Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally
worldsfair | November 12, 2008Not sure if you remember a previous mention on this, but I'm one of the folks involved in a new student conference initiative at UBC. Christianed "Terrytalks", this is basically a clone of the TED talks, where we'll offer the chance for students to share their globally relevant passions and desires to a large audience (about 400 this time around) of their peers, students, faculty and staff.
Anyway, I just made this quick promo video to highlight our student speakers. Would be great to get some feedback on the video in general (I'm generally new to video editing stuff). Would be even better…
worldsfair | October 31, 2008
Recently, we had an opportunity to host a variety of great talks for science teachers. One of the talks was by Dr. William Rees. It was a nice little introduction into the conundrum of our reliance on "progress" to fix things. In any event, here is the link that will lead you to a 25 minute talk he gave.
If you do watch it, I'd be interested to see what you think. In many ways it suggests that human behaviour is currently not well suited to dealing with an issue of this magnitude.
Interestingly, one of the questions that came up after the talk, (that I thought really nailed the going…
worldsfair | July 30, 2008
This got published a while back in the Walrus, but I just noticed that it's also now freely available online. 0.7%, in case, you're not aware is the hallmark figure suggested by Pearson as a target for foreign aid to developing nations.
Anyway, hope you enjoy. My favourite line, by the way, is:
You're Wilco playing to the High School Musical crowd.
worldsfair | July 22, 2008
I recently had a chance to catch the movie WALL-E, and I must say, it's very good. Still, I couldn't quite shake the irony of a show with (I thought) a fairly implicit environmental message that also happens to have logos and pics emblazon on all sorts of wasteful possibly disposable ware (like on toys, presumably various product tie-ins, fast food?, etc).
In fact, there's an interesting bit on this very thought courtesy of an interview with one of the movie's directors (at the Globe and Mail - although note: I actually found this at a salon.com's review).
G&M: This film has a big…
worldsfair | July 21, 2008
As of 2007, residents of Vancouver, on average used 295 litres of water per day (Per capita water consumption number is 542 litres per day factoring in non-residential water use).
(link)
After reading the above article, I did a bit of number crunching. The contrast in water consumption, say. between a place like Vancouver and a place like Bhopal, India is pretty striking.
In India, there are guidelines that have been put into place that have suggested a minimum of about 150 litres per day is needed to maintain appropriate living/health standards (see here, via the Central Public Health and…
worldsfair | July 2, 2008
To offset flights out of North America in 2007, you'd need to plant a forest the size of Oregon.
In this summer's issue of the Walrus, there's a great piece by UBC'er, David Beers, called "Grounded" which imagines circumstances leading to a world where flying is essentially ground to a halt. It's a good read, but in this case, I also had a little fun with the accompanying graphic.
In the original picture (the left hand side of the slide), we see the number of trees needed to offset a few particular flights (presumably, a sampling of some that David recently took), and I was essentially…
worldsfair | June 25, 2008So, there's been much argument lately in my neck of the woods, over the BC's new carbon tax. This is coming online in a few days (July 1st), and will be responsible (amongst many other things) for what has been figured to be a 2.4c/litre hike in gas prices.
Anyway, folks are getting quite antsy here, with the opposition government saying all the usual things about getting rid of it, etc.
In many ways, however, I think the timing couldn't be better. Mainly because this convergence of activity has just raised the "carbon tax" and "things concerning fossil fuels" to a whole new, almost…
worldsfair | June 23, 2008I think this statement should be obvious, and for that reason alone, we've included it in the SCQ's list of truths.
This, by the way, is a web experiment run by the Quarterly. The background can be found here, and I'll note that I'm constantly surprised by its staying power. On a general google.com search, the list of truths still ranks in the top 10 for the keyword "truth."
In case, you're curious, the celebrity that comes to mind, is all the silliness associated with Jenny McCarthy, but a list of others in the comment section, would be lovely to have on hand.
worldsfair | June 5, 2008
Having just returned from a visit to the magic kingdom, the above was a question that continually haunted my consciousness. Disneyland was remarkably pristine in that cookie cutter, artificial, yet aesthetically pleasing way, but it must be a major sink in terms of waste, energy consumption, carbon emissions, etc.
Or is it? Maybe in terms of footprint, by applying its incredible density (>15 million visitors each year!), it comes out not looking so bad?
It should be noted that Disney appears to be viewing environmental issues in a relatively serious manner, with a number of programs…
worldsfair | May 2, 2008A couple months back, I wrote a grant for one of my main educational projects (Terry), that would ask for funding to host a student conference here at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Terry, as some of you already know, is aimed to build an interdisciplinary undergraduate community, with a directed focus on issues of social and/or environmental responsibility.
A couple weeks ago, we heard that we were successful in securing the funds for this conference. This is very exciting for me, because we explicitly wrote the grant so that conference in question gets to follow a TEDtalks…
worldsfair | April 17, 2008About a month ago, I was lucky enough to partake in a speaker event, where noted economist Paul Collier gave a great talk.
Who is Paul Collier? Two titles to throw at you: Professor of Economics, in the Oxford University Economics Department; as well as the Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
What was the talk about? Well, it was primarily based around his best selling economics (did I just say best selling economics - now there's a phrase you don't hear too often) book that looks at the mechanics behind the bottom billion. That sixth of the world stuck in a…
worldsfair | April 1, 2008We had a humour piece go up at Terry today that was just too cool. Since, the Terry website isn't as visible as the Science Creative Quarterly, i thought I would highlight it here. It's called:
Microcredit Isn't Right for Everyone (by Mike Richardson-Bryan)
Oh yeah, Terry has a contest, open to the general public as well, and happy to take in well written blog posts - just a thought for those hungry for bookish gift cards that can be used online.
worldsfair | March 17, 2008Food is a big issue these days - none more so than where I live in Richmond (at this very moment).
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To: GCL Public Hearings, Richmond, BC
Attn: Richmond City Clerk
Re: Public hearing on the Garden City Lands, 5555 No. 4 Road, Richmond
To whom it may concern
This letter is to state my personal opposition to the City of Richmond's block application to remove the Garden City Lands from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
This, I feel, is currently the preferred mechanism that will segue into the allowance of a urban agricultural space to be created - a space that can provide communal,…
worldsfair | February 28, 2008I'm sort of putting the finishing touches to today's GMO lecture in my ART+SCIENCE class, but before I move on from the land of sustainability, here is a TEDtalks lecture I quite enjoyed about the problem with space and why Americans in particular suck at working with it (note: some gratuitous swearing in this lecture, although I might add in a good funny way).
You should also check out Mark's (from Boing Boing) coverage of the current TEDtalks conference - the lucky dude is live blogging it as we speak.
worldsfair | February 11, 2008Just noticed an article in our local newspaper today that highlighted the irony of sustainability researchers inadvertently having a larger than average eco-footprint. This makes logical sense though, since folks doing research tend to need to publish their findings and this tends always to be a work intensive venture , which also requires the need to present data (at meetings, conferences, etc). They may have labs, so their workspace footprint is larger than most, and such space needs the usual amenities that require the use of energy (heating, air conditioning, lighting, etc).
A Montreal…
worldsfair | January 23, 2008
Well, maybe not. It's just that... is it me, or is this Oscar (will it happen will it not?) thing everywhere in the news these days? There's such media saturation that it brought to mind the following thought I had the other day.
Say I was an alien coming down to Earth, and I wanted to help, you know, fix things. I want to do this because it's a "highly advanced being with super powers and super technology" sort of thing. Depending on where I land and who I would have contact with first, I can imagine that one scenario is for an informed Earthling to say:
"Well, if you want to help,…
worldsfair | January 15, 2008Going from a previous comment in my brainspace post earlier this week...
This is kind of sad really. Here is what it looks like. The axes imply relative number of searches since it doesn't seem like you get hard numbers on this (from Google Trends).
What's kind of interesting is that you can kind of see (for Britney and Paris, anyway) where the major news events occurred. In Britney's case, there are two large peeks which actually correspond to her head shaving and some bad performance at an awards show. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what the Paris peaks are, but I would guess it…
worldsfair | December 22, 2007A good one too, by Spike Milligan.
CHRISTMAS 1970.
A little girl called Sile Javotte
Said 'Look at the lovely presents I've got'
While a little girl in Biafra said
'Oh what a lovely slice of bread'.
worldsfair | December 19, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS
In a stunning development, HIV advances to the final by default. Neither HIV nor Fossil Fuels could be reached for comment.
Looks like the final is Darwin versus HIV.
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worldsfair | December 13, 2007
(image source)
O.K. So the deal is that it's the holidays - and soon the whole merriment parade will be kicking into high gear. This includes a number of things that I bet many households end up going through. Things such as:
1. the strategic maneuvering of the mistletoe locale.
2. watching the antics of nasally sounding claymation elves,
3. arguing over the relative merits of putting raisins in the stuffing,
4. real tree, fake tree, or no tree.
5. debating the necessity of the feature length Grinch movie,
6. figuring out what did "my true love give to me" on the eleventh day?
And 7,…