Professor Emeritus Conrad Heidenreich gives talk about preserving a red oak woodland on Lake Simcoe

De Grassi Point on the west shore of Lake Simcoe is the last tall grass, red oak, white pine savannah remnant north of the Oak Ridges Moraine. It features the largest red oak woodland in Ontario, the largest butternut concentration in Simcoe County and a wetland of provincial significance.   Next Monday, retired geographer Conrad Heidenreich […]

Lecture looks at issues surrounding environmental protection in China

Although environmental protection is considered a strategic issue in China today, how it is discussed and perceived can vary from one ethnic minority to another. Nimrod Baranovitch, a lecturer in Chinese culture and society in the Department of East Asian Studies at Haifa University in Israel, will discuss what environmental protection means in China at […]

Summer education institute looks at art and environmental knowledge

A summer institute organized by the Faculty of Education in collaboration with the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) will bring together teachers, educators, community members and local artists to explore new ways of teaching and learning with a specific focus on the inter-relationships of art, environmental knowing and social justice. Organized by the York Centre […]

Professor Mark Winfield: Ontario towns struggle to maintain downtown areas

Mark Winfield, professor of environmental studies at York University [Faculty of Environmental Studies], says private-sector involvement is not a bad thing – as long as the city maintains strict bylaw control on the heritage buildings, wrote The Orillia Packet and Times July 9, in a story about public-private sector projects in the city. Forming partnerships […]

Chemical stress on Canada's water focus of Katz lecture June 29

Non-ecologists, here is your word for the day: biome. It means a very large ecosytem, and the boreal biome comprises about 60 per cent of Canada‘s land area. It includes more than two million lakes and accounts for about 85 per cent of Canada's freshwater and some 25 per cent of global wetlands. Despite the magnitude of this resource, an increasing number of […]

Professor Laurence Packer to discuss why bees are at risk at tomorrow's Pollinators Festival

Celebrate the birds and the bees tomorrow at the Pollinators Festival. Learn why the bees are at risk with York Professor Laurence Packer in the Department of Biology and about the social life of honey bees with the Toronto Beekeeping Co-operative. The Pollinators Festival, part of International Pollinator Week, will take place from 8am to […]

Professor Peter Victor wins Molson Prize

York environmental studies Professor Peter Victor has been named the recipient of this year’s prestigious Canada Council Molson Prize in the social sciences for outstanding lifetime achievement. Victor, a renowned research professor in York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, is being recognized for his trailblazing research which has led to the emergence of a new discipline […]

Professor Peter Victor appointed to lead Ontario’s Greenbelt Council

York University Professor Peter A. Victor has been appointed chair of Ontario’s Greenbelt Council, which makes recommendations for the protection of more than 1.8 million acres of agricultural and environmentally sensitive land in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. “Dr. Victor brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and insight to the Greenbelt Council,” said Minister of Municipal […]

PhD student Tanya Gulliver: Can Canada handle a Gulf-style oil disaster?

If a monster iceberg (like those now being formed from the melting of the Greenland ice shield) was to collide with the Hibernia platform, says Michael Klare, a noted American oil expert, author and academic, it could prove to be far more devastating than last year’s BP spill, which dumped almost five million barrels into […]

City Institute researcher Simon Black on urban youth and the federal election

Which party speaks for urban youth this federal election? Over the past few weeks, media commentators have pointed to two important trends, wrote Simon Black, a graduate student researcher at The City Institute at York University, in the Toronto Star April 28: Polling suggests young people favour the Greens, Liberals and New Democrats: parties that […]