The Canadian Commission for UNESCO has just released a video presenting the UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability: From Local to Global at Brock University !
View the video on YouTube:
My Chair in 3 Minutes: UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability: From Local to Global
The most recent edition of the UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability: From Local to Global newsletter is available now! Click on the image below to read the full edition and learn about what the UNESCO chair has been up to.
31 January 2018
R00020
What kind of future do you want?
That’s the question being asked this year as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Poetry Day.
Brock University Professor and UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability Liette Vasseur, along with Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, is putting out a call for submissions in this year’s 2018 Sustainability Poetry Contest. All Niagara residents are eligible to enter their original, unpublished poems with the theme of ‘The Future We Want’ for this year’s contest.
UNESCO has been celebrating World Poetry Day annually since 1999. The idea is to use poetry as a social tool to bring awareness to social issues, give a voice to the community, promote linguistic diversity and change the way people view their place in the world.
“The poetry contest is important because when we look at sustainability in communities, arts and culture are essential for human well-being,” said Vasseur. “We are aware that when we look at sustainable development, we do not only consider economic development but also social development. It is important to integrate activities that make people feel positive about their lives and help work toward our sustainable development goals.”
The Sustainability Poetry Contest, which is under the patronage of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, includes categories for elementary, high school and post-secondary students, as well as the general public. Both French and English poems are welcome.
This year’s topic is derived from a 2015 United Nations outcome document that spurred the development of the 2030 Agenda, citing 17 sustainable development goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved by 2030.
“The 2018 Sustainability Poetry Contest affords an opportunity for individuals to philosophically envision ‘the future we want’ and express it creatively,” said ESRC Director Ryan Plummer. “In making connections to the sustainable development goals, the poetry helps to bridge sustainability locally to a global agenda for transformative change.”
Poems can be submitted online until 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19 by visiting the UNESCO Chair’s website. Prizes such as books and gift cards, will be awarded in each of the four categories.
Winners will be announced at the UNESCO World Poetry Day celebration on Friday, March 23 at Mahtay Café in downtown St. Catharines. The event is free, but registration on the Chair’s website is required as space is limited.
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
* Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970
Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.
– 30 –
MEDIA RELEASE: 31 January 2018 – R00020
What kind of future do you want?
That’s the question being asked this year as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Poetry Day.
Brock University Professor and UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability Liette Vasseur, along with Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, is putting out a call for submissions in this year’s 2018 Sustainability Poetry Contest. All Niagara residents are eligible to enter their original, unpublished poems with the theme of ‘The Future We Want’ for this year’s contest.
UNESCO has been celebrating World Poetry Day annually since 1999. The idea is to use poetry as a social tool to bring awareness to social issues, give a voice to the community, promote linguistic diversity and change the way people view their place in the world.
“The poetry contest is important because when we look at sustainability in communities, arts and culture are essential for human well-being,” said Vasseur. “We are aware that when we look at sustainable development, we do not only consider economic development but also social development. It is important to integrate activities that make people feel positive about their lives and help work toward our sustainable development goals.”
The Sustainability Poetry Contest, which is under the patronage of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, includes categories for elementary, high school and post-secondary students, as well as the general public. Both French and English poems are welcome.
This year’s topic is derived from a 2015 United Nations outcome document that spurred the development of the 2030 Agenda, citing 17 sustainable development goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved by 2030.
“The 2018 Sustainability Poetry Contest affords an opportunity for individuals to philosophically envision ‘the future we want’ and express it creatively,” said ESRC Director Ryan Plummer. “In making connections to the sustainable development goals, the poetry helps to bridge sustainability locally to a global agenda for transformative change.”
Poems can be submitted online until 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19 by visiting the UNESCO Chair’s website. Prizes such as books and gift cards, will be awarded in each of the four categories.
Winners will be announced at the UNESCO World Poetry Day celebration on Friday, March 23 at Mahtay Café in downtown St. Catharines. The event is free, but registration on the Chair’s website is required as space is limited.
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
* Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970
Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.
– 30 –
Liette Vasseur enjoyed some tea after a recent meeting with her team of scientists, technicians and students in continued efforts to examine sustainable alternative agricultural strategies to improve tea plantations in the Fujian province of Southern China. This large research program also integrates the Chinese counterpart of the Ontario-China Research and Innovation project from the Ministry of Research and Innovation. Agrominerals from Boreal Agrominerals are being tested there for improving the health of plantations.
In her role as UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability: From Local to Global, Liette Vasseur spoke at the Environmental Sustainability Research (ESRC)’s Sustainability Transdisciplinary Seminar Series on January 12. The seminars are a component of the Master of Sustainability program.
Her topic was “The case study of San Juan, Ecuador: Bringing ecosystem governance for a more sustainable community.”
Here is a brief synopsis of the talk:
“The Andean Páramo is a fragile ecosystem that hosts high diversity and plays an important role in moderating climate and water discharge towards the Amazon basin. The Chimborazo region of Ecuador is highly vulnerable to the advance of industrial/ conventional agricultural activities and the changing climate, which is severely effecting water management and ecosystem health. Vasseur’s presentation discussed a large project that involves the indigenous population of San Juan and discussed the way forward to enhance community sustainability and resilience through concepts such as ecosystem governance, ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change and landscape restoration.”
In celebration of UNESCO Poetry Day, Brock University’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC), and the UNESCO Chair in Community Sustainability would like to invite you to submit your original, unpublished, poem to our sustainability poetry contest.
The theme this year is ‘The Future We Want’ and the contest is open to all elementary, secondary and post-secondary students in the Niagara region as well as to the general public. The contest is accepting submissions both in English and in French.
Submissions are open until Monday, February 19 at 5 p.m.
English submission form
French Submission form
More about this year’s theme:
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly in its Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 27 July 2012 during the Rio +20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, adopted the outcome document entitled “The future we want” as a vision for what has become in 2015 the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
As mentioned: Poverty eradication is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. In this regard, we are committed to freeing humanity from poverty and hunger as a matter of urgency… We therefore acknowledge the need to further mainstream sustainable development at all levels, integrating economic, social and environmental aspects and recognizing their interlinkages, so as to achieve sustainable development in all its dimensions.”
Complete contest rules available here.
Get inspired by reading submissions from past contests!
Check out our Sustainability Poetry Contest E-Book.
Liette Vasseur has published, as co-author with Junhan Lin, Xiaofeng Xia, Xiao-Qiang Yu,Jinhong Shen, Yong Li, Hailan Lin, Shanshan Tang and Minsheng You, a new article, “Gene expression profiling provides insights into the immune mechanism of Plutella xylostella midgut to microbial infection” in Gene.
Read the publishers abstract:
Insect gut immunity plays a key role in defense against microorganism infection. The knowledge of insect gut immunity has been obtained mostly from Drosophila melanogaster. Little is known about gut immunity in the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.), a pest destroying cruciferous crops worldwide. In this study, expressions of the immune-related genes in the midgut of P. xylostella orally infected with Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris were profiled by RNA-seq and qRT-PCR approaches. The results revealed that the Toll, IMD, JNK and JAK-STAT pathways and possibly the prophenoloxidase activation system in P. xylostella could be activated by oral infections, and moricins, gloverins and lysozyme2 might act as important effectors against microorganisms. Subsequent knock-down of IMD showed that this gene was involved in regulating the expression of down-stream genes in the IMD pathway. Our work indicates that the Toll, IMD, JNK and JAK-STAT pathways may synergistically modulate immune responses in the P. xylostella midgut, implying a complex and diverse immune system in the midgut of insects.
Mark your calendar for a special joint meeting of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists (OIA), Niagara and Hamilton Branches. Agrologists from other branches of OIA (with a special invitation to the Hamilton branch) and all interested friends of OIA, spouses, partners, colleagues and students are cordially invited to attend the meeting on Tuesday, December 12.
Liette Vasseur will be the speaker at the meeting, discussing the topic of “Development of Sustainable Agriculture in China and lessons for Canada.”
The meeting location is the Innsville Restaurant, 1143 Highway 8, Stoney Creek (west of Fifty Road exit from QEW and on the corner of Lewis Rd and Highway 8. A Google Maps link is attached below).
Please confirm attendance no later than Friday, December 8th to Mary Jane Combe mjcombe@primus.ca or 905 682-0086.
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Gathering time: 5:30 p.m.
Dinner: 6:00 p.m.
Cost: Order from the menu
For those wishing to car pool from Niagara, the plan is to meet at the Victoria Ave carpool lot (east of Victoria Ave on the South Service Road) at 5:00 p.m. (Please indicate if you plan to carpool in your RSVP).
Close to 200 students from across Niagara learned about sparking change in the world during a
training day hosted at Brock University by the United Nations on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: Youth Training event brought attendees
together at the campus’ Pond Inlet to address the root causes of poverty and increase awareness
of local and global initiatives.
The event was led by special guest Christian Courtis, Human Rights Officer, United Nations
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and gave youth practical training to
develop a deeper understanding of sustainable development in the areas of health, economic
growth, social inclusion and environmental protections.
“The event was very well attended,” said Liette Vasseur, who was present at the event to speak
about her work as the university’s United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) chair. “They came and spent their whole Saturday learning what the 17
Sustainable Development Goals, defined by the United Nations, are and
understanding how the United Nations works.”
Other presentations and collaborators of the event included: Ana Sanchez, Brock University,
Chair, Department of Health Sciences (Moderator); Irene Podolak, Action Africa Help
International and Brock University Health Sciences Adjunct Professor; James Reid, Director and
Producer; Lillian Lincoln Foundation; Kathryn Baker-Reed, Skills for Change of Metro Toronto;
Ben Brisbois, Healthier Cities and Communities Hub, Dalla Lana School of Public Health,
University of Toronto; and Steven Lee, Executive Director of FES (Foundation for
Environmental Stewardship) and its 3% Project.
Vasseur shared the work she is doing with the UNESCO chair in the area of sustainable
development (specifically in relation to climate change) in a panel discussion that afternoon.
Drawing from her book, Adaptation to Coastal Storms in Atlantic Canada, she discussed the
priorities and options available to coastal communities as they work to mitigate the effects of
climate change and how successful initiatives in Atlantic Canada can be applied to other coastal
communities such as Saint Barthélemy and Ecuador.
The event finished with a screening of Reid’s documentary, Minutes to Die, Snakebite: The
World’s Ignored Health Crisis. The film takes a deeper look at how snakebites are killing more
than 500,000 people every year – many of which reside in rural areas and developing countries
where access to hospitals and life-saving anti-venom is severely limited. It outlines the clear link
between this health crisis and poverty, inequity, and social justice and what is being done to
develop new, cost-effective treatments.
Vasseur said she was inspired by the insight and enthusiasm of all of the youth attendees.
“I think a lot of students were highly inspired by the event and I’m hoping there will be
momentum on campus now as the students seem quite interested to contribute.”
