Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 12:34:50 -0400
Subject: Job Posting for Community Outreach & Engagement Officer

Attached is the posting for a Community Outreach & Engagement Officer in the Toronto Office. This position will work in the community to increase awareness and participation in The Good Life campaign.

Please forward to/ share with interested parties and contact Julia Langer if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Hazel Ward
Program Administrator
Global Threats, Forest & Freshwater Conservation
WWF-Canada
245 Eglinton Ave East, Ste 410
Toronto, ON M4P 3J1
1-800-26-PANDA
Phone :416.489.4567 Ext 7280
Fax: 416.489.3611
E-mail: hward@wwfcanada.org
Web: http://www.wwf,ca

Soon how we treat the planet will seem just as wrong as driving without seatbelts and smoking on airplanes. To start living The Good Life visit wwf.ca today.

Earlier this year a group of us at IRIS began surveying the York student community about their opinions of climate change and carbon offsetting. The online Carbon Offset survey was a result of the exciting and precedent setting carbon offsetting initiative for course kits launched between the York University bookstore and Zerofootprint.

In all, around 500 student members of the York community, representing all of the University’s diverse faculties, were surveyed. This is about 1% of the York student community, which we were satisfied gave us a statically accurate picture of the range of opinions.

A new report from NRCAN indicates that the massive number of tree deaths in western Canada resulting from mountain pine beetle outbreaks, is driving carbon emissions on a huge scale. Many people blithely assume that our Canadian managed forests will be a great help in sequestering carbon (and reducing greenhouse gases) but this is not always the case. NRCAN researchers estimate that the amount of carbon dioxide that will not be sequestered: (1) because trees aren’t growing, and (2) because decaying trees eventually produce CO2, will be similar to that resulting from Canada’s annual forest fires. They recommend that this should be accounted for in future climate models. The beetle is spreading due to warmer winters (the bugs die in cold winters). This is an example of how a warmer climate is triggering outbreaks of pests and pathogens, which in turn are causing tree death and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Kudos to York University’s Bookstore for their Earth Day promotions (see Melissa Leithwood IRIS co-ordinator, below, with one of the many displays). On Earth Day 2007, I spoke to Toronto high school students at Greenpower Canada’s Earth Day workshop at the North York Civic Centre – download my talk here. Dawn Bazely

IRIS would like to congratulate Professors Alice Pitt and Barbara Rahder for their appointments as deans of the Faculties of Education and Environmental Studies, respectively. Both professors have over ten years of faculty and administrative service at York University, and their extensive experience will be invaluable in guiding their respective faculties through the new era promised by York University’s equally new president, Dr. Mamdouh Shoukri.

Professor Rahder is particularly close to IRIS as she serves as a member of both the IRIS executive and our sister research centre, the City Institute. Her areas of research interest include participatory research & planning, women & planning, social sustainability, diversity & equity, access to affordable housing & community services, and urban planning history, theory, & education. Students and faculty members alike see her as an ally and trust her judgement.

Congratulations to both Barbara and Alice!