Canadian Curriculums in the Face of Climate Change

feliphe-schiarolli-hes6nUC1MVc-unsplash

Photo by: Feliphe Schiarolli

This week on Terra Informa, we’re bringing you part one of a two-part series on youth and the climate crisis.

In part one, we focus on climate change in Canadian curriculums – or more often, the lack thereof. A paper published recently by Seth Wynes and Kimberly Nicholas, summarized in an article by Sarah Lawrynuik for The Narwhal, scores the curriculum of each province on different components of climate education and stacks them against each other. In this episode, Terra Informers Elizabeth Dowdell and Sonak Patel talk about their experiences and memories about what they learned, and what they’d wished they’d learned, about climate change in grade school.

Download episode now. 

Stay tuned for next week’s episode, which will look into how today’s youth are taking control of climate action and education!

Download program log here.

Advertisements

Energy Transition in the Face of Climate Crisis
11246820034_e41d3c0225_o

Photo credit: Mack Male – City of Edmonton, CC BY-SA 2.0, no changes.

This week on Terra Informa we discuss Edmonton’s recent declaration of a climate emergency and what this means for the City, then Terra Informer Sonak Patel speaks with Sarah Van Wyngaarden about her work on district heating in the environmentally sustainable, zero-emission community of Blatchford – currently under development!

Download episode now.

Climate Emergency declared in Edmonton

On Tuesday, August 27th, Edmonton City Council declared a climate emergency. This declaration was made to support and speed up actionable steps to reduce Edmonton’s greenhouse gas emissions. Along with the declaration, the City also passed a plan to respond to climate change.

Follow the links below for more information…

https://globalnews.ca/news/5821850/edmonton-climate-emergency-greenhouse-gas-emissions/

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/valley-line-expropriation-impending-shisha-ban-top-councils-return

http://sirepub.edmonton.ca/sirepub/cache/2/qqhwcuvz0ourtjtwpfgbxpma/8628550829201902404498.PDF

http://sirepub.edmonton.ca/sirepub/cache/2/qqhwcuvz0ourtjtwpfgbxpma/86285608292019024048123.PDF

http://sirepub.edmonton.ca/sirepub/cache/2/qqhwcuvz0ourtjtwpfgbxpma/86285708292019024050931.PDF

http://sirepub.edmonton.ca/sirepub/cache/2/qqhwcuvz0ourtjtwpfgbxpma/86285408292019023916612.PDF

https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/city_vision_and_strategic_plan/city-plan.aspx

Download program log here.

Edmonton’s Waste Facility
Aeratiion-Hall-Testing-800x494

Photo credit: City of Edmonton

This week on Terra Informa, we talk trash! The Edmonton Compost Facility shut down on May 29, 2019 after it was discovered the roof was no longer structurally safe. As a tribute, we wanted to play a story about the facility’s launch from 2009 but… it has mysteriously disappeared….

So instead we revisit a story from 2017 where Terra Informers Amanda Rooney and Tasmia Nishat took a tour of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre. The City offers free tours of its world-renowned garbage collection facility every Friday at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Let’s hear all about it!

Download episode now.

Headlines

Edmonton City Council has declared a State of Climate Emergency

City of Edmonton new 25-year waste management strategy

University of Calgary study determines how hydraulic fracturing can increase the likelihood of earthquakes

 Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg lands in New York

Download program log here.

The State of the Amazon and Conservation in Brazil

brasil-144435_960_720

Photo by Yolanda via Pixabay

This week on Terra Informa we discuss the current wildfire devastating the Amazon rainforest and Terra Informer Elizabeth Dowdell talks to interdisciplinary researcher Cristiana Seixas about her work on socio-ecological systems and protecting the environment in Brazil.

Download episode now.

For more information on the richness of the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest and some of the other biome types mentioned in this week’s episode, check out the Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Americas, which Cristiana Seixas was a part of creating through the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Check out the sources that were used for this week’s introduction to the Amazon rainforest and Brazil for more information:

Encyclopedia Britannica: Amazon Rainforest
WWF: Amazon

BBC: The Amazon in Brazil is on fire – how bad is it?
The Guardian: Bolsonaro declares ‘the Amazon is ours’ and calls deforestation data ‘lies’ 
WWF: Struggle for land, survival, and identity in the Amazon rainforest

Plant diversity in tropical rainforests: a review of mechanisms of species coexistence
Paleoindian Cave Dwellers in the Amazon: The Peopling of the Americas

Download program log here.

Book Club: Streetfight

streetfight.jpg

Photo by: Hannah Cunningham

Welcome to book club! This week, Terra Informers Elizabeth Dowdell and Hannah Cunningham chat about Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow. Sadik-Khan is a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, a position she held from 2007 – 2013. The book is part history about her role as commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, and part description of on the ground lessons that can teach people how to look at streets differently. Hannah and Elizabeth chat about parts of the book that stood out to them, and how they feel about their roles as urban citizens in the ‘streetfight’. 

Download episode now.

Open Streets Festival in Edmonton!

If you were inspired to get in on the streetfight by this week’s episode and want to reclaim some pavement, our local listeners will have the chance to do just that on August 25th from 10am-3pm in downtown Edmonton! Click HERE for more information on the festival.

Headlines

Microplastics found in snow at various locations globally

 Alamos Gold Mine Protest

Edmonton’s Solar Rebate Program

Download Program Log Here.

The Climate Activist Experience
67729861_492945354851504_6965969747569541120_n

Photo credit: Hannah Cunningham

This week on Terra Informa we talk with OurTime and Climate Justice Edmonton organizers Stephen, Madison, and Chen about who these organizations are and what they do, experiences from the front lines of climate action, and how each one found a community to keep them going.

Download episode now.

Download program log here.

Planning for Resilience in a Changing Climate

21350142243_e285e4a22d_o

Photo by Rohit Varma on Flickr

This week, we talk about the importance of resilience, or how to minimize the damage of the climate crisis. We will be providing you with some of the latest information on climate crisis and impacts. We’ll also hear from Terra Informer Sonak Patel sitting down with Nicole Bonnett to discuss her research into resilience planning on Vancouver Island. 

Download episode now.

 ‘Urban climate centre’ in Edmonton

Canada’s federal government has given the city of Edmonton 22 million dollars to develop an urban climate centre as part of the Low Carbon Cities Canada project. The centre will work on projects such as “retrofitting energy-efficient infrastructure in commercial and residential buildings and creating jobs from low-emission initiatives”. 

The past July this year was the hottest month in recorded history

NBC News MACH

The Independent

Iceland has lost its first glacier to the impacts of climate change

The Guardian

Chiefs from British Columbia are calling on the Canadian government to pull its financial support of the Thirty Meter Telescope Project in Hawaii

Global News

Berkeley, California has become the first city in the United States to ban natural and fossil gas hook-ups for new buildings

The Guardian

Ethiopia broke the record for the most trees planted in a single day, with the estimated number being around 350 million seedlings

The Guardian

Download program log here.

CBC Change the Debate
67350837_842963219420125_2110790711598120960_n

Photo Credit: Hannah Cunningham

This week on Terra Informa we focus on the proposed climate action policies of each major federal party in the upcoming 2019 election and speak with Stephen Buhler of Our Time, the group who organized “CBC Change the Debate” rallies across Canada just two weeks ago. We talk about the importance of climate action at the federal scale, why Canadians should be demanding the federal government seriously respond to the climate crisis, and share some audio from the Edmonton demonstration.

Download episode now.

Federal climate change platform, by party

We did a quick dive in to each major political parties published climate change and environment platform. Listen to this weeks episode for a summary or follow the links to the plan itself and media commentary.

Conservative

A Real Plan

The Narwhal

Global News

Green Party

Mission Possible

Green Party news release

Liberal

Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change

National Observer

NDP

Power to Change: a new deal for climate action and good jobs

Global News

The Tyee

Stephen Buhler, Our Time

Stephen Buhler, a former worker in the Alberta oil and gas sector, and current organizer with both Our Time and Climate Justice Edmonton, talks about his experience advocating for serious climate action and the intention behind the “CBC Change the Debate” rally.

Street opinions, general public

Terra Informers checked in with participants at the “CBC Change the Debate” rally the night of, then asked general public on the University of Alberta campus what their take was on climate change and the federal election.

Download program log here.
Gallery 1313 — Marissa Magneson Photography

Photographer Marissa Magneson stands in front of the outcome of a collaboration with with West Coast carver, Joshua Prescott. Retrieved from marissamagneson.com

It is no question that art holds powerful implications for how we view our surroundings, others and ourselves. In 2019 communities of Indigenous artists are coming to the cultural forefront to dispel misrepresentations of Indigenous people as well as centering and celebrating indigenous resilience, sovereignty and cultures.

Terra Informers spoke with Cree, Métis and Norwegian photographer, Marissa Magneson at the 2019 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences that took place in June. Magneson presented a talk titled “Re-Framing History: Flipping Artistic Perspective of Indigenous Identity” which explores how art is used to shape and reshape our understanding of people, history, and places.

Throughout the interview Terra Informer, Shawn Hou, presents headlines that demonstrate the ties that art has to identity as well as the climate crisis.

Download episode now.

Links to Indigenous Artists

Juno Award winning musician, Jeremy Dutcher

Visual artist, Kent Monkman

Matika Wilbur’s Project 562

Alberta’s inaugural artist in residence, Lauren Crazybull

Links to Headlines

Prominent AIDs activist and artist, Douglas Crimp, dead at age 74.

United Kingdom Tate Galleries taking a stronger stance on the climate emergency after cutting ties with British Petroleum.

Activists call for London Opera House to sever ties with large oil sponsors, prompting actors to resign from their positions with the company.

Public mural in downtown Vancouver, titled ‘Earth Justice’ is about respecting and preserving the planet.

New York City garbage trucks adorned with murals highlighting and encouraging sustainability.

Protesters in China use guerrilla art as a form of non-violent protest of a bill.

Download program log here. 

Workers and the Future of Energy

8534663220_b6d6bc337e_o

Photo by Daniel Jones on Flickr

This week on Terra Informa, Andrea Wiebe met with Lliam Hildebrand of the Iron and Earth Organization about their work advocating for oil and gas development to incorporate more renewable energy. They discussed how oil and gas sector workers can adapt to and support the low carbon transition. 

Download episode now. 

UCP STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

Following the cancellation of the provincial carbon tax in June, the Alberta government is seeking feedback and conducting engagement on its new plan to cut greenhouse gases. Named the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Program, the government is meeting with over 150 stakeholders, including representatives of the oil and gas sector, mining, and agriculture sector, among others. The public is also invited to weigh in on this plan, through an online survey. 

Online survey to provide feedback: Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Engagement

Global News: Alberta seeks feedback on greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan

Global News: Alberta makes it official: Bill passed and proclaimed to kill carbon tax

CBC PROTEST

On Wednesday, July 17th, environmental groups around the country are planning to demonstrate outside CBC headquarters. Demonstrators are asking that the CBC host a federal leaders’ debate on the climate crisis and a green new deal. With over 11 million Canadians tuning in to the leaders’ debates, environmental groups are demonstrating to highlight the importance of informing the public about each candidate’s strategy to address the climate emergency. As the CBC finalizes plans for election coverage, demonstrators from coast to coast will be gathering outside studios during the six o’clock news to encourage the broadcaster to host this debate. Edmontonians interested in this demonstrating can visit the CBC studios in City Centre Mall at 10062 102 Ave.

Facebook page: Edmonton calls on the CBC to Change the Debate

Transmountain Pipeline Expansion Updates

The Transmountain Expansion Project has been the centre of a large debate about economic development and environmental conservation, as well as a discussion about the responsibilities of project proponents and the rights of affected communities.

Vancouver Sun: Conservationists file legal challenge to Trans Mountain pipeline reapproval

CBC News: First Nations launch new court challenge to Trans Mountain pipeline

CBC News: Environmental groups file new challenge to Trans Mountain pipeline expansion approval

Global News: Several B.C. First Nations launch legal challenge of re-approved Trans Mountain pipeline

Download program log here.