Skip to main content Skip to local navigation
Home » Posts tagged 'environmental issues' (Page 2)

environmental issues

Annual IRIS sustainability survey to examine volunteerism and engagement

Every year, graduate assistants working with the Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) do a campus survey on a sustainability theme. The first survey in 2006, asked students what they knew about climate change and resulted in more environmentally friendly course kits (see YFile, April 2, 2008); the second assessed the value of urban […]

Professor Lewis Molot on why Canadian phosphorus ban will help our lakes

Excessive phosphorus dumps have become a major problem for Canada’s waterways, says Professor Lewis Molot, an environmental scientist in York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, wrote the National Post Jan. 6 in a story about a little-known move by the federal government banning the substance: The federal government brought in new regulations last July effectively […]

Professor Dayna Nadine Scott: Chemical Valley compromises First Nation people's rights

The cumulative impact of the relentless release of pollutants into the air from Canada’s "Chemical Valley" affects the members of Aamjiwnaang in a way that is fundamentally unfair, and is now argued to be unconstitutional, wrote Dayna Nadine Scott, professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and co-director of the National Network on Environments & […]

Call for papers: CERLAC Graduate Student Research Conference

The Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC) is calling for papers for its second International Graduate Student Research Conference. The first conference attracted over 70 presenters from Canada, the United States, Europe and Latin America, who presented in 20 themed panels over a two-day period. Expert faculty members helped ensure rich […]

Professor Mark Winfield says Ontario needs new electricity plan to meet demand and develop renewable energy

Ontario’s electricity system will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis until a long-term strategy focused on environmental and economic sustainability is adopted, concludes a study led by York environmental studies Professor Mark Winfield. It was published in the international journal Energy Policy this month. The study finds that the conventional approaches to electricity system planning […]

Geography graduate student Elizabeth Miller wins northern research award

"It’s expensive doing research up there" in the High Arctic, says Elizabeth Miller. Flying all your equipment and four months’ worth of food and supplies costs thousands of dollars when you have to transfer three times en route from Toronto – via Ottawa, Iqaluit and Resolute – to get to Polar Bear Pass on Bathurst Island. Research […]

Prof Gail Fraser raises new concerns for Canada's oceans after seeing Chevron's uncensored oil spill plans

The federal-provincial agency that regulates oil activity off Newfoundland is mulling changes to required oil spill plans as newly released documents raise safety questions, wrote The Canadian Press July 27: [The documents] include plans for Chevron Canada as it drills the country's deepest exploration well in 2,600 metres of water, about 425 kilometres northeast of St. […]

Professor Gail Fraser raises questions about Canadian oil spill response plans for Newfoundland-based drilling projects

Gail Fraser, a professor in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, spoke about concerns over an oil spill response plan for Canada’s deepest offshore well run by Chevron, on CBC TV’s “The National” and other news broadcasts across the country July 21. Her interview with the National is available on CBC.ca. It runs for approximately 2:30 […]

Interdisicplinary symposium focuses on education and climate change

Today, the shared experiences of those working in education and climate change is the central theme of a one-day symposium taking place at York University. Organized by the Faculty of Education, the Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair for Reorienting Teacher Education Towards Sustainability, […]

SSHRC-funded book challenges notions about 'normal' sex and the environment

Much of what informs environmental thinking springs from a view that equates nature with sexually straight and queer with unnatural. The editors of a new book Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, turn those notions upside down. Co-editors Bruce Erickson (PhD 09’) and York environmental studies Professor Catriona Sandilands, Canada Research Chair in Sustainability & […]

Professor Bridget Stutchbury on return of purple martins to Toronto's High Park

After an eight-year absence, North America’s largest swallow has returned to High Park, wrote the Toronto Star June 7. An excerpt of the complete article follows: Two pairs of purple martins, known for the purple-black feathers of mature males, are cohabiting in a colony house on the south edge of Grenadier Pond. The birds are […]

Professor Gail Fraser: Offshore oil board members lack environmental expertise

A biologist and researcher is asking why none of the six men on the board regulating oil activity off Newfoundland lists environmental expertise as a prime credential , wrote The Canadian Press June 6: The head of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board has stressed that environmental protection is a top goal. But Gail […]

York Centre for Asian Research awards six graduate scholarships to fuel innovative research projects

Six York students have won five awards for their research on Asia or Asian diaspora this year from the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). Vanessa Lamb (right), a second-year doctoral candidate in geography, is the 2010 Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award recipient. Her research interests include the politics of the environment and development, feminist political ecology […]

From Roman times to today, covered in one mother of a book

The Romans were celebrating mothers in about 1250 BCE when they began honouring Cybele, the mother goddess. Even so, motherhood throughout the ages has not always been given the respect it deserves. That’s something York women’s studies Professor Andrea O’Reilly knows a little about. She is general editor of the recently released Encyclopedia of Motherhood, a […]

Disappearing bees may leave us with a bland diet

Bee expert urges public to create bee-friendly gardens in their yards Breakfast may be toast if we don’t take action to save the bees, according to York biology Professor and bee expert Laurence Packer. “Consider breakfast. Eggs, maybe a slice of watermelon, toast with butter and jam, and a cup of coffee with a dash of […]

Prof Peter Victor says growth shouldn't drive the economy, and has numbers to prove it

Peter Victor, an ecological economist who teaches at York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, rejects the idea that economic growth is essential to progress, wrote BC’s Grand Forks Gazette May 19 in an article about replacing the growth economy with a more sustainable model: To prove his point he created a computer model that duplicated […]

York professor on Markham councillors' overtuning foodbelt protection proposal

Markham councillors are facing new questions on developer influence after voting by a razor-thin margin to kill the town’s foodbelt proposal, wrote the National Post May 15. Professor Jose Etcheverry has been involved in efforts to preserve the land: Debate ran late into the night at this week’s council meeting and drew a series of […]

Washington State University prof wins Fulbright to lecture at York

A professor of women’s studies at Washington State University (WSU), Noël Sturgeon will lecture and conduct research in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) in the fall 2010 term after being awarded a Distinguished Fulbright Lectureship. Sturgeon’s internationally known research on the relationship between environmental and social justice movements, her planned collaborative research with York faculty […]