February 2012

Partnering with Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade across Metro Vancouver, the Future of the Region Sustainability Dialogues is an outreach component of the Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI) aimed at stimulating thoughts and conversation on how to transition to a zero waste economy. The dialogues will consist of panelists of experts on environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues, and the outcomes of the discussions aim to inform community agents and descision-makers on how to transition to a less consumption-based economic system.  The events will occur throughout the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and you can register by visiting Meto Vancouver's Sustainability Dialogues webpage.

Occurring throughout the month of March, the Future of the Region Sustainability Dialogue are timely scheduled as they explore the same themes as CRC Research's March workshop on degrowth, the second part of the Robert Bateman Critical Conversations series, and the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal (May 13 to 19).  These events contribute to a larger emerging movement aim at exploring alternatives to the traditional model of constant economic growth.  Our society has relied on constant economic growth for centuries; however, constant growth eventually reaches capacity and humans are reaching capacity at a rapid rate.

Taylor Davis, a collaborator in CRC case study research and HEAD Talks sketch and clay animations, and Chris Jensen of Terra Remote Sensing have recently released an article in GeoWorld highlighting the application of LiDAR technology for climate change adaptation. LiDAR, Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technique that uses light to image wide array geographical and atmospheric features at a high resolution. This article describes how LiDAR can be used to examine areas for their capacity to absorb water and notes the importance of such an application in the face of flooding and run-off resulting from climate change.