Free Movie Screening

Timothy Leduc, author of Climate, Culture, Change will be participating in an upcoming screening and discussion of the award-winning documentary Climate Refugees. The documentary takes a look at the people displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters: the products of climate change.

Experts predict that instances of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires and flooding will increase dramatically in the coming years. As areas are hit with these disasters, people will be forced to leave their homes and seek asylum in other parts of the world. It is thought that border conflicts and potentially even wars will be fought over these issues. For the first time ever, climate change is being considered a national security risk.

To learn more about these issues, please attend the free screening of 'Climate Refugees' which will be held at the University of Toronto Campus in the the JJR Macleod Auditorium on Friday, April 29 at 6:30 PM.

The screening will be following by a panel discussion with Timothy Leduc, author of Climate, Culture, Change; Laura Westra, author of Globalization, Violence and World Governance; and Alfredo Barahona, Program Coordinator, Migrant and Indigenous Rights, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, and Member of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Network on Migration.   

Watch the 'Climate Refugees' trailer here:

Interview with Author Timothy Leduc

Q: You write that research on climate change should “accept indigenous knowledge as a … source that complements science.” What do you mean by this?

The individual who most influenced my sense of Inuit understandings was Jaypeetee Arnakak. In one of our early conversations, he asked me why I and other Western climate researchers rarely ask Inuit questions about the role of wisdom in an environmental response. He saw this as part of a general tendency in Western research that tends to focus on Indigenous ecological knowledge while marginalizing cultural and spiritual understandings. Indigenous knowledge becomes an object or resource to be used rather than a complementary set of understandings that can broaden our sense of climate change.

Q: You suggest that politicians’ tendency to ‘economize’ the effects of climate change is problematic. Why is that?

It is not that economizing in itself is wrong, but that it is often defined primarily in relation to sustaining unending economic growth. On top of that, this view holds too much un-balanced power. As soon as any scientific research, cultural understanding or religious worldview conflicts with it, these perspectives become marginalized from the corridors of power. This economizing tendency is a pervasive cultural and religious belief that fuels climate change. It is what underlies the continued denial of climate change research and political statements like this one by Prime Minister Harper on the Alberta tar sands: “Digging the bitumen out of the ground, squeezing out the oil and converting it in into synthetic crude is… an enterprise of epic proportions, akin to the building of the pyramids or China’s Great Wall. Only bigger.”

Q: What do you think are some of the most important stories on climate change not being covered by the media?

I sit down in front of the TV and hear a story about climate change, and then another about the tar sands. Despite being intertwined, they are rarely discussed together. The BP oil spill is another example of this disconnect. While there were questions of ecological degradation, it was rarely discussed in relation to the need to shift from fossil fuels in a context of climate change. Whether it is the BP oil spill or tar sands, the dominant media stories focus on how to continue extracting all the resources we can while limiting the harm to the environment. These story-lines reflect the economizing cultural tendency discussed above, and I do not think the disconnection of climate and oil in the popular consciousness is sustainable.

Q: How would you rate the environmental policies of the current Canadian government?

Our government and Prime Minister Harper are, I believe, caricatures of a culture that is in denial of our situation and refuses to change. They seem rational and secular, but are in fact religious fundamentalists who hold sacred and unquestionable an oil-based approach to economic growth. That said, the Conservatives have won two minority governments and despite their questionable environmental positions are still performing well enough in the national polls to maintain power. Canadians are very much a part of the uncertain future that is being imposed on not only the north, but also our children and grandchildren. Climate change is a cultural problem that the Conservative government symbolizes in extreme form, as did American President G. W. Bush and his Republican administration.

Q: How do you envision Canada moving forward to tackle climate change?

Obviously a change in government would be one step forward, but I do not believe that in itself will solve our problem. The issue goes far beyond political parties, for it is grounded in cultural beliefs like never-ending economic growth and the power of technology to solve any crisis. These issues pervade most aspects of all our lives. It is for this reason that I agree with the late John Livingston’s statement that “there can be no technical answer to a moral problem.” There are no band-aid solutions to the climatic situation we find ourselves in.

To find out more about Leduc's new book Climate, Culture, Change visit: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/climate-culture-change

To read the interview in full, visit climateculturechange.wordpress.com

Striving for a greener UOP

Today I had the opportunity to attend a talk on Parliament Hill given by Dr. Jane Goodall, the environmental advocate who has inspired millions with her work on Chimpanzees in the Tanzanian jungle.

It was a great chance for me to see a successful and influential woman who I have admired since I was a little girl. At 76, she is a slight woman whose kind face and quiet smile has earned the trust and respect of many, chimpanzee and human alike.

I always walk out of environmental talks feeling this odd mix of futility and desire to do more. I find myself taking a hard look at the way I live and cataloguing the things that I do to help the environment against the things that I know I have issues with. At the press, we see both as well. Here’s my mental list:

Negatives:

• Let’s face it – we’re paper users! (We print books, make photocopies, send faxes, use post-its, paper towels etc…)
• We’re high energy consumers (9 computers, 3 printers, 1 photocopier, a microwave, a fridge, an old energy inefficient building…)
• Too often, we cannot afford to print on environmentally friendly papers
• We don’t use a compost bin

Positives:

• All UOP staff either takes transit or walks to work
• We recycle!
• We have low print runs on our books
• We use print-on-demand when possible
• Instead of buying new, we use recycled furniture
• We print double-sided documents
• We take part in Earth-Hour

I suppose that the consolation here is that at the moment, the list of positives is longer than the list of negatives. Hopefully, one overriding positive will put us over the edge and into the green; our willingness to spread the word about climate change and the environmental impacts of the average Canadian lifestyle, and work for positive change within our community.

But, I may also put up a towel rack in the bathroom over the weekend…

Note: Our upcoming title Climate, Culture, Change by Timothy B. Leduc will hitting bookstores in 2011.