April 2nd and April 9th -- Climate Reality and Wind-up

For this two classes, we have two presentations on these two weeks.Climate Reality and Wind-up should be the two topics of these two days.
We talked about the Winnipeg Harvest for our topic.
For our proposal, we have chosen to investigate the topic of by-catch in Manitoba and the different ways we can reduce/redirect the wasted fish. Manitoba is home to three major water bodies including Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg and Lake Winnipegosis and approximately 300 smaller lakes that are used by commercial fisheries. The quota for commercially fished lakes in Manitoba is 13.0 million kg, excluding non-quota species. At the present only a certain number of fisheries in Canada are managed with by-catch quotas or by-catch mitigation quotas. By-Catch is the unintentional capture of non-targeted aquatic species during the harvest of other aquatic species. Once the fish is caught, many of them die immediately. By-catch is often discarded and left unused due to numerous reasons such as political and economic factors. Local communities in Manitoba are being affected by the environmental, cultural, social, economic and political impacts as a result of by-catch.
Disposed fish have a negative impact on the environment. It is estimated that globally by-catch constitutes 40.4 percent of fishery catches. This practice is rapidly breaking down our marine ecosystems by disrupting the balance of the various aquatic populations (Davies et al., 2009). Not only is the species being discarded as by-catch being affected, but also it subsequently affects the species that they feed upon, and the species that feed upon them resulting in a trophic cascade. This could ultimately cause an explosion of a population further down the food chain, or the collapse of a predatory species that depends on their existence.The problem of by-catch on Lake Manitoba is a significant sustainability issue, which impacts a variety of sectors in Manitoba, including the environment, as well as political, economic, social, and cultural impacts. However, with our proposed solutions, we hope to first prevent “bushing” of by-catch from occurring, and if not, find solutions to utilize the wasted fish that would have otherwise been discarded. Preventative measures to stop by-catch from occurring include: dissolving or amending the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act, altering harvesting techniques, and increasing the frequency and extent of patrols of Conservation Officers.
Solutions to mitigate the issue if preventative measures do not completely eliminate the problem include the partnership of Manitoban fishers with food banks, such as the Grand Rapids Fisherman Co-op with Winnipeg Harvest, in order to redirect the wasted fish to people who can then utilize it. Through these solutions, the issue of by-catch can be eliminated, and the benefits to the people of Manitoba will be great. 

Feb 26--The Radiant City

We watched the movie which is about nature deficit. The guy who wrote down the book which is "stranger danger". 
The main part of that movie showed how they think about the suburb areas different to the urban area. In the end of the movie, the author shows how he thought about the benefit and short comes of living in suburb. 



The word is derived from the old French subburbe, which is in turn derived from the Latin suburbium, formed from sub and urbs. In Ancient Rome, wealthy and important people tended to live on the hills of the city, while the poorer citizens were not able to lived in there. In 1380, the English people get this word to their Oxford Dictionary.
For the environmental issue, "the Radiant City" showed us the suburb areas are too waste to living. However, they have a large living area. Also, the areas are still increasing for recently.

March 12: Sustainable landscapes

The guest speaker for this week is a master student who comes from the Architecture faculty.He showed three his projects to us, and two of them are not done in Winnipeg.  

There is one water and coast line project was designed for Vancouver.He planned to design a system which is relevant to sea reclamation.His project should provide a longer coast line to Vancouver, and that will give Vancouver a more sustainability environment.He planed to use that extra area to build the port and place electricity equipment. 

The other project which I remembered is the Denmark project.He try to change a forest to an useful land. I kind of forget what the detail of that project...

I'm interested in architecture, and I do some research about the green buildings. They are very good for sustainable of our society. Green buildings combine arts and construction, and provide the future a better world. 

 

March 26 Campus Sustainability

This week we have the officer who come from the University of Manitoba's student life office. He also took us to a exhibit which focus how to change our campus. That exhibit related to several departments of university, such as landscape of architecture,environment, engineering departments.
The surveys which they showed there try to gather how people think about changing our campus to more sustainable.
That program involved several parts.For example,how we can change the building of campus, how to change the transfer system of campus, how to change the landscape of campus.
Because of the red river is beside campus, there is more interesting to change the campus. I saw a lot of pictures which are many involving the water system campuses on that online survey.
People planed to build a golf ground beside the core of campus. In the north of campus, and they think that will bring more benefit to university.Not only bring the economic benefits, but also bring much more environment benefits.

Mar 19. Sustainability, Spirituality and Art

We have an amazing speaker for today.He gave us the postcards which were made by the organization he worked with.
Sorry I forget about his name,but I really like him.

He give us the idea which is the art, religion and sustainable environment are three main components in our highly literacy world.

Art could be one powerful method to present our sustainable society. Those postcards which he gives us present how people think about our society through this touching way.

After I heard his presentation, I rethought our society. I thought we actually have many different perspectives for the same problem. There is one story on those cards which he gave us. He asked us to choose the card which is the most impressed us. I chose the card which showed a boy think everybody cannot carry the stone, because he cannot carry that stone by himself. After he give it up, there are three boys come to there, and they are able to carry that stone by three of them. This card tell us the theory which is sometimes you cannot finish a thing by yourself, but it may finish by a group of people. The power of a group is much stronger than one person's power.
This story let me think about some social problem which was not solved by people. The reason may be because people were not do it by a large group, and they believe that they cannot finish by their own, and other people could not finish it either.


Also, I think sustainable and arts can be combined very well. Art has a widely range, there are many different brands were included in it.
We need think the world more deeply, and use the literature to show our thought to people.

I really like this topic, but maybe because my first language is not English, so I cannot understand all of the information which provided by the speaker.

March 5th--Sustainability and Consumption

We watched the video which talked about the children's sustainability. During these few decades, children's living behaviors were changed by the environment.
For protecting the children, parents make a lot of regulation for their children.They could not let their children go into the nature. And the children were avoided by the real nature.
The children are the future generation of our society.


For a long time, children were protected by parents more and more. And they could not know what is the real nature. They are living in the world which have a huge boundary between the real nature.
This is a video which I get from the website.I find out that is very interesting. And I really want to show to you.
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/

Jan. 29th--Sustainable happiness

Sustainable happiness

I list all the important points of this lecture.  

Happiness research overlooks interdependent and interconnected nature of humans

      People, other species, nature

  Catherine O’Brien, Cape Breton University

      Connection to sustainability

      Activities that are better for the earth can make us happier

      Deep and lasting happiness

Sustainable happiness concepts

   Truth

   Gratitude

   Genuine Wealth

      Relationships

      Community

      Nature

“Happiness that contributes to individual, community, and/or global well-being and does not exploit other people, the environment, or future generations.” (O’Brien, 2008)

Sustainable happiness links happiness and sustainability together, it reinforces the fact that we are interdependent with one another and the natural environment – that our mutual well-being is intercoplation.

Happiness exercises

  sustainable happiness course

  natural highs

     rain on a tin roof

     watching a child sleep

     smell of forest

     hearing a loon on the lake

     sun on your face

     experiencing the northern lights

     happening across wildlife

The sustainable happiness chart.

I use this chart for two days, and try to record all the happy things of my life. I feel I can be happier when I use this chart. 

http://sustainablehappiness.ca/ This video is the sustainable happiness of Catherine O'brien. 

After I watched it I found out the emotion of happy is also an useful resource. It also need to be maintained and protect by us. It is not like food, oil, water or wood. It is an emotion which everybody needed.