Upcoming Events and International Information

 

United Nations Environment Programme
Events and Meetings:
The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
1 - 12 December 2008, Poznan, Poland
http://unfcc.int/meetings/cop_14/items/4481.php

United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009: COP 15
November 30-December 11, 2009
Copenhagen, Denmark Children Call for Action:
Paint for the Planet Exhibition & Auction
23 October 2008 - UN Headquarters
25 October - Harvard Club, New York
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=303

International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict - 6 November

“Today, we are at a turning point in our history. We can no longer continue to accept tradition for tradition’s sake. We can no longer go on playing the same old war games without eventually becoming conscious of the dimensions of the destruction involved. We have no other choice but to become fully conscious of the darker aspects of our own cultural heritage. Only then will we cease to pass them blindly on to future generations. Victims of a devastating trauma may never be the same (again) biologically. It does not matter if it was the incessant terror of combat, torture, repeated abuse in childhood, or a one-time experience.”
Dennis S. Charney, M.D., Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/environment_war/index.html



The 20th transdisciplinary Canadian International Youth Forum (ScienceSphere) will be held on Saturday, 24 October 2009, United Nations Day. Under the theme Exploring New Ways of Knowing – Sciences and Humanities, Values and Society, the main topic will be: Education for a Sustainable Future:
Environmental Science, Equitable Sustainable Development and Planet Earth – Realities and Facts.
The event is held in partnership with the Ontario Science Centre, Toronto.
Admission for this community program is free for students (high school, college, university), and educators (teachers, parents, counselors) and the general public. Registration is required. For details please contact paep.utm@utoronto.ca


Student Writing Award Projects of the Sciences and Humanities - Values and Society.
Topic for 2009: Alternative Energy Resources - The Bridge to the Future: Environmental Science and Equitable Sustainable Development for the New Millennium.
Closing Date: 1 July 2009. Details



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International Association of Universities - Events Calendar
IAU: For a worldwide higher education community
http://www.unesco.org/iau/other/other_meeting/other_this_year.html
http://www.unesco.org/iau/


Education for a Sustainable Future – Reports and Reviews

24 September 2008 (ILO/UNEP)
Landmark New Report Says Emerging Green Economy
Could Create Tens of Millions of New "Green Jobs"
in the coming decades. Details:
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=545&ArticleID=5929&l=

United Nations Environment Programme Report 2008
Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World
Changing patterns of employment and investment resulting from efforts to reduce climate change and its effects are already generating new jobs in many sectors and economies, and could create millions more in both developed and developing countries.
http://www.unep.org/PDF/UNEPGreenJobs_report08.pdf (376 pages)


The IUCN Red List: A Key Conservation Tool
This publication is part of The 2008 Review of
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Biodiversity loss is one of the world’s most pressing crises with many species declining to critically low levels and with significant numbers going extinct. At the same time there is growing awareness of how biodiversity supports human livelihoods. Governments and civil society have responded to this challenge by setting clear conservation targets, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2010 target to reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss. In this context, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is a clarion call to action in the drive to tackle the extinction crisis, providing essential information on the state of, and trends in, wild species.

The IUCN Red List is compiled and produced by the IUCN Species Programme based on contributions from a network of thousands of scientific experts around the world. These include members of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Specialist Groups, Red List Partners (currently Conservation International, BirdLife International, NatureServe and the Zoological Society of London), and many others including experts from universities, museums, research institutes and non-governmental organizations.

The report is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the world’s wild mammals, and is the result of a five-year effort including data collected by more than 1,700 experts in 130 countries. It presents overwhelming evidence of an extinction crisis, with almost one in four mammal species at risk of disappearing forever.

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/the_iucn_red_list_a_key_conservation_tool.pdf http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/the_iucn_red_list_a_key_conservation_tool.pdf

Environment for Development
Key Facts About Children and Climate Change
http://www.unep.org/paint4planet/facts.aspx



Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Development
Draft for Discussion - 2007
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/igsd_traditional_knowledge.pdf

Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Climate Change
Issues Paper - March 2008
Lead author: Mirjam Macchi
Contributing authors: Gonzalo Oviedo, Sarah Gotheil, Katharine Cross, Agni Boedhihartono, Caterina Wolfangel, Matthew Howell
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/indigenous_peoples_climate_change.pdf

Environmental Science and Planet Earth: Realities and Facts
This Canadian International Youth Letter is dedicated to the memory of
Prof. Dr. Isam Kadhem Al Rawi (1 July 1949 – 30 October 2006)
– Geologist, Environmentalist and Peacemaker –
Additional Youth Letters - http://www.paep.ca/en/CIYL/youthletters.php




Education for a Sustainable Future
Educating Earth-Literate Leaders
http://www.unesco.org/iau/sd/pdf/Jucker-Martins.pdf

EcoJustice Education: Communal Learning Beyond Capitalism
http://www.ecojusticeeducation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=44
http://www.ecojusticeeducation.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Forum for the Future
Climate Futures analyses the social, political, economic and psychological consequences of climate change and describes how different global responses to the problem could lead to five very different worlds by 2030.
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/projects/climate-futures

Mobilizing To Save Civilization: What You And I Can Do
“One of the questions I am frequently asked when I am speaking in various countries is, given the environmental problems that the world is facing, can we make it? That is, can we avoid economic decline and the collapse of civilization? My answer is always the same: it depends on you and me, on what you and I do to reverse these trends. It means becoming politically active. Saving our civilization is not a spectator sport.”
Lester R. Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch13_ss7.htm