How did you first learn about climate change?

It wasn't called climate change yet, I don't think. It was "global warming" or maybe the "greenhouse effect" and at school we called it "l'effet de serre." I did a gradeschool science fair project about it. I vaguely remember the cardboard poster: a larger centre piece with two folding flaps on either side.






I put some diagrams, text, and I don't remember what else. Maybe it looked like this:



Except that I think I remember redrawing a cityscape, some trees, and arrows to explain how everything moved around (I used to love making those bristol board posters, the colours, shapes, such a cool overall effect, and then you could present it as your own project.)


I learned about what's now talked about more as climate change from my science teacher. Or maybe we had an expert come into our classroom to tell us about it. I can't quite remember. But I remember seeing diagrams in the paper and my mom noticing them and showing them to me cause she knew I was interested. Seeing something in the news that I understood -- and it seemed odd to me that many adults didn't understand -- made me feel even more that there was a role to play in helping raise awareness. The story seemed fairly straightforward to me. I was somewhere between 10 and 13, grades 5 to 8, I can't remember exactly.

More scholarships

Only two of the four of us are eligible to apply, but these awards could be great.

Canadian Federation of University Women has fellowships and awards for 2009-2010. Marta and I are each eligible for several of them. Applications due November 1, 2008, so I figure I can hit up my professors for references at the same time this summer.

reviewer wanted - "Electric animal: toward a rhetoric of wildlife"

probably already taken, but possibly of interest...

MODERATOR'S NOTE: UMP is soliciting a reviewer for the book on the list.
If you are interested, let me know, and I will pass your name on to
them.--k
************

From:    "Stacy Lienemann" 

A foundational exploration of the figure of the animal in modern culture

ELECTRIC ANIMAL: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife
Akira Mizuta Lippit
University of Minnesota Press | 296 pages | 2008
ISBN 978-0-8166-3486-6 | paperback | $25.00

NOW IN PAPER

Akira Mizuta Lippit shows us the animal as a crucial figure in the
definition of modernity‹essential to developments in the natural sciences
and technology, radical transformations in modern philosophy and literature,
and the advent of psychoanalysis and the cinema.

"In a dazzling interdisciplinary romp through Aristotle, Heidegger, Darwin,
Freud, and up to the present with a discussion of Kafka, photography, and
cinema, Lippit is keenly aware of how, throughout history, people have
condescended toward animals‹the flip side of valuing humanity above all
else. Lippit deconstructs the masking of animal consciousness in our
intellectual traditions." ‹Chronicle of Higher Education

"This book is, among other things, an extraordinarily promising preface to
a, perhaps the, theory of cinema." ‹MLN

For more information, including the table of contents, visit the book¹s
webpage:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/L/lippit_electric.html

Sign up to receive news on the latest releases from University of Minnesota
Press:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/eform.html

Cedarvale park tree tour

key points of interest from the tour:

- the entire valley would have been the site of the spadina expressway, if it weren't for protests which resulted in the cancellation of the project in 1971.

- the university-spadina subway that runs under cedarvale park needs to be pumped free of water or it would flood within a couple days! that's because the stream that used to run through the valley was burried in a sewer pipe, so the rain now has nowhere to go.

- there are some old oaks and one old pine that we saw that remain from early days (150-200 years ago), but they have a hard time regenerating as other species (Norway and Manitoba Maples) take over in areas disturbed by people. So the valley is a mix of native species and European exotics (sometimes planted by settlers to remind them of home).

- still, there's a process of regeneration happening as areas that were once mowed lawn have been left to grow 'wild' and/or planted with native trees (a lot of silver maple).

- there's a children's garden that produces organic food you can buy on the spot on Wednesday evenings.

What struck me in all this:

- about 35 people or so! mostly (not entirely) white in 20s-50s, middle-class

- not a lot of interaction among "tourists", that is, most of the talking comes from the tour leaders, so you only get to know each other to the extent that you strike conversation while walking along.

- still, there was a weird sense of commraderie that seemed to form as we moved along. At one point, we were standing on a street near the ravine cheering at the fact that a homeowner had torn up some of her lawn to plant more trees (the homeowner actually came out of the house and joined us for the rest of the tour!). Then, following the cheers, we boooed the opposite household for not having disconnected downspouts (thereby sending rain water into the sewer instead of onto the lawn or garden). very strange.

- a couple times there was mention of how "sad" it was that we had lost the landscape of the past, that exotic invasives were taking over. these comments imply a moral landscape, a kind of fall from grace.

- this moral landscape was connected to a scientific language about health, diversity and ecosystems, as well as to a political landscape about human choices.

Overall, a fairly informative grassroots approach, yet with certain assumptions about who should be talking, where authority comes from, and what each of our roles could be (a restrictive view, I thought).

comments on a star editorial on copyright

« l o c a l - w e a t h e r »: notes on copyright reform in canada: bring out the thumbscrews!

comments on a star editorial on copyright
if interested, it's a little bit of a rant, but still (i hope) interesting and slightly informative.

A link to the editorial is at the top of that page, but is here again:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/442594

happy friday!

temple uni. (philadelphia, pa) exchange programs

... none of which require you to actually go to Philadelphia (tho' i have heard it's a wonderful town):
http://www.temple.edu/studyabroad/programs/summer/index.html

thought i'd share it because it's not all anthropology, and not all in Japan. (tho' no costa rica, there is Ghana, Jamaica, Mexico, Senegal, and Spain...)

it is, however, not inexpensive.

-k

Paul Kingsnorth on Renewables in Apr. '08 Ecologist

thought a few might be interested in this (maybe CEO Hoicka most):

in the April 2008 issue of Ecologist, Paul Kingsnorth writes about the storm brewing in Lewis about a massive, 181 turbine wind farm. here are some highlights from the article.

The battle of Lewis [a contested site of a 181 turbine wind farm] is not the easily-told story of greens versus anti-green reactionaries. It is more complex, and more interesting, than that.
The question that hovers above it all is currently echoing around the world, and will only grow louder: in the fight against climate change, will the environment have to be destroyed to save the environment? Can the ends justify the means?
(26)

The amount of maize needed to fill the tank of a Range Rover with ethanol fuel would feed a person for a whole year. Fill your tank every two weeks for a year and you have taken enough food out of circulation to feed a hungry village.
(27)

Ironically, it now seems that biofuels don't even do what they were intended to: new research has revealed that, once the 'carbon cost' of clearing land for biofuels is taken into account, virtually every biofuel crop actually produces more emissions than the fuel it replaces.
(27)

The lesson to be learned from all this is a sobering one. Renewable energy technologies as we currently know them are incapable of providing anything like the amount of power we have come to expect from fossil fuels. Even if technologies improve, which they will undoubtedly do, they will not do so fast or cheaply enough to prevent the growing conflicts over land that the spread of large-scale renewables is already provoking.
...
[G]reen technologies can have a distinctly un-green downside. And green technologies – any technologies – on this sort of ['mega project'] scale are going to be undemocratic, top-down, unaccountable and, potentially, very destructive indeed.
Scale, in the end, is all.
(28)

interesting and highly relevant stuff, even if he may be a little more polemics than research.

CfP Rethinking Extractive Industry: Regulation, Dispossession, and Emerging Claims

This might be interesting for the environmental side of things, and it looks like a big, local conference.

2nd CALL FOR PAPERS

Rethinking Extractive Industry: Regulation, Dispossession, and Emerging Claims

March 5-7, 2009, York University, Toronto

The Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC),
together with the Extractive Industries Research Group (EIRG), both
located at York University, are hosting a conference entitled
“Rethinking Extractive Industry: Regulation, Dispossession, and Emerging Claims.” Taking place from March 5 to 7, 2009 as part of the University’s 50th anniversary and CERLAC’s 30th anniversary
celebrations, the conference will bring together cutting-edge research on the socio-ecological, spatial, and political-economic dimensions of industrial extraction. Through critical theoretical reflection and policy-relevant analysis, three tracks aim to advance our understanding of the social regulation of extractive industries in its broadest sense.

While we are open to a range of conceptualizations, we particularly
invite proposals to the following three tracks:

Track 1: The Political Economies and Ecologies of Extractive Regimes

The first track examines the political economy and ecology of the
contemporary global regime governing investment in extractive
industry—in particular, its financial, socio-economic,
spatial/geographic, and ecological-natural dimensions. Key questions include: How is it that particular national and global regimes of extraction have emerged around particular natural resources? What are the historical dimensions that shaped these regimes? And how do contemporary global financial flows influence the possibility of regulating their at once ecological and socio-economic contradictions? Possible panel themes include: Socio-environmental Histories of Extraction; The Political Economy of Resource Control; and Socio-Natures of Particular Natural Resources.

Track 2: Critical Explorations of Emerging Accountability Mechanisms

The second track seeks to map out developing notions of accountability in industrial extraction and their expressions in a variety of regional sites. Papers revolving around particular global/regional cases will identify key actors accountable for extraction and to whom they are accountable, who regulates and enforces these relationships, and which actors and interest groups are included or excluded from the process.
Many of these papers will focus on transnational accountability
mechanisms, their significance, and the particular challenges presented by these emerging forms of governance. Possible panel themes include: Formal Corporate-Community Agreements; Science, Environmental Assessment and Accountability; and Transnational Lawsuits.


Track 3: Global/Local Encounters: Civil Society, States and Corporations

The final track identifies how social response, including active
protest, has been central to shaping socio-environmental regulation and to restructuring industry-community relations. Here we seek to identify what forms of social mobilization have been most effective in improving the conditions of affected communities. We also wish to explore issues of representation and legitimacy in civil society organizations and the ethical and political dilemmas raised by transnational advocacy efforts. Key panelists will be invited from social movements and organizations, and will include representatives of Canadian First Nations, historically marginalized social groups in extractive sites, and NGOs involved in more critical advocacy work. Possible panel themes include: Critical and Comparative Studies of Indigenous/Community Consultation; Critical
and Comparative Studies of ‘Successful’ Social Movements; and Global
Networks for Corporate Accountability and Oversight.

Proposals should identify the track(s) most appropriate to your paper and include an abstract of up to 150 words. Please also name
authors/co-authors, institutional affiliations and contact addresses.

Please send proposals by post or email by June 30, 2008 to:
Organizing Committee
York University/CERLAC conference on extractive industry
240 York Lanes
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
eiconf@yorku.ca

Notes from Congress '08

hey there from Vancouver;

the transcript to the keynote to Congress 2008 has been posted on the UBC site. the title is intriguing, tho' it strikes me as odd for someone for whom it does actually matter to ask and answer whether "universities really matter."

anyway, i look forward to reading the keynote (i've been horribly bad at attending, and selfish at taking a vacation); here it is (as a PDF file):

Stephen Toope: "Crossing Borders, Contesting Values: Do Universities Matter?"

CCA presentation at Congress '08 - see you there!

Here's the abstract for my upcoming presentation at Canadian Communications Association conference @ Congress '08 in Vancouver. I'll be presenting on Friday morning, bright and early at 9am! Hitch a ride if you need to, but be sure to swing by!

Kris Erickson, Independent Scholar, Coordinator, Arts TA Development Program, Ryerson University
Between Two Worlds: Envisioning "Born into Brothels"

Born into Brothels (2004), a documentary film by photographer Zana Briski and filmmaker Ross Kauffman, occupies a unique place as a cultural object. Ostensibly the chronicle of a collaborative, intercultural, participatory photography or “photovoice” project with the children of sex-trade workers in Calcutta, Born into Brothels documents Briski’s encounters with her young students in and beyond the camera workshops she organizes for them. Yet more than simply a collaborative project, the film is also a journalistic account, a narrative authored at least as much by Briski and Kauffman as by the children whose images constitute the filmic space, and whose photographs punctuate the storyline. Since its release, the film’s supposedly neutral portrayal of these children and the products of their photographic education have been both celebrated and criticized, earning at once an Academy Award (as best documentary feature in 2005) and sharp criticism from social advocacy groups in Calcutta and in North America. This paper will analyze several images from the film in order to better understand how the products of contemporary visual communication like this documentary might successfully blur the boundaries between aesthetic representation and political agency. Because this film presents a rare glimpse into what teaching and learning looks like, it is an important text which highlights what I see as a pedagogical impulse underlying key discourses of contemporary media makers and media systems. In this paper I explore what the film attempts to teach us—about photography as well as about cultural practice—and consider what we might actually be learning from it in the end. As questions about the nature of truth and subjectivity, knowledge and information continue to be raised with respect to emerging communicational technologies and new media practices, a critical understanding of the increasing complexities of our visual worlds becomes crucially important.