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.  

Feb. 5th---Video class~~

This week we watched a video in our class, and there is a woman talked about sustainable. Rights of nature is very important. We read the journal, and I really like that. The conference make the rules.

Some of people think the society was dominated by human. However, I think they made a huge mistake. Since human still killed by flood, storm, larger animals and spontaneous fire.From my perspective, human still controlled by nature, and human is only one kind creature which was created by Mother Nature.

Some people start to discuss about the rights of nature. They have a question list such as，does nature has right, should human give nature rights, what kinds of rights nature has. Those questions are brilliant and controversial.

I think nature are equal to human, even more nature are higher than human. Human and nature interact each other.Both human and nature have their rights.

Jan.22--Food!!

The first speaker is Tabitah Martens, she introduced several important view perspective of sustainable food. I list them following. 

Introduction

Food Security vs. Food Sovereignty

Food security: all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life (World Food Summit 1996)

Needs based; no rights discourse

Does not consider how it was produced, social relationships cultural importance.

Why food sovereignty?

Restores power holistic (food system) activism component reclamation of culture

Research process:

n  Indigenous methodology (vs. western academic model)

n  Participatory action research

n  Insider vs. outsider relationships

n  Community visits, interviews

n  44 interviews across 4 provinces; 23 projects represented.

Working group on indigenous Food Sovereignty

Background

  Members represent perspectives, priorities, and critical thinking from communities of focus

  Increased awareness of food issues affecting indigenous people

Redefining success

n  Increased awareness, sharing

n  Bio-regional networks

n  Relevant funding opportunities

n  Food sovereignty conversation

n  De-colonization of food systems

n  Partnerships

Discovering the food system

  Major components of a food system

1.       Food production

2.       Food processing

3.       Food distribution

4.       Food access (retail)

5.       Food consumption

6.       Food waste

Ingredients of our food system

1.       Food and health

2.       Food and justice

3.       Food and the environment

Food desert

Why study the food system

1.       Healthy individuals and communities

2.       Social justice

3.       Earth and environmental sustainability

4.         

Whats growing in Manitoba?

1.       Traditional agriculture sector

2.       Alternative systems

Integrated systems approach

Food health environment society

Resources

Global food systems

1.       The state of food and agriculture 2013 – united nations

2.       Feeding 9 billion – university of Guelph

Manitoba food systems

1.       Manitoba food charter (food matters manitoba)

2.       Northern healthy foods initiative (government of Manitoba)

3.       Farmers market association of Manitoba

Campus food systems

1.       National student food charter (meal exchange)

2.       UBC food systems project

3.       UManitoba campus food strategy group

Discussion topics

1.       Individual responsibility versus corporate responsibility

2.       Preservation versus production

3.       The role of supply and demand

4.       Regulations in our food system

5.       Genetically modified versus organic

I find this picture from website, and shows how the field were used by

 human. And it shows how people are wasting land. The land was used by people uneven. Many people were starving because they are unable get food. Also, the reason of that is not just because poverty. There are mutiple reasons why people cannot get food, such as the environment issue, government policy, and the international situation. 

Here are several interesting questions about sustainable food.

Who should take responsibility?

What are some the biggest issues you identify

Possible-recommendations/idea

What kind of behavior change could you make?

Are you satisfy with you food system on campus? What would you ideal food system on campus?

From my perspective, food is very important to human life. Human are searching for a very useful way to maintain food resources for all human being around the world. We should save food as soon as possible, because there are over 50% food was wasted by people. 

There is a graph showed what is sustainable balance, I like the idea of it, so I paste here. 

Jan.15----Sustainable oil

The topic of this week is sustainable oil, and the speaker is a person who have a lot of experience in oil controlling.

There are four different parts of sustainable oil. They are exponential functions, peak oil, energy returned on energy invested, and Chris Martenson Crash course.




The speaker showed us several videos, and use them to introduce how people think about the oil issue, how they control those problems, and why oil become a serious sustainable problem in this decay.




The first video talked about three issues. The first issue is there are massive change upon us, and change a lot of living conditions. The second issue is overwhelming change is possible, because population growing more and more faster. The third issue is we are able to shape the future even though is may very hard.




The second video are very useful and interesting. It introduced exponential growth, and why there is exponential growth. I think that is very interesting because I already seen the population growing graph many times in my high school and university. However, I did not understand why there is an exponential growth, and how that happened. The larger basic population, the faster they growing.
Exponential growth means speeding up.

I found the video which is explain the meaning of exponential growth.  
http://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse/chapter-3-exponential-growth

The third video is compounding ability.
It is very similar to the second video,and showed how a soccer auditorium were filled with people.

There is a finance rule of 72, 72/compound interest rat= number of years to double.
People focus on the demand and supply of oil recently, because oil is not only an important resource, but also it is reducing years after years.

Oil become to an controlling tool around the world. Therefore, people were trying to find a good way to let oil be more sustainable. People hope there will have enough oil can be used in the future.
We calculate a lot of data, and the result is use natural resource is better. Natural resources include wind, solar energy, and hydro.
From this lecture, I think I understand why people are evaluating other power. And I really think people should stop use coal. Also, let everyone understand why oil become to a reason of energy war.

Jan. 8th First Class--first impression

Today is the first day I start to know the sustainable life. We have a speaker who come from the website company "mypeg".

http://www.mypeg.ca/

I tried to use this website to find out some of data, and shows out it is a wonderful website. It shows a lot of data of Winnipeg, and from many different perspectives.
Sustainability According to the dictionary, the sustainability were defined by: for humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has ecological, economic, political and cultural dimensions. Sustainability requires the reconciliation of these environmental, social equity and economic demands - also referred to as the "three pillars" of sustainability or the 3 Es.Sustainability for me I think it is one spirit which means we need to keep our environment, and protect our living environment. The purpose of that is keep good enough living condition for our offspring. Also, we need to protect the environment, and let it still exist after every generation.When I was in middle school, the teacher told us sustainability means we need to protect the environment. However, after these years, I can feel about sustainability everywhere in my life. For instance, sustainable economics, sustainable happiness. Also, I think those different perspectives of sustainable represent human become more and more pay attention to protect the world. Although we can easy find a lot of people trying to live forever from the history. After seek the method for living forever, human want to protect their living environment. Here is a very interesting video which I found online, and it shows how "sustainability" formed by people. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5NiTN0chj0

This graph shows the how sustainability formed by social, economic and environment.

From our lecture
Four Ideas
1. we must consider the effects of our actions
2. earth's resources are not present in infinite supply, we must live in limits.
3. we must understand all the costs to the environment and the society.
4. we must each share in the responsibility for environmental sustainability.


Ecological foot-print

We talked about the foot-print a little bit in our class. And I was very interested in it, so I search the definition of it online.
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle.