In December 2008, when Chris asked me if I was interested in co-blogging with him, I was honoured, not knowing how much we would benefit from the blogging experience. In January 2009, we started this blog and have grown tremendously from it. It was an Environmental Policy class at Trent that was our source of inspiration for starting this blog. Among many of the benefits we attained from a Trent education, we developed a blog at this university and we are grateful that it provided the inspiration to do so. We will continue the blog as we both begin new journeys; ones that will be full of adventure, learning and challenge.

At our Convocation ceremony, Nancy Strictland was the recipient of the honorary Doctor of Laws degree. She received her Honours B.Sc from Trent in Physical Geography. Nancy has dedicated her life to international development and global citizenship. She has done great work in creating educational links between Bhutan and Canada. Indeed, from 1992 to 2008 Nancy worked for the University of New Brunswick coordinating a series of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded education projects and heading the Canadian Cooperation Office in Bhutan.

She also worked with the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) as a geography teacher in rural Zimbabwe. You can view her acceptance speech below:

Poll results: climate change communicators

We express our gratitude to those who continue to vote in our polls. Chris and I enjoy this new poll feature and hope that it stimulates your on-going interest in the environment. It's always good to see the diversity of responses.

The recent poll question was "who of these individuals has been most effective at communicating the importance of taking action on climate change to you?"

David Suzuki (7 votes)
Al Gore (8 votes)
Nicholas Stern (2 votes)
Elizabeth May (2 votes)
Barack Obama (1 vote)
Oprah Winfrey (0 votes)
None of the above (1 vote)

Number of people who voted = 16
Number of total votes = 21

Climate change is one of those subjects that can make you feel depressed, pessimistic and frustrated with the world. Finding consensus on the issue through agreements has proven to be a difficult task. Canada, the US, China and India continue to be the world's largest C02 emitters. However, as individuals striving to make an environmental difference, surely we can live with some optimism. You have to be the change yourself and lead by example. The individuals listed above have all inspired me in some sort of way (with the exception of Oprah) to think more pro-actively about climate change.

Nicholas Stern wrote a report in October 2006 about the 7 trillion dollar warning on global warming. In essence, not taking action on climate change would be more expensive for the world than taking action on climate change. He told us a lot about the economics of it. Al Gore, despite the widespread criticism, raised international awareness over the issue and got people thinking about it. His film "An Inconvenient Truth" illustrated some of Stern's concerns but more importantly, exposed many to this global issue. I commend him greatly for doing that.

I heard David Suzuki and Elizabeth May (Federal Leader of the Green Party of Canada) speak in my year of university. They talked to a large university audience about why we should care about climate change and emphasized how we can take individual action and educate others about it. Education and awareness are fundamental for mobilizing change and getting society to think about climate change more holistically. Suzuki has been Canada's man at articulating the contemporary issues around the environment to all audiences. He continues to inspire me.

Last, Barack Obama, well, he hasn't done much but I am confident that he will take climate change more seriously than his predecessor. He has worked towards increasing fuel economy standards and is more enthusiastic about biofuels and cellulosic ethanol, unlike corn ethanol whom Bush was obsessed with.

Key message: Our optimism and solidarity around climate change needs to be desperately re-invigorated. We have more pessimists today than optimists (especially after Copenhagen). If you are displeased with your leaders and their unwillingness to act, then take action yourself by educating, creating awareness and sharing your knowledge with your community.

Special talk on eco-psychology next week....

This coming Wednesday, the World Affairs Colloquium at Trent is hosting the 2009 Jack Matthews fellow, Douglas Blakey. The talk is titled "Eco-psychology and Educational Leadership: Bridging the Gap". It will be hosted in the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre (2505 Pioneer Road) on November 18th from 3-5pm. The centre is just south of Gzowski College. For a map of the centre in relation to the university, see here.

Douglas Blakey spent over 30 years as a teacher and principal of Upper Canada College in Toronto. Mr. Blakey has recently worked as an advisor on environmental sustainability for independent schools. Using a unique pedagogy approach based on “Learn it By Living It” concepts, Mr. Blakey uses these concepts to upgrade facilities and grounds with environmental technologies and integrates them with curriculum and organizational behaviour. Also working with local communities, Douglas Blakey has recently developed a fascination with eco-psychology and is interested in the interplay between eco-psychology and its positive impact on inspiring educational leadership.

The Jack Matthews Fellowship was created in 2008 to honour the founding contributions Jack made to to Trent University, Lakefield College School and the Canadian Canoe Museum.

It's going to be a great talk that you definitely don't want to miss.

Stern on contemporary issues surrounding climate change...

Does everyone remember the Stern review on the economics of Climate Change? It was a 700-page report produced by Nicholas Stern, an economist in Britain. Released in October 2006, Stern wrote this paper to convince the British government and the world in general, that not taking action on climate change will have serious repercussions on the world economy. His two big buzz words were “mitigation” and “adaptability”.

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions could be done through environmental taxes, carbon trading schemes and the more technological carbon capture and storage (CCS), which Chris has touched on in the past. Adaptability refers to the sustainable changes that we (mainly developed world) must make to our lives to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. This includes everything from driving less to minimizing our use of air conditioning. Adapting to new conditions brought about by climate change can be difficult, but these changes are critical for the well-being of our planet.

This video features an interview between Allan Greg and Stern. It is quite lengthy (27 minutes) but I encourage you to briefly look through it. Stern talks about his new book "The Global Deal" and gives insight into some of the real issues that surround climate change today. There are several interesting points that come out of the interview but the only one I will touch on is Canada’s role (Canada's role in the video starts at 21 minutes and 15 seconds). In brief, Stern says that Canada’s must have more of a leadership role on the equity aspects of climate change.

Being more vocal on deforestation for instance (deforestation accounts for 20% of global emissions) can set an example for developing countries who clear cut their forests. Canada’s abundance of forestry is highly advantageous from an economic point of view, but adopting more sustainable policies and showing the world that we actually care about our trees, can go a long way.

Stern also points to the massive renewable energy potential for Canada, especially for wind. Developing technologies in Canada like carbon capture or more efficient automobiles can demonstrate the feasibility of these technologies and create an impetus for other countries to explore them. Why should we explore them? We have money for research and development in Canada. Alas, money is not sufficiently allocated to these areas.

I guess anyone can ignore Canada’s leadership seeing as we are one of the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Nonetheless, collaborating with other countries and being more vocal on the numerous problems associated with deforestation can be highly useful. Maybe Canada’s role on deforestation policies will be better solidified at Copenhagen.

Key message: Climate change is complex. Collaboration on this issue is of fundamental importance.

Green Cities: Toronto's city planning is changing...

into a more comprehensive and thorough process. In my Urban Planning class today, we had guest lecturer who just happened to be the chief city planner of Toronto. The speaker shared many fascinating stories about the history of Toronto and how planning has become much more sophisticated. As a Torontonian, I have witnessed several changes over the years including the development of condominiums, the expansion of the TTC, and a city that is becoming more culturally diverse every single day. With a population of 2.4 million that is always on the run, the city of Toronto's planning division has kept really busy.

What's changing according to the chief city planner? Environmental planning for one. The city is ostensibly exploring light rail transit . Light rail transit would be found across the city but especially in high traffic areas including Sheppard Avenue and Bathurst street. Light rail transit is expensive but the city is going to slowly start introducing it accompanied with more bike lanes. Don't forget, subway extension lines are exorbitantly pricey. An extension to the Toronto airport (which is ludicrous by the way) would cost 2.4 billion according to the chief planner. Ravines and green areas like the Humber river and Don Valley are going to be cleaned up as the city begins to work more closely with conservation authorities.

Even sidewalks are becoming more complex. Picture a sidewalk that is 15 feet in width that lies between the road and a store. The first 3 feet from the road would be designated as a waiting area for buses, taxis etc. The next 5 feet would be designated for furniture, lamp posts, bus shelter waiting areas, benches etc. The next 4 feet is the walking area for pedestrians. And finally the last 2-4 feet is for market store or commercial place. Meaning that the store has 2-3 feet and can use it for whatever they would like. This kind of planning is occurring, but mainly in downtown and in high traffic areas.

Surface parking lots are going to become more popular with gardens filled with good quality soil. This would help in reducing the urban heat island effect, minimize flooding and embellish the space. Public art is going to be legislatively a part of new development. In other words, any new development structure would have to have some component of public art so citizens can learn to appreciate the aesthetics of urban environments. For instance, integrating new buildings with older structures is not desirable by all, but adding some public art and other embellishing infrastructure can help.

Lastly, a green roof by-law. In short, the city would require green roofs on certain types of new buildings. This would establish a standard for green roof design and construction in Toronto helping with increased local vegetation, absorbing more precipitation and of course adding some aesthetic value.

Key message: These new sorts of innovative planning are going to make Toronto a more livable city. Having lots of high-rise buildings (second most in North America after NYC), is never a bad thing. New development is critical, but designing buildings with green standards like energy efficiency and green design will certainly help. Transportation is also becoming an integral part of planning cities, thankfully Toronto is realizing this.

Maude Barlow: The Great Water Warrior

For those who missed Maude Barlow last night she was very impassioned and informative about the global water crisis. As the Senior Advisor on Water Issues for the United Nations, she brought a very global perspective to the issue. Fortunately, she is also the national chairperson for the Council of Canadians and touched on water issues at home. To get a taste of her eloquence and passion see this video. Also check out this video shot in California.