Cory Whitely, a Master's of Sustainable Environmental Management student in my lab was selected to receive the Farley Mowat Award.
Energy security in the North: Not what it used to be
My team and I at Sustainable Futures North have a new publication on energy security in the rural North. It offers an interesting discussion, I think, on how we think about the challenges that 'progress' have locked us into over time, and what potential there is for replacing vulnerabilities with strategies for resilience and sustainability.
That thing where we kill to promote life
Wolf culls are also morally unjustifiable. Firstly, we cannot ignore the fact that it is not the wolves' fault that the Selkirk herd is so depleted in the first place. Even the BC government acknowledges that this is the result of extensive human development, which has fragmented caribou habitat in the region. Is it moral to now place the cost of our collective "oops" on the local wolf populations? No doubt if (when?) the Selkirk herd goes extinct it will be a terrible thing, but it is logically fallacious to cast this as some sort of "wicked problem", a lose-lose scenario where the needs of the few (the caribou) outweigh the needs of the many (the wolves).
Fireweed: a symbol of potential for transformation
With the launch of my new website I am also launching a new blog, entitled the Fireweed. Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) is a pioneer species found across North America and particularly in the boreal forest, that is among the first plants to establish in recently burned areas (hence the name). The plant is an easy symbol of release, rebirth, and potential for something innovative and new. That the herb thrives across the continent, despite the fact that its habitat requires disturbance, and particularly of entrenched, old-growth forest, makes it a particularly appropriate metaphor in my mind for the kind of sustainability transformation that the world requires.