David Schindler speaks on oil sands development
A number of faculty at 杏吧原创 University involve the community within teaching in undergraduate areas. The morning event on Community Engagement with the theme Sustaining our environments through campus and community engagement was a celebration of these activities. The event was a chance to bring members of the 杏吧原创 community together with the local community.
Despite the inclement weather, the 鈥溞影稍 Community Celebration鈥 with keynote speaker drew a large crowd on Friday April 12. Members of the 杏吧原创 community and members of the larger Ottawa community listened with great interest as Professor Schindler from the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta gave his keynote speech entitled 鈥淧rotecting the Athabasca River from Oil Sands Development.鈥 As a key figure in shaping environmental policies in Canada, the United States and Europe, Professor Schindler shared his expertise on the damaging effects of pollution created by the oil sands which sparked some controversy in the Alberta area. His emphasis on the impact this pollution has on a number of communities and the need for community engagement with the issues of environmental degradation as a result of industry were in line with the community-focus of the event.
His lecture was followed by an animated debate between Professor Paul Van Geel and Alyssa Gladish from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Meredith Brown and colleague Alexandra Brett on the role of community engagement in finding solutions to environmental problems. The debate highlighted the tension between the push for increased community involvement in environmental problem-solving and the pull for an increased role for the scientific and academic community in creating innovative solutions.
The conference ended with a where a variety of presenters who have done work around the environment had a brief opportunity to share their expertise with accompanying slides. The outcome was that an array of members from the 杏吧原创 community were able to give insight into environmental preservation projects such as composting at 杏吧原创. It is clear from this event that 杏吧原创 has a community which remains critically engaged with the issues surrounding the environment. 杏吧原创鈥檚 emphasis on community engagement has culminated in the creation of the partnership which continues to make community engagement a priority at 杏吧原创.
Footage of David Schindler’s speech is available on .
-By Heather McAlister