MES Major Papers

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https://hdl.handle.net/10315/28142

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Open Access
Bolstering Ontario Land-Use Planners’ Adaptive Capacity for Resilient Climate Change Adaptation through Education
(2020) Osei-Akoto Brown, Veronica-Keren; Winfield, Mark
For many land-use planners across the province of Ontario, the region that my research examines, the issue has been raised that the adaptive capacity required to effectively and efficiently implement the climate change adaptation strategies and policies that they have been mandated to employ is lacking. Even though the tools and resources are there in abundance, the ability to implement such strategies and policies has been recognized to depend on land-use planners’ understanding of the climate issue at hand and the number of accessible human and technological resources . This is the central argument of this paper. As such, I use this research opportunity to explore how to bolster the adaptive capacity of Ontario’s land-use planner in these ways for a better response to the challenge that climate warming poses. I begin with a brief history of the climate change regime, along with a brief explanation of the climate science behind the warming. I then proceed to discuss the role land-use planning plays in contributing to climate warming, how it can redirect its efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, the challenges land-use planners face when tasked to implement adaptation strategies and how it can be solved through the bolstering of their adaptive capacity using the resilience framework. This is followed by a discussion on the work that the province of Ontario is doing through the BRACE Project to help bolster the adaptive capacity of the land-use planner. Through this research, my objective is to highlight the gap that currently exists in our adaptation efforts where those we depend on to implement these climate change adaptation strategies are lacking in their ability to carry out the work due to their lack of climate change adaptive capacity and how to bolster this through a resilience framework that presents us with a solution – education.
Open Access
Environmental Education In India: Analysis Of National Curriculum And Pedagogical Approaches
(2020) Bhatia, Nitima; Dippo, Don
India, being a fast-growing major world economy and home to one-sixth of the world’s population, has a significant impact on the consumption of natural resources. As a result, it produces a huge amount of carbon emissions even though per capita emissions are low in the country. Hence, it is very important that current and future Indian generations not only understand the value of sustainable development but also incorporate it into their daily life. Education has a key role in developing that understanding and, therefore, it becomes important that pedagogical approaches commonly employed in Indian schools align well with the country’s development agenda and its sustainability goals. The curriculum documents are important in providing direction to the teaching practices and guiding educators to provide students with the best learning opportunities. This study examines the position of SDGs within the Indian environmental education curriculum and effective pedagogical approaches that enhance understanding in young minds and help enable them to follow and adopt the path of sustainable development. The study involves a two-stage evaluation design involving document analysis and critical literature review. Findings of the study reveal that the EE curriculum consists of concepts that provide knowledge about some SDGs at the elementary level, however, several SDGs are not well represented in the curriculum. The concept of sustainable development needs to be more deeply placed within the curriculum. Findings from the analysis of the literature review show that EE is implemented through three pedagogical approaches: infusion, separate subject, and extra-curricular activities in Indian schools. It is also clear from the findings that many Indian scholars believe that schools in India should adopt EE pedagogical approaches that involve practical, experiential, and activity-based iii learning as these are successful in helping students to develop pro-environmental attitudes, behaviours, understanding, and skills. Scholars also believe that courses offering knowledge about local issues, the presence of eco-clubs and support from environmental NGO’s also significantly improve the learning experience of students. It is also emphasized by scholars that use of multimedia and social media technologies can bring more fruitful results in EE by making learning easily comprehensible, effective, efficient, resourceful, applicable, and economical. However, research findings from the analysis of the curriculum demonstrate that teaching about climate action needs to be stronger within the Indian school curriculum. Pedagogical approaches and effective practices that improve the learning experience of students about sustainability and climate solutions should be encouraged through EE in Indian schools. More theoretical pedagogical approaches are being currently used in EE than practical approaches in schools across Indian. Therefore, this gap must be filled through providing more experiential learning opportunities to the students.
Open Access
Offshore Oil and Marine Protected Areas: Stakeholders, Conflicts and Future Directions in Nova Scotia, Canada
(2020) Kapoor, Anuja; Fraser, Gail
Nova Scotia is invested in expanding hydrocarbon exploration offshore to boost its economy. A call for bids is carried out by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board every year to award licenses to operators for exploration through a competitive bidding process. But offshore petroleum expansion competes for space in one of the most productive Atlantic coastal regions. Nova Scotia leads seafood exports in the country (valued at $2 billion) and a growing network of protected areas support an immense diversity of marine life. There is a complex interplay of actors in the region. Map of the Scotian shelf (King and MacLean, 1974).1 1 King, L. H. & MacLean, B. (1974). Geology of the Scotian Shelf and Adjacent Areas. 1:1,000,000. In Marine Sciences Paper Series No. 7 G.S.C. Paper No. 74-31. First edition. Ottawa: Canadian Hydrological Service. iii With a view to understand the tensions and trade-offs between marine conservation and development, and associated actors, policies and governance, I focus on the call for bids process. Any future activity in the region depends on this critical decision point. Which marine users, and to what extent, are involved in decision-making? Has the process changed over time? Does conflict arise where call for bids are close to protected areas and fishing grounds? To what extent is conflict mitigated or resolved, and in what ways? What role can marine spatial planning play to achieve sustainable outcomes? This was a collaborative research project aimed at addressing these questions through a qualitative study involving 25 marine stakeholders. Dr. Fraser and I conducted most of the interviews together in Nova Scotia, Ottawa and online. After discussions with Drs. Fraser and Carter about the analysis, I undertook the N-Vivo analysis and wrote the two articles that are my major paper (in manuscript format for separate journals). Drs. Fraser and Carter provided comments on those drafts. The first paper examines case studies of overlap between conservation and extractive resource development. The second, evaluates the effectiveness of Strategic Environmental Assessments, used to inform licensing decisions and to mitigate conflict in early stages of planning. Both articles address stakeholder difficulties and room for improvement. Marine spatial planning is discussed as a process to appease extractive resource conflicts, but it is still quite early to tell whether it will.
Open Access
Young Canadians and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptive Capacity, Education, and Agency
(2021-08) Walker, Patricia; Perkins, Patricia
Canada’s climate is warming at twice the global rate and its population is already experiencing several adverse effects of climate change. Canadian children and youth are among the most vulnerable to climatic changes due to physiological and developmental factors, yet their vulnerability, adaptation, and adaptive capacity are largely undocumented in the climate change literature. Several factors, including health, socioeconomic, and sociocultural factors, contribute to the vulnerability of Canadian children and youth to climate change. Although health factors of vulnerability and the health impacts of climate change on these groups have been documented in the published and grey literatures to a certain extent, information on the socioeconomic and sociocultural factors contributing to their vulnerability remains scarce. As a signatory to the Paris Agreement and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada has binding obligations to reduce its carbon emissions, plan and implement adaptation measures for its citizens, including children and youth, and to provide the latter with a healthy environment in which to grow up. Although children and youth have contributed very little to anthropogenic climate change and are not decision-makers in policy processes, they are disproportionately affected by the climate inaction of previous generations because their lives will be increasingly impacted. Furthermore, young people worldwide, including marginalized children and youth (e.g., those who live in poverty and/or are Indigenous, racialized, immigrants, disabled, etc.) were largely excluded from consideration as a group in global climate change mitigation and adaptation decision-making processes until their groundswell of activist leadership, beginning in 2018. Despite, or perhaps in response to this marginalization, young people across Canada are taking a stand against climate inaction and playing leadership roles in climate action activism in this country. Their perceptions, experiences, and contributions, however, remain noticeably and regrettably scarce in the published climate change literature. This paper discusses implications for education, research, and policy.

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Browsing MES Major Papers by Subject "Adaptation"

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