ESS Lecture Series Schedule

Winter 2025 Term

ESS Lecture Series

Since 2010, the College of Sustainability has hosted a weekly ESS (Environment, Sustainability and Society) Lecture Series that is open to the public. Local and international scholars, journalists, social activists, artists, public intellectuals, and elders share their wisdom and experience on wide ranging topics related to environmental sustainability, social justice, Indigenous perspectives, and the impacts of the climate crisis.

For several semesters during the COVID pandemic, the lecture series was presented virtually on Zoom. Going forward, the series will be presented in a hybrid format — with most speakers presenting live and in-person as well as livestreaming to Zoom.

Unless otherwise noted, all lectures run Thursday evenings 7:00-8:30 PM in Potter Auditorium, 6100 University Avenue, Rowe Management building. All welcome. Free of charge.

Please write to sustlife@dal.ca for the Zoom link and passcode or for the Vimeo password watch past lectures.

Thursday 9 January 2025 - NO LECTURE

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Thursday 16 January 2025 - The Determinants of Planetary Health

Nicole Redvers
Western Research Chair & Director, Indigenous Planetary Health
Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Unversity of Western Ontario

Nicole Redvers is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation (NWT) and has worked with Indigenous patients, scholars, and communities around the globe her entire career. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and is a Western Research Chair and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. She has been actively involved at regional, national, and international levels promoting the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in both human and planetary health research and practice.

Presented in association with the Dalhousie Health Justice Institute 2024/2025 Seminar Series

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Thursday 23 January 2025 - What Really Counts

(Partial film screening, followed by discussion)

Ron Coleman, author, political scientist
Kent Martin, filmmaker

A short excerpt of the film What Really Counts will be shown, followed by a discussion and question and answer session with the film’s subject, Dr. Ron Coleman, author/political scientist, and filmmaker, Kent Martin.

What Really Counts is a thought-provoking documentary that challenges the dominant economic narrative centered around the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The film argues that the world's reliance on GDP and its demand for constant economic growth is leading to devastating consequences, such as poverty, war, climate change, and mass extinctions.

While we will be screening only a short excerpt of the film due to time constraints, interested viewers are welcome and encouraged to watch the full-length version of What Really Counts here on Vimeo, free of charge.

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Thursday 30 January 2025 - Environmental Racism/Social Justice

Isaac Saney
Associate Professor, Dalhousie
Coordinator, Black and African Diaspora Studies

Isaac Saney is a Black Studies and Cuba specialist and coordinator of the Black and African Diaspora Studies (BAFD) program at Dalhousie.  He holds a PhD in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London. His teaching, research and scholarship encompass Cuba, Africa, the Caribbean, Black Canadian history, the global Black liberation struggle, and reparations.  Isaac was also the Director of Dalhousie University's Transition Year Program, the ground-breaking program founded in 1970 to redress the educational barriers and injustices that confront the Mi’kmaq Nation, other Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the African Nova Scotian community.

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Thursday 6 February 2025 - Water for Life (Bullfrog Films: 89 mins)

Students will have access to screen this film for a week before writing their reflections. See your course Brightspace site for the link and password.

Water For Life follows Indigenous activists in Latin America as they face death threats and murder to save their precious water resources from mining and hydroelectric projects. Water For Life tells the story of three extraordinary individuals: Berta Cáceres, a leader of the Lenca people in Honduras; Francisco Pineda, a subsistence farmer in El Salvador; and Alberto Curamil, an Indigenous Mapuche leader in Chile, all of whom refused to let government-supported industry and transnational corporations take their water and redirect it to mining, hydroelectric projects or large scale agriculture.

The film illuminates a growing recognition of Indigenous rights and a rising demand for corporate responsibility and environmental justice. It is a story that begins and ends with water.

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Thursday 13 February 2025 - POSTPONED

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Thursday 20 February 2025 - Study Break (NO LECTURE)

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Thursday 27 February 2025 - SUST 1001 Midterm (NO LECTURE)

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Thursday 6 March 2025 - 40 Years in the Water and Mud: Reflections of a Fading Field Biologist

John Brazner
Wetland Ecologist

The career trajectory of a field research biologist rarely follows a straight-line path. John will reflect on a government conservation career as a research wetland ecologist in Nova Scotia and the Great Lakes. He will discuss how you end up where you do, working on the things you do, is often the result of fairly random events and influenced by many things other than your professional interests. John will summarize some of those key events in his career and the research questions that led him one direction or another. The talk will conclude by discussing the changing state and pressures on wetlands and their ecology, how the field of ecology is changing and how students might respond to those changes.

John Brazner worked as a wetland biologist with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (DNR) for over a decade and for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 20 years as a research ecologist on Lake Superior. There was even a 5-year stint as a wetland policy specialist with the NS Department of Environment and Climate Change. John recently retired from government and is happily pursuing a variety of conservation passion projects and attending very few Zoom meetings.———————————————————————————————————————

Thursday 13 March 2025 -  Exploring Hope and Ethics in Climate Policy: The Case of Carbon Dioxide Removal in Uncertain Times

Kate Ervine
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Global Development Faculty Associate with SMU's School of the Environment
Saint Mary's University

Kate’s research specializes in global environmental governance; the political economy of climate change mitigation with a current focus on carbon dioxide removal; carbon finance; and climate justice and democratic transformation. She is the author of Carbon published with Polity Press in 2018, numerous journal articles and book chapters, and in 2022 she co-produced and released a short documentary, The Carbon Cage, with Scientific American. Kate also works in Nova Scotia with the Affordable Energy Coalition to address issues of energy poverty and energy and green policies at the provincial level; and is a full member of Carbon Market Watch, a Brussels-based not-for-profit watchdog and research organization that works on national and global carbon pricing and climate policy.

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Thursday 20 March 2025 - Sustainable Urban Transportation

Sean Gillis
Transportation Demand Management, HRM

Sustainable (or green) transportation is a common buzzword. But what do we really mean by this term? Is it simply swapping gas vehicles for electric vehicles? Putting up a few bike racks or some new bus stops? While these things are helpful, we should aspire to more fundamental changes. Join transportation planner Sean Gillis to discuss challenges and approaches to building a truly sustainable transportation network in our cities and suburbs.

Sean Gillis is a Licensed Professional Planner with a planning degree from Dalhousie University. Sean uses stories and discussion about cities and transportation to explain big social, economic and political issues. Last year he began leading HRM’s Transportation Demand Management team.

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Thursday 27 March 2025 - Best of ESS Lectures Winter 2017 Spotlight: Megan Leslie

Civic Engagement: Why Activism, Politics and Community Matter More Than Ever  

Watch this highlight of the Winter 2017 ESS Lecture Series (VIEW ON VIMEO).

Megan Leslie is President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund. She served for two terms as the federal Member of Parliament for Halifax and as the NDP environment critic. Megan has a long history of community engagement, social justice advocacy and tireless collaboration on health, environmental and poverty issues. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social & Political Thought and History, a Certificate in Refugee and Migration Studies (both from York University), and a law degree from Dalhousie.

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Thursday 3 April 2025 - NO LECTURE

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For more information contact:

Debra Ross                                                     
Manager of Outreach, Partnerships and Communications
902-494-7805       cos.comm@dal.ca