Panelists and UNBSJ student organizers for the Climate Change Science and Action Panel on Mar 20 in Saint John.

On March 16th, this blog turned ten years old, and that feels like something to celebrate. But I’ve been a bit remiss on content so far this year. Last week’s visit to UNBSJ at the invitation of the Biological Sciences PhD student organization is a great prompt to remedy that. I joined a panel on Climate Change Science and Action with Moe Qureshi of the Conservation Council of NB and Helen Gurney-Smith of DFO in St. Andrews to talk across scales from global to local. The 2 hour discussion was followed up by a great networking event at the Haven Music Hall where I got to meet more of the students, some local partners and professors. Thanks to the organizers for the great event.

Earlier this term I also enjoyed meeting with the Local Government Group of the Green Shores program, a Maritimes outpost of the program originally developed by the Stewardship Council of BC run out of TransCoastal Adaptations at SMU. During that online presentation I learned that in December Green Shores developed an 8-page publication for the general public based on the final report from the NRCan project Making Room for Movement and the paper I led last year on Reimagining nature-based coastal adaptation using the 5Rs (reimagine, reserve, relocate, restore, reinforce), published in the Journal of Flood Risk Management. The policy brief, Green Shores and the 5Rs for Nature-based Coastal Adaptation , shows how Green Shores is operationalizing the framework we outlined. More recently I reprised my presentation to Green Shores  to the TransCoastal Adaptations Lesson of the Week group.

Presenting to the Green Shores Local Government Group on Jan 15, 2024.

Other key events in recent months have been profile-raising events for SRES within Dalhousie, including the Graduate Fair (in person and online) in early February, the Sustainable Development Goals Expo in early March, and today’s engagement event with Black and African Nova Scotian high schoolers.