International partnerships of women for sustainable watershed governance in times of climate change

This chapter describes and assesses collaborative research with women actively engaged in local and global community engagement processes for water management in times of global climate change. As an equity-focused response to climate change, the interrelated networks and initiatives described in the chapter involve organizations and individuals in Brazil, Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, and Canada. These collaborations are focused on strengthening low-income women's voices, and legitimizing their knowledge and action within water management institutions and processes. The chapter draws from what people learned through two international projects, the Sister Watersheds project with Canadian and Brazilian partners, and a Climate Change Adaptation in Africa project with partners in Canada, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa. The methods and approach of the Sister Watersheds project proved to be applicable to climate change education and organizing in Canada as well as in Brazil. The chapter summarizes that women are working together on climate education and water governance, helping to inspire and generate related strategies.This research was supported by the International Development Research Centre, grant number IDRC GRANT NO. 106002-00

Climate Justice, Gender, and Intersectionality

Women are generally more vulnerable than men to environmental disasters and extreme weather events due to four main factors, which are related to women’s gendered roles in society: women are economically disadvantaged in comparison to men and are more likely to live in poverty; sexual and reproductive health and physical demands on their bodies during pregnancy, child-bearing and rearing, and menopause put them at special risk; their lives tend to be longer and they spend more time as seniors / widows, with resulting economic and health implications; and their social options are restricted so that they often fill paid and unpaid roles related to physical and emotional caring that put them at special risk of environmental injustice. This means that environmental and climate injustice are gendered in both rich and poor countries, and this can be manifested in a variety of ways: housing, transportation, food insecurity, stress, mental illness, disability, heat exposure, interruptions of electricity and water services, violence against women, partner and elder violence, toxic exposure, health vulnerability, worker safety, political voice/agency/leadership, and many others. Gender also intersects with other categories of vulnerability such as ethnicity, ‘race,’ sexuality, dis/ability, etc. to heighten climate risk and injustice. The gendered effects of extreme weather events are often not disaggregated in government statistics and research literature, and an explicit gender focus, including attention to the access of women and marginalized people to participation in climate policy setting, has been minimal. Both at the local level and globally, climate change adaptation and response initiatives can downplay or suppress democratic, equity-enhancing politics.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, FRN IDRC and SSHRC File Agreement No. 2017-0082 and IDRC GRANT NO. 106002-00

Education for Regeneration

It seems to me that we must think in terms of regeneration and resurgence, as Simpson says, not mere sustainability. Following centuries of colonization and imperialism, industrial “development”, toxic pollution, and carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, the status quo is not to be sustained, but rather remediated. The impacts on the most vulnerable are crucially important for us all as a species. It is a myth that the rich will always be able to buy their way out of crises, and in any case, building an attractive future for humans requires regenerating the Earth for all life. One good place to start is by recognizing the heinous impacts of capitalist growth-driven economic systems. As someone who was trained as a neoclassical economist, I can state that the more you learn about economics, the more pernicious you realize it is. We need to admit the impossibility of privatizing all that is valuable, and the need to instead equitably govern the life-support systems (water, soil, air, forests, culture) that sustain humans and all life. This requires building education processes and systems that will be capable of transmitting skills for personal and collective responsibility, conflict resolution, “two-eyed seeing, 5 ” awareness of nature and others, and discerning appropriate behaviours. It also requires continually articulating for ourselves, and publicly, that individual greed is not deserving of respect or adulation; linking personal wealth with political power is not the only or the best way to run human systems; it always eventually leads to downfall. Humans can do better. An example of a sustainable way to culturally embed the redistribution of wealth, and balance material wealth against respect for long-term leadership (rather than allowing wealth and political/economic leadership to reinforce each other) is the potlatch ceremony traditional to several First Nations on the Pacific Coast

Considering the role of Murine double minute 2 in the cardiovascular system

The E3 ubiquitin ligase Murine double minute 2 (MDM2) is the main negative regulator of the tumor protein p53 (TP53). Extensive studies over more than two decades have confirmed MDM2 oncogenic role through mechanisms both TP53-dependent and TP53-independent oncogenic function. These studies have contributed to designate MDM2 as a therapeutic target of choice for cancer treatment and the number of patents for MDM2 antagonists has increased immensely over the last years. However, the question of the physiological functions of MDM2 has not been fully resolved yet, particularly when expressed and regulated physiologically in healthy tissue. Cardiovascular complications are almost an inescapable side-effect of anti-cancer therapies. While several MDM2 antagonists are entering phase I, II and even III of clinical trials, this review proposes to bring awareness on the physiological role of MDM2 in the cardiovascular system.York University Librarie

Celebrating Economies of Change: Brave Visions for Inclusive Futures

This issue has been inspired by a path-breaking conference held by the Canadian Society for Ecologi-cal Economics (CANSEE), which took place this past May 2019 in Waterloo, Ontario. Entitled Engaging Economies of Change, the conference aimed to ex-pand existing research networks in the economy-environment nexus by building connections beyond the academy in order to meaningfully engage with the practicalities of building and implementing change. This issue captures the rich content shared during the event, as well as descriptions of the pro-cesses and efforts made to create a welcoming and respectful space where academics and community activists could build alliances and discuss common challenges. The conference organizers – all graduate students and activists themselves -- called this ‘building a brave space’.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

Commoning and climate justice

Commoning represents a dynamic and emergent means of risk-reduction and livelihood provision which can address the shortcomings of both market and state-oriented economic systems -- increasingly relevant as climate change threatens human subsistence worldwide. This paper brings together international examples of responses to climate-related threats that are collective (not privatizing), to provide preliminary empirical evidence about how and in what circumstances people may develop equitable communal institutions rather than ones that worsen community fragmentation. The examples include traditional and new forms of commons which help to meet local subsistence needs and develop communities’ social, political and economic resilience in the face of climate change, exploring how climate justice -- improving the local and global equity of climate change impacts and processes – can advance in parallel with commons development.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, FRN IDRC and SSHRC File Agreement No. 2017-008

How will disenfranchised Peoples adapt to Climate Change? Strengthening the Ecojustice Movement

The Fourth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) acknowledged That millions of people are currently, and will increasingly be, affected by the impacts of climate change, in the form of floods, droughts and other extreme events, as well as related threats to food security. In response to these global environmental changes, the international community, including civil society, is acting on the need for immediate adaptation measures and is developing strategies for future adaptation. However, the impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed, with many of the poorest, most vulnerable peoples experiencing the immediate effects of climate change, in the here and now. As the IPCC noted, developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change and often, the least able to adapt due to lack of infrastructure and resources

Unweighted regression models perform better than weighted regression techniques for respondent-driven sampling data: results from a simulation study

Background: It is unclear whether weighted or unweighted regression is preferred in the analysis of data derived from respondent driven sampling. Our objective was to evaluate the validity of various regression models, with and without weights and with various controls for clustering in the estimation of the risk of group membership from data collected using respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Methods: Twelve networked populations, with varying levels of homophily and prevalence, based on a known distribution of a continuous predictor were simulated using 1000 RDS samples from each population. Weighted and unweighted binomial and Poisson general linear models, with and without various clustering controls and standard error adjustments were modelled for each sample and evaluated with respect to validity, bias and coverage rate. Population prevalence was also estimated. Results: In the regression analysis, the unweighted log-link (Poisson) models maintained the nominal type-I error rate across all populations. Bias was substantial and type-I error rates unacceptably high for weighted binomial regression. Coverage rates for the estimation of prevalence were highest using RDS-weighted logistic regression, except at low prevalence (10%) where unweighted models are recommended. Conclusions: Caution is warranted when undertaking regression analysis of RDS data. Even when reported degree is accurate, low reported degree can unduly influence regression estimates. Unweighted Poisson regression is therefore recommended.York University Librarie

Trends in concussions at Ontario schools prior to and subsequent to the introduction of a concussion policy - an analysis of the Canadian hospitals injury reporting and prevention program from 2009 to 2016

Background: Concussion is a preventable injury that can have long-term health consequences for children and youth. In Ontario, the Policy/Program Memorandum # 158 (PPM) was introduced by the Ministry of Education of Ontario in March 2014. The PPM’s main purpose is to require each school board in the province to create and implement a concussion policy. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends in school-based concussions prior to and subsequent to the introduction of the PPM. Methods: This report examined emergency department (ED) visits in 5 Ontario hospitals that are part of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP), and compared trends over time in diagnosed concussions, and suspected concussions identified as “other head injury” in children and youth aged 4–18. Results: From 2009 to 2016 study years, there were 21,094 suspected concussions, including 8934 diagnosed concussions in youth aged 4–18. The average number of diagnosed concussions in the 5 years before the PPM was 89 concussions/month, compared to approximately 117 concussions per month after; a 30% increase in the monthly rate of concussions presenting to the ED. The total number of concussion or head injury-related ED visits remained relatively unchanged but the proportion of diagnosed concussions rose from 31% in 2009 to 53% in 2016. The proportion of diagnosed concussions in females also increased from 38% in 2013 to 46% in 2016. The percent of all diagnosed concussions occurring at schools increased throughout the study reaching almost 50% in 2016 with most injuries taking place at the playground (24%), gymnasium (22%) or sports field (20%). Conclusions: The introduction of the PPM may have contributed to a general increase in concussion awareness and an improvement in concussion identification at the school level in children and youth aged 4–18. Keywords: Concussion, Policy, Emergency department, YouthYork University Librarie

God, Kant and the Transcendental Object: an Investigation into the Kantian Critique of the Ontological Argument

An address to the 4th International Kant Congress, Mainz, Germany, 8 April 1974 on the nature and consequences of Kant's remarks within his Critique of Pure Reason on the notions of 'God' and the 'Transcendental Object', a text of which was published later the same year within the proceedings of the Congress as pages 347-355 of the Akten des 4 International Kant Kongresses, Mainz 6 10 April 1974, Teil II.1 (Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 1974)