Activism

  • Environmental Justice: Moving Away from the Shadow

    Monday, May 08, 2023 | By

    By: Kassie Burns

    Many of us realize climate change impacts are being felt across the globe, however, that does not mean they are evenly distributed and felt the same for everyone. People from different geographic locations experience, respond, and cope with climate vulnerabilities in different ways (Sultana, 2022). Marginalized groups have routinely suffered the worst impacts of climate change from large polluting industries.

    These few people who profit the most from destroying our environment are also the ones who have the ability and resources to avoid the consequences. Industries lavishing in capitalism and imperialism greed have abused their power (Sultana, 2022), leading to the emergence of environmental injustices and, more deeply, environmental racism. Environmental racism was coined by Benjamin Chavis and explains that racially oppressed communities are more likely to be exposed to environmental hazards, such as pollution and toxic waste, and are trapped in those conditions (Intersectional Environmentalist). These communities are more likely to live near landfills, sewage plants, mines, contaminated water, oil pipelines, and other sources of pollution that other wealthier white privileged communities have access and resources to move away from. Environmental pollutants and associated toxins bring increased risks of health concerns like cancer, respiratory disease, cardiac disease, and reproductive issues (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion). These communities are more likely to live near landfills, sewage plants, mines, contaminated water, oil pipelines, and other sources of pollution that wealthier and predominantly white communities have access and resources to move away from. Environmental pollutants and associated toxins bring increased risks of health concerns like cancer, respiratory disease, cardiac disease, and reproductive issues (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion).

    In Canada, like many other “wealthy” countries, we have profited and exploited other nations with roots in colonialism, where the effects are still being felt today. Treaties with Indigenous peoples are continually disregarded in favour of oil pipelines and operations that poison ground water, food sources, and our oceans (Intersectional Environmentalist). When projects are developed to extract resources, they often fall on marginalized communities with low income that are known and manipulated by large industries. These communities are ones that will suffer from environmental stressors, prohibited community growth, and it will create a vicious cycle that is extremely difficult to escape.

    Increasing awareness and attention has emerged with environmental justice. There has been a call for action and opportunity to pass Bill C-226, which would create an Act for “respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice”. This would be Canada’s first environmental racism bill! In addition, several novels, news stories, and documentaries (There’s Something In The Water and The Condor and the Eagle) speak on promoting environmental justice. More voices are being heard and multiple social media platforms are being used to help shine a light on these shadowed stories. Sustainability at Brock has created a guide on Instagram to highlight some of the posts on these platforms that are listed them below.

    Environmental Justice Inspired Social Media Platforms:

    References

    Sultana, F. (2022). The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality. Political     Geography, 99, 102638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102638

    The information delivered here helps support SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 10, SDG 11, and SDG 13.

    Categories: Activism, Student Contributor

  • Taking Climate Action

    Friday, November 04, 2022 | By

    Two hands representing earth and nature.

    By: Kassie Burns

    Day by day more horror stories continue to be released about the world being on fire or underwater and it is time we heard the earth’s plea. The International Day of Climate Action took place on October 24th, where we were all challenged to participate in taking climate change actions. We list several ways you can make a difference down below, but first we thought it is important to celebrate the climate action achievements that have been undertaken over the past year. This year alone several major accomplishments have been made and we would like to recognize the hard work and dedication given through some of the many stories that exist across campus.

    Celebrating Climate Action Achievements 2022

    The first ever Niagara Climate Change Summit was held late June that brought together partners of Brock University, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and hosted by the Niagara Region. The event was streamed online for all community members to view morning discussions that was followed by offline conversations of stakeholders to understand the local impact of climate change.

    International Development Week, was hosted by Brock that provided a week-long series held virtually that brought awareness to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

    Brock University continues to foster education in sustainability after the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre launched their PhD in Sustainability Science, the first of its kind in Canada. The inaugural candidates in the program started their studies this fall 2022!

    Additionally, a new program in Earth and Planetary Science Communication will be added for Fall 2023 that allows students to explore space and climate change while promoting global communication through storytelling.

    Brock University Master of Public Health student, Shannon Bird, has been developing an educational lesson plan to help engage youth in sustainability through artwork. The program allows youth to have their voice heard in conversations. She recently won the National Collaborating Centres for Public Helath Knowledge Translation Graduate Student Award for her work!

    On Earth Day, Brock University students in the course Climate Crisis raised funds to plant a Ginkgo biloba tree outside of Mackenzie Chown to help elevate some of the emissions caused from time spent on laptops.

    Baharak Razaghirad, research assistant, and Marilyne Jollineau, lead of Brock’s Lincoln Living Lab, created an urban tree canopy assessment for the Town of Lincoln in the summer. Together they communicated the socio-environmental benefits of trees, mapped current tree locations, identified priority locations in need of planting, and more to help the community adapt to climate change.

    New ground was covered in The Purdhommes Project as a workshop was held in June to develop a tool to assess multifunctional landscapes in the Town of Lincoln. It will specifically help the Town acquire criteria to establish these landscapes in hope to promote resilience and sustainable community development.

    Brock took great pride in announcing Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) was credited as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building! The certification is recognized globally that looks for efficient energy in carbon and green buildings, which is especially difficult to achieve with older structures.

    We hosted two sustainability challenges this year to encourage Brock students to participate in sustainable actions by everyday lifestyle choices. The challenge gave students the opportunity to track actions that also brought awareness to the impact individual actions. Together the last challenge alone saved approximately 15,000 kg of CO2, diverted 1,100 kg of waste from landfills and saved 128,000 L of water!

    Two Brock University Master of Sustainability candidates received a grant from the World Wildlife Fund – Canada (WWF) to form a seed library. The seeds are available at James A. Gibson Library on campus free of charge! Students are kindly asked to plant the seeds and then return harvested seeds from the plants they have grown to continue the cycle. The library helps collect and distribute rare and native seeds to promote genetic diversity in the region!

    This year the winners of the Sustainability Poetry Contest was announced at a virtual event that created an inspirational discussion on sustainability and promotes the power of language in art.

    A webinar series to discuss the climate emergency and sports through a partnership with Brock University’s Centre for Sport Capacity and University of British Columbia’s Centre for Sport and Sustainability took place in February. The conversation took a critical lens at how sports will be impacted by the climate crisis and how to offset changes.

    Initiatives to Take Climate Action

    Everyone can act on climate change; see how you can participate today with some easy initiatives from the United Nations!

    1. Eat more vegetables
    2. Walk bike or take public transit
    3. Throw away less food
    4. Consider an electric vehicle
    5. Try repairing items instead of replacing them
    6. Reduce the amount you travel by airplane
    7. Use less water (be mindful of shower times, turn the tap off while brushing teeth, and use appropriate laundry load sizes)
    8. Be aware of eco-conscious products/services
    9. Save energy at home (unplug electronics, dress appropriately to lower heating/cooling, use LED light bulbs, wash clothes with cold water and hang them to dry)
    10. Let your voice be heard (seek out climate strikes, join clubs, vote for people who support the environment)

    Whether it is joining climate rallies or using less water, we all have the power to make a difference each and every day! Tag us at BUsustainable to shows how you are taking action and making a difference in your community.

    References

    United Nations. (N/A). Start with these ten actions. Retrieved October 12, 2022, from https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions

     

    Categories: Activism, Climate Change, Student Contributor

  • Fighting the Climate Emergency

    Tuesday, June 18, 2019 | By

    Blog Contributor: Noah Nickel

    Each day it appears that the future of our planet seems to be more dire than the day before. While to some that might sound hyperbolic, for anyone following the news, they know this to be true. Day in and day out we hear about another animal being added to the endangered species list, another that has gone extinct entirely, and a plethora of scientific studies that say we have been underestimating the impact of the climate crisis on our environment.

    Additionally, we cannot ignore the recent flooding events that we have seen in our local region and throughout the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, as they have prompted declarations of emergency throughout these provinces. This type of news seems to come up incredibly often, always increasing in regularity and in the severity of rhetoric, implicating our societies and their inability to effectively act on this issue.

    While our situation on earth appears to be reaching its final turning point before we are guaranteed a harsh fallout as a direct result of the ever-worsening climate crisis, this reality has seemingly struck a chord with a large swath of the general population, especially young people. Across Canada, the United States, and beyond, we have seen countless school walkouts, organized demonstrations, and even attempts at lobbying elected officials by high school and university students in an act to raise awareness for and force institutional action to address the climate crisis – something that has never been seen before on this scale.

    That is what makes me so excited about working with the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre here at Brock University, because I think young people are in an ideal position to bring about institutional change within their schools, their public institutions, and their governments to combat the climate crisis head on unlike ever before. I believe that the ESRC is in a unique position within this fight, as they possess the ability to organize events and influence individual decisions to live more sustainably, while also having the institutional, national, and even international connections to have a broader impact on large scale sustainability efforts. This means that they can affect not only individual actions, but our collective action and discourse regarding environmental sustainability and climate change.

    Regarding their individual and community impact, on International Women’s Day this past year, the ESRC, in collaboration with Facilities Management, hosted a Women in Sustainability panel event. The event touched on both the barriers that women in environmental sustainability face today as well as the amazing contributions they have and will continue to make in the field of environmental sustainability and in the fight against climate change.

    On an institutional level, the ESRC was instrumental in securing $7.9 million in funding from the Ontario government through the Greenhouse Gas Campus Retrofits Program to replace Brock’s co-generation engines that produce electricity and provide heating and cooling on campus. The replacement engines will reduce Brock’s annual nitrogen oxide gas emissions from 55 tonnes to just 8 tonnes and will consume 26% less fuel.

    I hope that through my time with the ESRC I am able to further engage my peers in issues of environmental sustainability and the fight against climate change, while also highlighting and contributing to the efforts that the ESRC makes on an institutional level at Brock, as well as on the national stage, to reduce harmful emissions, alter our wasteful practices, and ultimately shift our national discourse on the environment and climate change.

    It’s clear that the climate emergency has motivated a generation, and I believe that we must channel that energy into productive initiatives that will bring about the change that we as young people hope to see in the world. This isn’t simply a personal goal, it’s an international imperative, as our future truly does depend on our ability to act, and act quickly.

    Categories: Activism, Climate Change, Student Contributor, Sustainability at Brock