World Environment Day #wed2010

Raul — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:42:20 +0000

I have dedicated the past 15 years of my life, in one way or another, to improve the environment I live in. To study, research, analyze data and synthesize models that help explain human behaviour towards its habitat. My research has focused in problems that I think receive less attention than more high-exposure ones, such as wastewater management, industrial and urban restructuring, hazardous and solid waste management and transnational environmental social movements.

photo credit: qmnonic

June 5th marks World Environment Day, and the theme for the year 2010 is Biodiversity. While I have spent years of my life analyzing environmental policies in Canada, the US, Mexico and the European Union, I have focused very, very little on the topic of biodiversity.

Except, this year I taught Global Environmental Politics, and one of the main international environmental regimes I explored along with my students was the biodiversity regime (and the Cartagena Convention on Biological Diversity). Protecting species from extinction is only one of the multifaceted elements of a biodiversity protection regime.

On this day, World Environment Day, and in the face of the recent BP oil spill (which will surely threaten a number of species of marine life and avians) I urge you to think beyond climate change as an urgent environmental problem. To think about ways in which you can reduce your impact on the environment (by recycling, reducing your water consumption, shifting to food groups that have less of an ecological footprint).

More importantly, I urge you to do something EVERY day to better your own environment.

Because we shouldn’t think about the environment only on World Environment Day, but every day.

Make small changes that will yield large societal changes.

And as I’ve read in many places (I sometimes forget who the quote is by, but I seem to think it’s by Gandhi) – be the change you want to see in the world

Canadian Environment Week (May 31st to June 6th, 2009)

Raul — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:55:29 +0000

You have every right to ask why someone whose PhD is in Environmental Studies, who eats, sleeps, breathes and thinks all the time about issues of pollution control, water quality, urban sustainability and transnational environmental movements has not written about Canadian Environment Week at all. I plead guilty on all accounts. I have been SO busy with other stuff that I’ve neglected my blog (hence why you’re getting a barrage of blog posts in the same day). That, and usually Thursday is the best day for traffic on my blog, and I want to give Canadian Environment Week good exposure.

World Environment Day is June 5th, a day I have usually celebrated, but given my current state of affairs (entirely overwhelmed) I don’t think I’m going to do much. I am always amazed at the energy of folks who organize events on a routine basis. I’m over-exposed to events, and over-exhausted. But to me, environment is a key issue. I have dedicated the better part of the last 15 years of my life to studying (and practising) ways to minimize the impacts that humans have on our environment. I would strongly recommend you to read the Environment Canada website which is chock-full of suggestions. I am also taking this opportunity to remind you that June 6th is World Environment Day.

What do you plan to do to celebrate World Environment Day? I’m thinking of organizing a contest, so I’ll ask around for sponsors

Hummingbird604.com » World Environment Day

World Environment Day #wed2010

Canadian Environment Week (May 31st to June 6th, 2009)