Regardless of your political leanings, this is a must watch video. As well, you may be interested in this interview with Mark Kingswell on democracy and civility.
While preparing a presentation this morning for a panel discussion in Montreal this coming Saturday on planetary resilience, I strated thinking about how the world is shifting in fundamental ways that are impossible to determine, thus making the aiblity to anticipate trends and patterns even more important for educators, business leaders and goverment decision-makers. There will also be major policy shifts and as I was writing this, the Canadian Press just reported that two American states--Washington and Orgeon are planning to adopt BC's carbon tax.
The secretary of the United Nations has appealed for a big push to achieve as many as possible of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by the deadline of December 31, 2015. Two other reports also call for the eradication of poverty as the number-one priority and set out complementary goals concerned with gender equality, education, health, food, water and sanitation, climate change, energy, employment, natural resources, governance, peace, and finance.
I don't often repost, but this article is critical reading for researchers, decision-makers, policy-makers, practitioners and civil society. From the Standford Social Innovation Review.
By Amy Luers, Carl Pope, & David Kroodsma | 8 | Aug. 19, 2013
CBC’s the fifth estate has launched an interactive tool that allows patients to rate the quality of care in their own hospitals. Although online ratings are not perfect, they are transparent, capture stories directly and are a good indicator of the quality of care at a particular institution.
In my world of academic institutions, it is too easy to take yourself too seriously. Taking one's work seriously is very different from taking one's self too seriously. Learning occurs everywhere and anywhere. For example, it seems to me that the moomins have what we call in the academy a very sustainable framework for life.
Why would we muzzle any of the natural, social sciences and humanities that allow us to 'see' the wonders of the world and to understand them, and to change our negative impacts so that we sustain this beauty?
When students learn about sustainability in colleges and universities, they often are taught this Venn diagram early on in their studies, which displays sustainable development as the overlap of three intersecting human spheres.
April 5th, 2013
What does Edward Soja mean by ‘spatial justice’ and why is it important to the good society? A recent McMaster study suggests children are at greater risk of being hit by vehicles driving through their neighbourhood than from drivers who live nearby, posing particular dangers in poorer, downtown areas where traffic levels tend to be highest. The research points to the issue of high traffic in low-income residential neighbourhoods, where drivers are more likely to take shortcuts to avoid congested main roads.