Speakers Series

2012 Speakers Series

Come learn about various sustainability topiccs! Check back as new speakers are added to the list.

The Speakers Series are FREE unless otherwise specified. Bring your lunch and a friend!

• Tuesday, June 5 (12:10-1pm), City Hall – City Room
  Storm Warning: Assuring Water & Climate Security in Alberta
  Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations Water for Life International Decade for Action
  
  More erratic weather and an increase in the frequency and intensity of floods in Canada are worldwide evidence of the fact that changing land-use and warming temperatures are energizing the global hydrological cycle. Changes in the rate and manner in which water moves through its cycle have begun to alter precipitation and other baseline hydro-climatic patterns in Alberta and throughout Canada. By paying close attention to water, however, we can anticipate and adapt to the effects a changing climate will have on our cities, agriculture and our way of life now and in the future.
  
  Bob Sandford is the EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in the Support of the United Nations Water for Life Decade. Besides being involved in many initiatives across Canada, Bob is also a member of the prestigious Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy and senior policy advisor for the Interaction Council, a forum of more than 30 former heads of state, including Jean Chretien, Bill Clinton and Gro Brundtland, that in 2011 committed to addressing the growing global water crisis.

Note: There will be no speaker for the months of July and August. Check back for speakers coming this fall!

2011 Speakers Series

If you missed any speakers from our 2011 series, you can check out the videos.

2010 Speakers Series Videos

Richard Heinberg

Richard Heinberg, the Senior Fellow-in-Residence of the Post Carbon Institute is widely regarded as one of the worlds foremost Peak Oil educators. Heinberg was in Edmonton on Feb. 11th, 2010 as part of the City of Edmonton’s ‘The Way We Green’ Distinguished Speaker Series. The Way We Green is Edmontons environmental strategic plan — a blueprint for being the nation’s leader in setting the highest standards of environmental preservation and sustainability. Heinberg spoke on the subject of Peak Oil and Economic Transition, asking how much Oil did you use today? Are We Running Out? What does this mean for the things we do, the food we eat, the places we go? Heinberg challenged the audience to think the unthinkable, exposing the tenuousness of our current way of life while offering a vision for a truly sustainable future.

Joshua Farley

Ecological economics provides us with insights into the relationship between economic activity and the capacity of the Earths resources to sustain us. In this video Joshua Farley one of the visionary thinkers in this discipline, provides an overview of some these critical relationships, and gives examples of how responsive policy measures can be applied in an urban setting like Edmonton’s.

Rob Hopkins

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes, UK and of the Transition Network. In this video he talks about the value of Transition Town initiatives and the optimistic, refreshing contrast they provide to the doom and gloom of todays key environmental challenges.

Matthew Dance

Ambient air quality monitoring provides us with an indication of the level of emissions present in our surrounding air. In this video Matthew Dance, a researcher, project manager and policy analyst, provides an interesting overview of the nature of air quality and its implications for our health. He outlines new developments in air quality monitoring and elaborates on the leadership role that Edmonton and other cities are currently playing in implementing measures that manage emissions. We also learn how our individual lifestyle choices effect the planning and development options that determine urban form and ultimately our quality of life.

Colleen Cassady St. Clair

David Thompson

On Tuesday, November 16, David Thompson, Principal of PolicyLink Research and Consulting gave a noon hour talk about Environmental Pricing Reform as part of The Way We Green Speaker’s Series. The talk expands on David’s The Way We Green discussion paper The Power of Prices and the Failure of Markets: Addressing Edmonton’s Environmental and Fiscal Challenges.

David’s talk focused on urban sprawl and how the pricing of goods and services (including municipal services) contributes to sprawl. He gave some ideas of what kind of changes the City could consider adopting to tax the bads not the goods, in other words, charge more taxes or fees on things that are bad for the environment, like car usage.

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