Science Communication with Kenneth Tam

image.imageformat.fullwidth.1396541934

Photo from: ETH Zürich

This week, Terra Informer Sonak Patel sits down with Kenneth Tam to discuss the ins and outs of science communication, and nuances of working in that field. Kenneth is the communications associate for Future Energy Systems (FES) at the University of Alberta. FES is one of the largest research initiatives at the university, with 127 researchers, and about 506 graduate students.

Download episode now.

Headlines

The Narwhal – Microplastics may affect how Arctic sea ice forms and melts
CBC – Want to cut down on plastic waste? Here’s what the experts recommend

Download program log here.

Advertisements

Eco-anxiety and the Climate Strike

This week on Terra Informa, we catch up with Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore to talk about eco-anxiety and the feelings driving global climate action this past week. After the interview with Dr. Passmore,  we’ve got audio and interviews from the September 27 Climate Strike on the Alberta Legislature grounds.

Download episode now.

Eco-anxiety and Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore

Terra Informer Eric Bowling spoke with positive psychologist Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore. Positive psychology seeks to support people as they accept their past, feel happiness and excitement about their future, and contentment in the present. Dr. Passmore’s work focuses on the relationship between people, nature, and well-being, and has been published in numerous academic journals and presented at national and international conferences.

Climate Strike Edmonton

Last week, people around the world came out in record numbers to call for climate action. This week of action was kicked off and wrapped up by two major events on Friday September 20th and Friday September 27th. Canada’s strikes and marches were planned for this past Friday, September 27th to conclude this week of action.

Here in Edmonton, Alberta, an estimated 4000 people converged on the legislature building downtown, and an estimated 1000 people rallied in Calgary.

Download program log here.

Canadian Curriculum and Climate Organizing

Education concept. Books and textbooks on the bookshelf.

Photo: Vilson Frangaj on Flickr

This week on Terra Informa, we discuss the second part of a 2 part mini-series on youth education in the climate crisis. On September 20, 2019, Youth For Climate and other climate organizers staged a “die-in” in downtown Edmonton as a start to the International Week of climate action. Listen in for some audio from the protest, as well as interviews with organizers of Youth for Climate.

Download episode now. 

Climate strike on Sept 27 at 1pm at the Edmonton Legislature

EDMONTON CLIMATE STRIKE

THE GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE

Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion

Trans Mountain pipeline expansion still faces hurdles as B.C. landowners dig in

Download program log here.

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.

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.