McGill School of Environment Fall 2016

In This Issue

MSE Faculty in Action

MSE Students in Action

MSE Alumni in Action

Melting Away

Kudos to Students

Kudos to MSE Faculty

www.mcgill.ca/mse

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 2 -

Director’s Message

Sylvie de Blois Director McGill School of Environment

Our planet has reached (again!) a milestone: 2015 was the warmest year on record and 2016 is well on its way to break the 2015 record. For scientists, the indicators are quite clear and consistent and the environmental and economic consequences of a rapidly warming planet daunting. Yet, scientific facts well supported by evidence are not sufficient to drive environmental policy. For some, scientific facts are even suspect or viewed as propaganda. No better has this been illustrated in 2016 than in the political campaign of our close neighbour. What does this mean when training students at the McGill School of Environment? It means that for every critical environmental issue of the 21

st century like climate change, we need not only to learn the scientific facts, but know how

these facts have been obtained and learn about attitudes, behavior, and the underlying cultural, ethical, economic and political factors that influence the way environmental information is received and interpreted. We need to understand the conditions under which knowledge leads to solutions. For us, it means bringing different expertise and perspective in the classroom and creating a space where ideas can be shared and challenged. The interdisciplinary perspective offered by the MSE has never been more relevant in a world that requires much more than facts. An interdisciplinary perspective built on partnership and cooperation is crucial if we have any hope of achieving global sustainability, feed the world and protect the environment that sustains us and other species. I invite you to find out in this newsletter how MSE students, faculty, alumni and allies help us all achieve a path towards sustainability and please support their effort for a bright future.

Environmental leaders of North America came together in September 2016 in Merida, Mexico to discuss issues around biodiversity and climate change and share the science and solutions. The event was held by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), a tri-national organization through which the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States collaborate for the protection and enhancement of North America’s environment. Professor Sylvie de Blois (MSE-Plant Science) was invited to give a talk on strategies of adaptations in relation to biodiversity an climate change. The fact that many species are expected to migrate in response to a warming climate is challenging conservation paradigms. Given Canada’s geographical position, it may serve as a ‘climate refuge’ for many species to the south. Environmental cooperation across borders has never been more crucial and the meeting was attended by Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, Mexico’s Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, and United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy. All acknowledged the necessity to train our youth to tackle complex, multidimensional environmental issues and to make their voice heard in decisions that will shape their future. The MSE would like, in particular, to acknowledge the contribution of EPA Administrator McCarthy who has been a strong advocate in fighting climate change. Administrator McCarthy’s term is coming to an end with the Obama administration.

Environmental Cooperation and the MSE

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 3 -

Congratulations to MSE Faculty

Renée Sieber

Associate Professor

MSE & Geography

The Canadian Association of Geographers GIS Study Group honoured Prof. Renée Sieber with its Lifetime Achievement and GIScience Excellence award at the recent GIScience 2016 conference in Montreal, Quebec. The awarding ceremony took place at the GIScience 2016 conference for which she was the Chair. Dr. Sieber has met the criteria through contributions to GIScience in Canada in a number of ways, including the GEOIDE and Geothink projects, as well as through her large number of publications, an impressive amount of funding over the years, and numerous conference presentations. She has successfully taught several graduate and undergraduate GIScience courses and she has mentored many students. Further, she has also helped develop and then co-chaired the Spatial Knowledge and Information conferences and is co-chairing the GIScience 2016 conference. Renee has made significant and substantive contributions to GIScience in her research, teaching, service and community engagement/outreach.

GIScience Study Group Treasurer, Scott Mitchell hands over the GIScience Excellence Award to

Dr. Renée Sieber

Congratulations to MSE Faculty

Anthony Ricciardi

Professor

MSE & Redpath Museum

It is with great pleasure that we announce the promotion of Dr. Anthony (Tony) Ricciardi to the rank of full professor at McGill University. Prof. Ricciardi is jointly appointed to the Redpath Museum and the McGill School of Environment and a fellow of the McGill Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy. He is recognized as a world leading invasion ecologist. His research examines the causes and consequences of the spread of species beyond their native ranges. Under human influence, non-native species have become established in all but the remotest regions of the planet. Many of these invasions have unknown or minor impacts, whereas others have serious ecological and economic consequences.

Prof. Ricciardi’s research asks why some species are more invasive than others, what makes ecosystems vulnerable to invasions, and what causes the impact of an invader to vary across space and time. He has been a vocal participant in both the direction of invasion science, and the engagement of science with policy-makers. He frequently contributes to public awareness through interviews for newspapers (e.g., La Presse, The New York Times, The Economist). The MSE recognizes the stellar contribution of Prof. Ricciardi to environmental studies and congratulates him for his promotion.

www.mcgill.ca/mse

The devastating impacts that diseases like Ebola have had on both human and wildlife communities, the sudden appearance of diseases like SARS, the re-emergence of yellow fever in DR Congo, Uganda, and Kenya, the sudden spread of Zika to the Americas, and the immense social and economic costs created by viruses like HIV, underscore our need to understand the factors determining the origin and spread of infectious diseases. Given that wildlife often share disease with humans and cause the emergence of many diseases, understanding the ecology of infectious diseases in settings where people and wildlife interact is of paramount importance. Professors Colin Chapman and Raja Sengupta led a team of MSE students, former students, and colleagues funded by Global Health, NIH, and private donors, to provide novel insights into the emergence of infectious diseases and to find a means of rapidly detecting their appearance by using a mobile clinic established to build a union between health care and conservation. They have established this research, conservation, and outreach program around the entire Kibale National Park, roughly 800 km

2 , in Uganda.

Dipto Sarkar, a Ph.D. student in Geography, has developed and field tested a phone based health reporting system using new phone technology to report weekly summaries of symptoms from very remote clinics. A team is now using the mobile clinic to evaluate the disease behind the symptoms emerging around the park using appropriate diagnostic tests.

Dorothy Kirumira, Makerere University Masters student and Ranger for the Uganda Wildlife Authority; Shannon Gavrilchuk and Mathilde Bertin, McGill University Graduates, Anthropology/International Development with mobile clinic.

MSE Faculty in Action

Early Detection of Potentially Emerging Infectious Diseases

By Colin Chapman, MSE & Anthropology, and Raja Sengupta, MSE & Geography

The social aspects of this work, particularly the health and conservation benefits provided by the mobile clinic, are being carefully evaluated by Dorothy Kirumira, Selly Angom, and Shannon Gavrilchuk for their degrees. This effort is being supported by a new initiative here at McGill that is exploring ways to reach a broad section of society with messages presented through performance and social media. They are investigating the most effective and novel ways to present what is happening to the world around us as a result of human action and inaction, and what are the positive things that individuals can do to make a difference; their first efforts planned for 2017 will involve the mobile clinic. Professors Raja Sengupta and Colin Chapman are working on this with a number of students including: Zoe Bonerbo, Alyssa Daianska, *Natalya Dreszer, *Anais Fabregas, *Jordan Kasarjian, Matthew King, Miltiadis Moreau, *Christina Rosche, Dipto Sarkar, *Eleanor Seery, **Kim Valenta. *MSE student **MSE Faculty Lecturer

- 4 -

- 5 - www.mcgill.ca/mse - 5 -

MSE Faculty in Action Bright Spots: Seeds of a Good Anthropocene Creating visions of positive futures. Elena Bennett MSE & Natural Resource Sciences

Published in October 2016: Bennett, E.M., M. Solan, R. Biggs, T. McPhearson, A. Norstrom, P. Olsson, L. Pereira, G. D. Peterson, C. Raudsepp-Hearne, F. Beirmann, S. R. Carpenter, E. Ellis, T. Hichert, V. Galaz, M. Lahsen, B. Martin-Lopez, K. A. Nicholas, R. Preisser, G. Vince, J. Vervoort, and J. Xu. 2016. Bright Spots: Seeds of a Good Anthropocene. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 14(8): 441-448. doi:10.1002/fee.1309

It feels like we’re bombarded, almost daily, with negative visions of the future. That negativity about the future of the environment drags us down, makes it difficult for us to talk to our kids about the future and the environment, and generally threatens to keep us from doing the work we need to do to make the planet safer, better, healthier, and more just. Scientists, in particular, are drawn to problems and problem solving, and so science often focuses on describing and understanding problems. This can leave society uninspired, with little sense of potential solutions and with no blueprint for the transformations required to solve the truly big and important problems we face. A few years ago, we helped gather together a group of scientists to try a different approach. Supported by the international Future Earth research initiative, we initiated a project designed to solicit, explore, and develop a suite of alternative, plausible visions of Good Anthropocenes (https://goodanthropocenes.net/), positive visions of futures that are socially and ecologically desirable, just and sustainable. Unlike previous scientific efforts to build scenarios for future change, which typically rely on structures organized from the top down, we’re building these global pathways from the bottom up, by crowdsourcing a rich data base of “bright spots,” real places that demonstrate one or more elements of a positive future that might serve as seeds of a good Anthropocene. Could we find examples of futures we wanted that were already in existence. And by studying how these examples came about, could we understand how to create further transformation? Thus far, we’ve built a database of over 500 of these bright spots or seeds of good Anthropocenes. They include projects that link human health to healthy forests, such as the Health In Harmony project in Indonesia (http://www.healthinharmony.org/), or closer to home, the Hudson River Valley’s Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and its Young Farmers Conference. The Health in Harmony project provides free or low cost health care in exchange for commitments to protect local forest, with funding provided by donors who aim to improve human and forest health. The Young Farmers Conference works by connecting young farmers to each other as well as other experts to help them overcome common hurdles in farming. These bright spots can then be used to generate creative, detailed scenarios about transformations toward a better Anthropocene.

Bright Spot: started in 2013 by urban farmers from townships around Cape Town, Tyisa Nabanye (“feed the others” in Xhosa) is an garden based on the principles of permaculture. Credit Tyisa Nabanye Collective

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 6 -

Congratulations to MSE Students

Antonina Scheer BSc, Year 3 Honours Environment - Earth Sciences and Economics Minor Concentration English - Literature

Vivien Lewin Field Study

Endowment Award 2016 Alexandria Gates BA&Sc, Year 2, Interfaculty Program Environment Minor Concentration Political Economy Awarded the Judith Mappin Scholarship in Environment ♦♦♦♦

Audrey Wagner BSc(Ag), Year 2, Major Environment - Food Production & Environment Awarded the New Sun Joy Harvie Maclaren Award in Environment, and the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Award

♦♦♦♦

Sichen Wan BSc(Ag), Year 1, Major Environment - Environmetrics Awarded the Eliza M. Jones Award

Congratulations to Antonina on having been awarded the MSE Undergraduate Research Award. She will be conducting research on microplastic pollution.

“Microplastic (MP) pollution is an environmental problem that has spread to the most remote places on the Earth, including Arctic ice and mountain lakes in Mongolia. The first objective of this research project is to examine existing policies around the world that are designed to explicitly address MP pollution. The policies reviewed will include federal, state and provincial legislation as well as the corporate pledges of firms that manufacture and use microscopic plastic particles. My second objective is to review the literature on MP abundance in aquatic environments across the globe in order to approximate the relative importance of each of the main MP types: microbeads, pellets, fibres, and fragments. The final objective of my project is to quantify the concentration of MP pollution in the sediment of the Grand River, a tributary of Lake Erie. The analysis of previous studies’ results as well as my own from the Grand River will be used to assess whether existing policies target the most common types of MP found in freshwater and marine ecosystems. In its entirety, this research project is aimed to demonstrate the extent to which existing microplastic policies are insufficient. Thus, I hope to encourage broader and more effective mitigation policies.”

Yifan (Eva) Wu BSc, Year 1 Major Environment Ecological Determinants of Health Domain -Population Renewable Resource Management Eva has been awarded the Vivien Lewin Field Study Endowment Award for her research related to the phylo-ecology of plants on Axel Heiberg Island, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada.

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 7 -

MSE Students in Action

Drew Bush, a final year PhD student in Geography and the MSE Graduate Option program, and currently a

visiting student at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, attended the Potsdam Summer School 2016, on “Dealing with Climate Change Impacts”. This summer session was co-hosted by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (http://potsdam-summer-school.org). Only 10-20% of the world-wide applicants were accepted. Excerpts of Interview by Dr. Bianca Schröder, Blog Author, IASS Communications Department, Potsdam Germany

Finding the Piece that’s been Missing in Climate Science Education Which of the talks, tours or interactive events at the summer school were particularly interesting for you? I came to Potsdam because I wanted to learn more about how the evidence for climate change is generated – how scientists analyze the processes in the earth system. That is very important for me because I work on teaching climate science and so being taken to a lab where a scientist is working on paleo tree ring analysis or hearing from the polar researchers on how they go about modelling the Arctic change really helps me to explain in the classroom how the scientists do their work. And that is a piece that has often been missing in teaching; to not only present the evidence but explain how that evidence is generated. Your dissertation examines the use of a climate model in the classroom. What kind of model is that? It’s actually based on NASA GISS Model II, used by the famous United States climate scientist James Hansen. The educational version of the model (the Educational Global Climate Model or EdGCM) has been out since 2005 and has been used at close to 200 institutions all over the globe. Students use a suite of graphical interfaces. They start by setting up a scenario, and then they run the model, post-process their data and visualize results. Although the model has been in use educationally for more than ten years, it has never been evaluated for its effectiveness. That’s what I’m working on. Climate modelling is a pretty sophisticated task. How old are the students you work with and what prior knowledge do they usually have? They are upper-level high school or undergraduate students. All of them have heard about climate change, from the media, their parents, teachers and friends. Even though the topic isn’t completely new to them, they have never had anyone so clearly articulate the evidence to them and show them how scientists generate that evidence and what the major concepts are. For example, they are usually familiar with the term “greenhouse effect” but they cannot explain it. They walk away from my course with an understanding of that. Tell me about the summer camp on climate modelling that you have established at McGill. The computer science program at McGill has a summer camp titled “Be a computer scientist for a week” that offers programs in robotics and medical computing. I convinced them to let me do a climate modelling camp called “Be a climate modeler for a week.” It’s a five-day camp for high school students. We spend a lot of time on the physical science and teach them how to use the model and get them working on their own research projects. One of the things we emphasize is that as a scientist you need not only the ability to do your research but also to disseminate it. On the last day, the parents come and we have a competition where the students present their Web sites with their research. That sounds like a really great program! So as an experienced summer camp organizer, what is your verdict on the Potsdam Summer School? It was great! It’s so interesting to learn with and from an international group of people from so many different backgrounds. We are walking away with contacts in climate research from a variety of disciplines and with many of us located halfway around the world from each other.

Drew Bush Doctor of Philosophy, Geography (Thesis) - Environment

- 8 - www.mcgill.ca/mse - 8 -

This will be the end of me. These words flew through my mind as I felt thud after thud hit my back as I prepared ammunition for my next round of assault. From the corner of my eye I saw a dark flicker amongst the white snow mounds, the precise launch of a missile from a deft hand aimed straight at my stomach. Quickly I dodged out of my way and retaliated. Thwack! My perfectly timed snowball landed true, right on the shoulder of my fellow classmate and student of the first ever McGill Arctic Field Semester (MAFS). Covered in powder our laughter rang through the icy gravel streets, providing long anticipated entertainment for the on-looking military from within the warm safety of the Polar Continental Shelf Program in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. At times like these one could forget the stark differences between where we stood, in the cold Arctic tundra well below freezing, and the toasty summer places we call home. Each time I travel to the polar regions feelings of awe and wonder become instilled within me. This time it was no different. As a seasoned polar fanatic, breaking educational and exploratory frontiers has always been the dream, and having the chance to study plants, geography, geology, and climate at 80ºN naturally became a major portion of my summer vacation (pretty ironic eh?). Alongside 5 other students and 3 amazing professors, we travelled to seven different islands and learned everything from weather monitoring to Arctic survival to how many games of pool you can play in one night. Saying the six week journey was eye-opening is honestly quite the understatement. The Arctic and Antarctic are the two bookends of our earth that are so often placed at the sidelines. Collectively they have 65% of our world’s freshwater reserves, home to dozens of Indigenous cultures, and provide enormous contributions to our natural resource and shipping economies. Canada’s Arctic alone houses a quarter of the world’s fossil fuel reserves. A summer spent with MAFS has shown me the need to educate and learn on all frontiers of polar affairs. As environmentalists we strive so hard to protect the immaculate state of our natural environment and the general public seems to zoom in solely on polar bears, penguins, and icebergs, overlooking many of the other crucial people and activities in the area. Not all of the actions in the poles are sustainable, not all of it should be pursued, but so often we choose to completely ignore these other aspects of our environment simply because it does not align with our goals, thus ignoring many of the voices whose lives are defined by these regions. For me, first hand experiences define my polar passions, and drive me to draw up solutions. My organization North in Focus was the result of creative innovation, one that works closely with northern communities to tackle mental health and suicide issues through grassroots solutions. In others still, I have had the fortune to learn and share knowledge

on tourism, marine shipping, and policy formulation. MAFS for one has shown me the world of fuel production, with the entire Arctic running off of diesel generators and few alternatives available as substitutes. As the official “Jersey-style fuel-pumper” of the McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS, and yes I did re-enact scenes from the movie The Martian here), I witnessed just a small portion of what goes into the burners keeping us warm, dry, and safe. These ventures always gets me thinking: How can I keep playing a role? How can those around me play a role? For one, experiences like these allow youth to share their stories and rally change. For more information about MAFS, polar exploration, northern culture, and initiatives, stay tuned for the Our Poles Our Planet Conference to be held in Montreal in Spring 2017!

Melting Away Eva Wu BSc, Year 1 Major Environment Ecological Determinants of Health Domain - Population Renewable Resource Management

Whale bones by Port Lockroy Base A. Antarctica. © Eva Wu 2015

Northern lights flickering over Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik (Northern Quebec) during the

North in Focus mental health program. © Eva Wu 2016

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 9 -

MSE Alumni What are they doing now?

Excerpts taken from

“Corporate Knights”

the magazine for clean

capitalism

- Fall 2016 issue -

“30 under 30 in

Sustainability”

Charles David Mathieu-Poulin, aged 29 BSc ‘09 Atmospheric Environment & Air Quality First Class Honours in Environment As the corporate environmental coordinator for TC Transcontinental, Charles David is working to implement a stricter paper-purchasing policy across

the company; one which strongly encourages third-party forest certification. In the past three years, the proportion of FSC, SFI or PEFC paper bought by the company has increased from 67 to 95 per cent. Moreover, as an active member of the company’s CSR steering committee, he leads the environmental section and, with the collaboration of his colleagues, sets up ambitious targets for waste, sustainable purchasing, energy efficiency and carbon reduction. To increase the awareness of environmental issues in the industry, Charles David represents TC Transcontinental in the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, as well as on the SAPPI North America Sustainability Customer Council. Finally, he teaches at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, where he is passionate about developing the next generation of problem-solving environmental engineers.

“Sustainability isn’t just about values, but also about value. While the

idea of doing something for the greater good is a good enough reason for many people, it’s often necessary to look at sustainability from a

business perspective in order to sell the idea to the decision makers.”

Alan Chen, aged 22 BA&Sc, Year 3 Interfaculty Program Sustainability, Science & Society Minor Concentration Geography (Urban Systems) Graduates this year. There are few students who took such advantage of university as Alan. An energetic and enthusiastic change-maker, he has been working to advance sustainability initiatives related to place-making. He helped to disburse an $840,000 Sustainability Projects Fund to student/staff-led sustainability initiatives on campus. As a live-in facilitator of the ECOLE Project, Alan was a key part of the development of a community-oriented sustainability living and learning collective which has become a flourishing hub for environmental and social justice work at McGill and in the broader community. His research for and leadership of the McGill Spaces Project resulted in the creation of a strong core team to drive a cross-collaborative, multi-stakeholder process that developed a vision for sustainable campus spaces.

“Conversations around climate change often portray the issue as

urgent and yet fatalistic; a paralyzing challenge for many. But sustainability’s distinctive language of health, hope and happiness

inspires me to do my part in being a positive force for my friends and family and the world around me.”

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 10 -

ENERj is an app which puts forth a bottom-up approach in taking the first few steps towards transforming our energy consumption habits by offering an interactive, social, mobile app experience working towards decreasing energy usage and changing our daily habits. By using Smart Meters already installed in homes that measure your energy consumption throughout the day, ENERj provides feedback to the user tracking their daily energy use and offers solutions and ideas for reducing this consumption and modifying one’s daily habits. Zoë has been part of the ENERj team since the beginning of September, working on marketing of the app and writing about ENERj and the advances being made. She is also involved in PR and outreach to gain supporters and investors interested in ENERj. Working with the ENERj team has been a great opportunity for Zoë to contribute and expand her skills as she enters into the professional world of environmental science, giving her the chance to see some of the real-life applications of what she learns at school and make connections with key figures in Montreal. She enjoys the excitement and anticipation of working on a startup and truly being able to track progress and accomplishments as ENERj develops and expands. Abhishek Gupta and Daniel Tarantino, co-founders of ENERj, and graduates of McGill University, came together earlier this year at “Startup Weekend Montreal - Sustainable City” to bring to life this vision, and impressed government officials, investors and industry veterans alike to win the 1st place.

MSE Students in Action

Zoë Humeau

B.Sc., Year 2

Major Environment

Land Surface Processes

& Environmental Change

Minor Concentration in

Communication Studies

The MSE is: Director - Sylvie de Blois (Plant Science)

Faculty Members Madhav Badami (School of Urban Planning) Chris Barrington-Leigh (Inst. for Health & Social Policy / Economics) Elena Bennett (Natural Resource Sciences) Peter G. Brown (Geography) Jeffrey Cardille (Natural Resource Sciences) Colin Chapman (Anthropology) Jaye Ellis (Faculty of Law) Frédéric Fabry (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) Iwao Hirose (Philosophy) Nicolas Kosoy (Natural Resource Sciences) Brian Leung (Biology) Kevin Manaugh (Geography) Gregory Mikkelson (Philosophy) Anthony Ricciardi (Redpath Museum/Biology) Raja Sengupta (Geography) Renée Sieber (Geography) Ismael Vaccaro (Anthropology)

Faculty Lecturers Julia Freeman George McCourt Kathy Roulet

Staff Danielle Lefebvre Shannon Scott Christina Zhu

Contact us: McGill School of Environment 3534 University St. Montreal, QC H3A 2A7 Phone: 514-398-2827 Fax: 514-398-1643 Email: secretary.mse@mcgill.ca Website: www.mcgill.ca/mse

THANK YOU for all your contributions to the McGill School of Environment. As we look to the future, we are excited about our strong interdisciplinary education and our innovative approaches to teaching and research. We invite you to make a philanthropic investment for future generations. On line: www.alumni.mcgill.ca/aoc/online-giving By telephone toll-free at 1-800-567-5175; Or, at 514 398-5000 By mail: payable to "McGill School of Environment”

Donation and Record Services McGill University 1555 Peel Street, 9th Floor Montreal, Quebec H3A 3L8

If you would like to receive this newsletter electronically, please email secretary.mse@mcgill.ca .

www.mcgill.ca/mse - 15 -

Health in a Changing Environment

Ecosystems, Biodiversity

and Conservation

Citizens, Communities,

Institutions and the

Environment

Rethinking Social-

Ecological Relationships

Research Themes:

Photo of Macdonald Campus, by Dr. Julia Freeman, MSE Faculty Lecturer Coordinator of MUSE (Montreal Urban Sustainability Experience)

www.mcgill.ca/mse

Front cover photo: By Wallup.net