- Speaker – Deborah VanNijNatten: Professor, Department of Political Science and North American Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Poster of Speaker Series
Topic: Crafting A National Climate Strategy Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. In Canada, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost are challenging how we use and live in the north. Rising sea levels threaten some densely-populated coastal areas. Extreme weather events including floods, droughts, heat waves and forest fires — which today affect hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions —are predicted to become more frequent and more intense. Agricultural yields are also likely to be affected both by these weather events and also increasing water scarcity. On the prairies, dwindling water supplies are a clear and present danger. How do we in Canada bridge differing provincial political and economic perspectives and craft a national strategy to address Canadian and global challenges? How do we move forward in a more positive manner, and seize the opportunities provided by the “green” economy?
Debora VanNijnatten is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and North American Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research and publications have focused on transboundary environmental governance in North America, at the Canada-US, US-Mexico and continental levels. She has worked on climate change and air quality issues, and she is now studying water-sharing and management in the US-Mexico Rio Grande basin and the US-Canadian Great Lakes Basin. She is the co-author/editor of 5 books, including successive editions of Canadian Environmental Politics and Policy; Environmental Policy in North America: Approaches, Capacity and the Management of Transboundary Issues; and Climate Change Policy in North America: Designing Integration in a Regional System. She has been a Visiting Fulbright Chair at Duke University, Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan, and an Academic Advisor for the “Emergence of Cross-Border Regions” research project carried out by the Policy Research Initiative, Government of Canada.