Ecojustice Conference
The ecojustice conference, held at York University from April 16 to 17, 2009, was a forum for international participants to exchange their insights on Strengthening the Ecojustice Movement and on the question: How Will Disenfranchised Peoples Adapt to Climate Change? The event was conceived and organized through the joint effort of several key bodies, including York International, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS), the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), and the Faculty of Arts (now Liberal Arts & Professional Studies or LA&PS).
The idea began during the summer of 2008 in Sao Paulo, when former York Vice-President Academic & Provost Sheila Embleton and former Associate Vice-President International Adrian Shubert had a conversation with Miriam Duailibi, director of the ECOAR Institute for Citizenship, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Brazil. The idea was then carried forth through the assembly of a working group, consisting of Dawn Bazely, director of the IRIS and a Biology Professor, Professor Martin Bunch and Professor Ellie Perkins from FES, political science Professor Richard Saunders from York’s Faculty of LA&PS, and Adjunct Professors Kaz Higuchi and James MacLellan (seconded from Environment Canada to FES), which secured the human and financial resources for the event. Funding was provided by Environment Canada, in addition to the International Polar Year and the Office of the Vice-President Academic.
Fourteen community activists and activist scientists were invited from Brazil, India, South Africa and Arctic Canada to speak at this conference.
Joining ECOAR’s Duailibi were Eduardo S. Quartim, project coordinator of the same Institute, and Paulo Cunha, technical consultant on carbon sequestration and climate change, who formed the panel on Brazil.
India was represented by Vivek Jha, area convenor of rural extension activity in the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI); Chaitanya Kumar, from the Indian Youth Climate Network in Hyderabad; and Dr. Joyashree Roy, director of the Global Change Program at Jadavpur University in Kolkatta – a York partner institution.
The South Africa pane consisted of Adele Arendse, one of the co-directors of SouthSouthNorth (SSN) Africa; Bettina Koelle, executive director of Indigo Development & Change; and Dr. Rhoda Malgas, a lecturer in the Department of Conservation, Ecology and Entomology at the University of Stellenbosch.
Finally, Arctic Canada was headed by Joe Linklater, chief f the Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation; Andy Norwegian, language specialist at the Deh Cho Divisional Education Council; and Aaju Peter, an Inuit lawyer and Inuit Rights Activist.
Using their unique experiences within the movement, they shared information on local exposure to climate change, and discussed approaches to addressing inequities in climate change causation, mitigation, funding, education and global/local politics. Podcasts, video recordings, and transcripts for each speaker are available here, while the full biographies are available here.
The conference also included the viewing of two documentaries: Weather Report, directed by York film Professor Brenda Longfellow, and Who Cares if Bangladesh Drowns? by Afsan Chowdhury (See the interview here). Furthermore, the speakers were able to engage in discourse amongst themselves during the synthesis session. The working group is now in the process of preparing a synthesis report and is planning on attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP15 in Copenhagen in December 2009
For more information, please visit the Conference website here, or read theY-File article on the conference.
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