To register for this event see - http://www.balsillieschool.ca/event/rio-20-waste-time-or-new-beginning
There is a live stream option for those of you who are nowhere near Waterloo, Canada.

RIO+20: A WASTE OF TIME OR A NEW BEGINNING?

10 am to noon, Thursday, May 3, 2012
Auditorium, CIGI Campus, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo

Join a public discussion and debate about the possibilities, opportunities, and risks arising from the upcoming Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

Rio +20 should encourage debate about the concepts of “sustainable development” and the new terminology of “green growth.” What is the difference between these concepts? Are they the same thing only repackaged? Has the paradigm of “sustainable development” helped produce a greener global economy? Will Rio+20 take us on a new, greener trajectory?

Participants:

Maurice Strong:  Former under-secretary general of the United Nations, Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and first Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Jim MacNeill:  Director of Environment at the OECD (1978–1984), Secretary General of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) and lead author of its landmark report Our Common Future (1984–1987),and member and Chairman of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel (1997–2002).

David Runnalls:  Distinguished Fellow with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, where he served as President from 1998 to 2010, member of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the United Nations University, and  CIGI Distinguished Fellow.

Moderator: Thomas Homer-Dixon, CIGI Chair of Global Systems, Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Sponsored by the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the Department of Environment and Resource Studies (University of Waterloo) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

By David Correia

This is the first in a series of essays that will examine the politics of sustainability. Sustainability, as a term to define a particular kind of nature-society relation, has become the leitmotif of the contemporary environmental movement. In this series we ask what sustainability means in theory and practice. This seems an important question to ask because of the various and seemingly contradictory ways in which sustainability is defined and used in environmental discourse.

As the geographer Eric Swyngedouw has written “A cursory glance at both popular and academic publications will quickly assemble a whole array of ‘sustainabilities’: sustainable environments, sustainable development, sustainable growth, sustainable wetlands, sustainable bodies, sustainable companies, sustainable processes, sustainable incomes, sustainable cities, sustainable technologies, sustainable water provision, even sustainable poverty, sustainable accumulation, sustainable markets, and sustainable loss. I have not been able to find a single source that is against ‘sustainability’. Greenpeace is in favour, George Bush Jr. and Sr. are, the World Bank and its chairman (a prime war monger in Iraq) are, the pope is, my son Arno is, the rubber tappers in the Brazilian Amazon are, Bill Gates is, the labour unions are.”

What then does sustainable mean? Is it a radially new way to define the ethical and moral obligations of humans in the myriad ways we use (and abuse) nature? Has it become the empty rhetoric—greenwashing— used by corporations to cloak nasty practices in a veneer of environmental care? Is “sustainability” new wave environmentalism defined as an environmental ethic expressed through consumption choices—buy a Prius and demonstrate your care for the environment; the selling-nature-to-save-it logic of green capitalism?

In this series we intend to examine these various versions of sustainability. And we begin by examining what we consider the clearest sign of the mainstreaming of sustainability—the recent effort by Wal-Mart Corporation to rebrand itself as an environmentally sustainable company.

Wal-Mart announced in October of 2010 a plan to “focus on sustainable agriculture” and according to a New York Times report at the time, “expand its efforts to improve environmental efficiency among its suppliers.” The massive retailer, and now largest grocer in the US, intends to sell locally grown food in their US stores and invest in “training and infrastructure for small and medium-size farmers, particularly in emerging markets” The retailer heralded the change as part of its “sustainability goals,” announced in 2005 in which it pledged to double the fuel efficiency of their massive fleet of trucks, reduce energy consumption in stores and minimize packaging.

What does this actually mean? First, it’s a part of ongoing efforts by corporate actors like Wal-Mart to brand “sustainability” as a corporate-friendly term synonymous with productivity, efficiency and maximization. Sustainable means, in other words, whatever Wal-Mart says it means. And in this announcement, sustainable agricultural products mean one thing and one thing only: local. This is smart, of course, because the locavore movement is the bourgeois obsession du jour.  And local, in Wal-Martease, means simply anything grown in the same state as the store selling the product. It’s that simple.

So, for example, conventionally grown agribusiness-sourced grapes picked in southern California by migrant farmworkers shipped thousands of miles to other California stores via the Wal-Mart fleet of trucks is now “sustainable.”

And since few others will ask what this means, particularly the New York Times in its gushing article of October 14 reporting on the announcement, perhaps we should. What does this announcement really mean and what social and environmental cost does Wal-Mart’s new definition of sustainability promise?

First, as Cesar Chavez reminded us, the agricultural products we buy from large grocery retailers “come from the work of men and women and children who have been exploited for generations.” According to the California Research Bureau (CRB), “80 percent of U.S. farm workers earn less than $10,000 per year; half earn less than $5,000… wages for entry-level seasonal farm workers averaged $5.22 per hour.” And it’s not just the workers at Wal-Mart suppliers. According to a 2006 study of Wal-Mart labor practices, an average Wal-Mart retail worker averages 34 hours per week and earns, on average, $17,874 per year. That’s a pay rate nearly twenty percent less than the average retail worker, according to some estimates.

The Income insecurity of immiseration wages paid to farmworkers means, among other things, widespread housing insecurity. Nearly one million farm workers nationwide lack adequate housing. Many live in shacks on the private property of the farms where they work. And it has become commonplace for California growers to bulldoze farmworker labor camps while at the same enriching themselves from farmworker labor. The CRB found that in California many are forced to live in tool sheds, abandoned automobiles and even under porches. These workers are so exploited, their lives so invisible, their status usually undocumented that they rarely access what social services and health care are available to them. As a result, farmworkers, who work in the second most dangerous occupation in the US, have the lowest rates of health insurance coverage among California workers. According to the CRB, “around 40 California farmworkers die on the job” each year from accidents and heat stroke. But Wal-Mart would have you forget about farm work as brutal and deadly. No, just stamp the bag of grapes “sustainable.”

And of course Wal-Mart would consider the brutal exploitation of farmworkers sustainable, after all the exploitation of workers, the source of its enormous profits, is its specialty. In February of 2009 Wal-Mart reported quarterly sales of nearly $108 billion with earnings per share of 96 cents. At the same time it was embroiled in at least 73 class action lawsuits regarding working conditions and labor policies at Wal-Mart stores. The lawsuits included a host of allegations including that managers forced “employees to work unpaid off the clock, eras[ed] hours from time cards and prevent[ed] workers from taking lunch and other breaks that were promised by the company or guaranteed by state laws.” Hundreds of thousands of former Wal-Mart employees have joined class action lawsuits alleging that Wal-Mart forced them to work off the clock. In 2004, Michael Rodriguez, an overnight stocker in a Sam’s Club store, was locked in the store, a policy common at Wal-Mart, when he suffered a serious injury. ”My ankle was crushed” by an electronic cart driven by another employee, he told the New York Times. ”I was yelling and running around like a hurt dog that had been hit by a car. Another worker made some phone calls to reach a manager, and it took an hour for someone to get there and unlock the door.” He writhed in agony awaiting a manager to unlock the door so he could go to the hospital, a policy Wal-Mart said was necessary to kept people like Michael Rodriguez from stealing from them.

Second, Wal-Mart’s new green washing shell game ignores the health effects of large-scale pesticide use. Nearly 1,000 farmworkers in California are poisoned each year from the use of agricultural chemicals. Wal-Mart’s sustainability policies and their laughable “focus on sustainable agriculture” use the mark of sustainability as an attempt to protect the kind of low wage, race-to-the-bottom production that serves as the foundation of their success. So buy “sustainably-sourced” vegetables at any California Wal-Mart and feel good knowing that prolonged exposure to agricultural chemicals raises the risk for lung cancer and other illnesses. Throw a handful of Wal-Mart seedless grapes into your mouth without concern for the fact that, according to a 2003 study of Spanish farmworkers in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the offspring of agricultural workers suffer almost twice the risk of fetal death than offspring of non-agricultural workers.

Wal-Mart’s sustainability policies mask the real health and environmental costs of agribusiness and are designed not to transform patterns of production, distribution and consumption (that would only mean less profits after all and who wants that?). So instead its sustainability goals serve to obscure the human costs and environmental consequences of the rapacious pursuit of profits made on the backs of workers.  The only thing Wal-Mart’s sustainability policies are sustaining is its continued access to low wage workers toiling in brutal conditions who are eventually, like Michael Rodriguez, sacrificed at the alter of its all important earnings per share.

Lastly, local, as described above, means anything sold in the same state where it was grown. It’s all a joke made at the expense of workers and the environment. A 2007 analysis of Wal-Mart’s sustainability scam by a coalition of labor, environmental and human rights organizations criticized the plan as nothing more than a corporate ruse. Even if every possible target goal were reached, the plan would not make any “real impact on global warming, employee health and welfare.” Their report, titled “Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique” asked if Wal-Mart can “claim to be “sustainable” when it drives down wages [and] refuses wages to some 20,000 minors working in its Mexican stores.” But the report was particularly pointed on the environmental impact of Wal-Mart. The “focus on sustainable agriculture”, the report noted, is one more example of Wal-Mart’s attempt to recast itself as a green company, and in so doing protect a particularly unsustainable way of doing business. According to Wal-Mart’s own reports, total global operations in 2006 released 220 million tons of greenhouse gases. An amount that is more than 40 times greater than the emissions the company’s sustainability plan pledges to reduce. Does their “sustainable agriculture” policy resolve this? Consider their tricky term “local.”  A 2004 Counterpunch article by Yoshie Furuhashi used a Teamster’s organizing map of Wal-Mart distribution points to demonstrate that most sates are already served by local Wal-Mart distribution centers. The term local, in other words, as a definition of “sustainable” doesn’t require any transformation to existing Wal-Mart distribution patterns. It’s green washing at its most sophisticated.

Leading Change is a Canada-wide movement started  by young environmental and sustainability professionals working  together to catalyze action and influence positive change locally,  regionally and internationally. Leading Change will be kick-started during the 2012 Globe Conference with a week-long program, including a one-day Forum for Young Sustainability Leaders on March 13, 2012 in Vancouver. Leading Change is a volunteer partnership lead by The Delphi Group, Young Environmental Professionals (YEP) and Connecting Environmental Professionals (CEP).

The audience is 150 Emerging Leaders – youth and young professionals interested in the environment, clean energy and clean technology. The Forum complements the GLOBE Conference and is focused on building the  next generation of corporate leaders, policy thinkers, entrepreneurs and community actors.

On March 13, 2012, the Forum will kick-off with a high energy day  filled with motivational speakers, engaging dialogue with peers and  mentors and hands-on learning around critical sustainability issues.

From March 14-16 participants will have the opportunity to participate  in a variety of activities including mentoring workshops, focus  groups, company tours, and the GLOBE Conference networking events,  trade show and sessions.

The outcomes of the Forum include an expanded network of informed  emerging leaders; established relationships between the emerging  leaders and mentors; new employment opportunities for young leaders;  and education and community project ideas for the emerging leaders to  implement. At the end of the Forum the goal is for participants to
take professional action — such as making presentations to local government, implementing community sustainability projects, and/or  starting up new businesses — when they return to their communities,  post secondary institutions or workplaces.

Become a part of the movement, visit the webpage. 

Highlights of the Funds for the Future Challenge

In this challenge, aspiring entrepreneurs have been selected from  participants of Leading Change 2012 to develop and pitch proposals for  sustainability-related projects to a panel of judges. The forum  provides participants with an opportunity to learn from leading  experts in the sustainability field, while connecting them with other  highly-driven and successful entrepreneurs on issues that are  important to them and their community.

In keeping with Leading Change’s theme of continued action, the Forum  will serve as the launching point for the Funding Competition, as  teams will continue to showcase their ideas online in interactive  formats after the Forum, encouraging feedback and fostering collaboration. Solid, well thought through ideas will receive funding for implementation from a pool of sponsorship dollars.

For more information:

Elizabeth Watterworth, Event Manager

 tel:403-510-6845

email:  elizabeth@leadingchange2012.ca

OR

Jessica Ward, Marketing Director

email: jessica@leadingchange2012.ca

Join the Toronto Sustainability Office in celebrating Environment Week 2012 – March 12-16!
They are holding an open house reception (with coffee, tea, and snacks!) on Thursday March 15th, 2-4pm. Come and chat about campus sustainability, discuss our programs, and voice your concerns with Sustainability Director Beth Savan and the rest of the staff!
Environment Week is organized by the University of Toronto Environmental Resource Network (UTERN).

Also, there is an upcoming discussion forum: Climate Change, Freshwater Management, and the Role of Science
Date and Time: Tuesday, March 13, 2012. Reception from 8:30am-9:30am.
Panel Discussion from 9:30am-11:30am.

Location: Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility

Map: http://www.munkschool.utoronto.ca/location/

Speakers: Scott Vaughan, Federal Environment Commissioner, Office of the Auditor General; Gord Miller, Provincial Environment Commissioner,Province of Ontario; David McLaughlin, President and CEO of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy

Moderated by Jeffrey Simpson, National Affairs Columnist of the Globe and Mail and co author Hot Air: Meeting Canada’s Climate Change Challenge

Registration Link: http://www.munk.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=11797

Webcast of the panel discussion will begin at 9:30 am (EST) at http://www.powi.ca

Description: This event will examine the impacts of climate change on Canada’s freshwater resources. The panelists will explore the importance of scientific research and monitoring in understanding the state of freshwater resources and in managing them sustainably, as well as the linkages between water use and the natural resource sectors in Canada.

The reception will begin at 8:30 am, followed by the panel discussion at 9:30 am

For more information, visit their website.

Environmental Humanities is a new journal, launching on November 2012. It is an international, open-access journal that aims to invigorate current interdisciplinary research on the environment. In response to a growing interest around the world in the many questions that arise in this era of rapid environmental and social change, the journal will publish outstanding scholarship that draws humanities disciplines into conversation with each other, and with the natural and social sciences.

In anticipation for their upcoming launch, they are searching for article submissions. Further information can be found here. 

University of Ottawa Press is pleased to announce that Climate, Culture, Change: Inuit and Western Dialogues with a Warming North has been short-listed for the 2012 Canada Prize in the Social Sciences.

Source: www.press.uottawa.ca

The prize, which highlights excellence in humanities and social science research, will be presented at a special award ceremony on Friday, March 30, 2012 at the Musée des beaux-arts in Montreal. The nominees are chosen from works supported by CFHSS’s Awards to Scholarly Publications Program. Read the official press release from CFHSS here.

To celebrate the announcement, UOP will be offering a 20% discount on Climate, Culture, Change. Please use discount code: CFHSS20.

Congratulations to UOP author, Timothy B. Leduc.

About the Book

Climate, Culture, Change sheds light on the cultural challenges posed by northern warming and proposes an intercultural response that is demonstrated by the blending of Inuit and Western perspectives. For more information, please visit http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/climate-culture-change.

Golson media is inviting academic editorial contributors to a new reference work about biomes and ecosystems to be published by Salem Press in 2013.

With approximately 600 articles in 4 volumes, Biomes and Ecosystems: An Encyclopedia is a comprehensive review of key biological and geographic classifications tied to the high-school and college curriculum. The reference work will cover the broad scope of biomes and ecosystems around the world, from puddles on the street to coral reefs in Australia to rain forests in Brazil to the tundra in Siberia. Each article will delve into the properties that make the subject a biome or ecosystem, and how those features work together. Especially targeted toward high-school students, this outstanding reference work is edited to make the content readily accessible as well to patrons of public, academic, and university libraries. Pedagogical elements include a Topic Finder, Chronology, Resource Guide, Glossary, Appendix, and thorough index. Presented in an A-to-Z format, Biomes and Ecosystems: An Encyclopedia is richly illustrated with photos, charts, and tables, all comprising an unprecedented and unique resource produced by Golson Media for Salem Press.

We are now making article assignments with a deadline of October 31, 2011.

Each article ranges from 600 to 3500 words and is signed by the contributor. The General Editor for the encyclopedia is Dr. Robert Warren Howarth, Cornell University, who will review all the articles for editorial content and academic consistency.

If you are interested in contributing to Biomes and Ecosystems: An Encyclopedia, it can be a notable publication addition to your CV/resume and broaden your publishing credits. Moreover, you can help ensure that accurate information and important points of view are credibly presented to students and library patrons. Compensation is an honorarium payment of $25 up to 1000 words; $35 from 1001 to 2500 words; and $45 above 2501 words.

The list of available articles, style guidelines, and sample article are prepared and will be sent to you in response to your inquiry. Please then select which unassigned articles may best suit your interests and expertise.

If you would like to contribute to building a truly outstanding reference with Biomes and Ecosystems: An Encyclopedia, please contact me by the e-mail information below. Please provide a brief summary of your background in biology, ecology, and environmental topics. Thanks for your time and interest.

Joseph K. Golson
Author Manager
biomes@golsonmedia.com