Spring 2015: Semester in Energy Futures

The history of energy in the Western world is tightly coupled to the history of industrial development, of cultural expansion, of changing lifestyles, and, now unavoidably, of environmental degradation, unsustainable behavior and climate change. How we, as citizens of the twenty-first century, supply, transmit, use, conserve, and price the energy of the future will have significant implications for the well-being of ourselves and the planet now and into the future.

In BC questions of energy are everywhere. Liquid natural gas is touted as an economic windfall yet panned as a possible environmental nightmare if developed using conventional or untested methods. Hydro electricity in the form of run-of-river and the Peace River’s site C appear to offer cleaner options and yet raise issues, and political maneuverings related to First Nation’s rights, wild fish spawning sites and eco-system based management principles. At the same time there are large forces being marshaled for and against oil sands bitumen being pumped and shipped through the traditional territories of First Nations, with fears that watersheds and forests will be fragmented or contaminated. A short term bonanza of high-paying skilled jobs in the energy sector are seen as conflicting with other lives and livelihoods that depend upon water quality, natural resources, vital ecosystems, and sustainability.

At the municipal level energy questions are appearing in Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, throughout urban planning, across real estate development and building design, and directly into local communities. And myriad people across disciplines are deeply engaged in thinking through, planning for and ultimately implementing innovative local community energy solutions that have potential larger scale implications. In this course, designed in conjunction with some of BCs leading sustainable energy thinkers identified in consultation with BCs Ministry of the Environment’s Climate Action Secretariat, we will meet, dialogue-archive with, and work alongside some of the key thinkers and doers in Vancouver and BC related to energy, sustainability, climate action and the future of urban life. We plan to examine the question of energy from all possible angles, with a particular focus on community energy and its implications and possibilities for Vancouver and beyond.

FACULTY

Sean Blenkinsop is an Associate Professor in the SFU Faculty of Education with a secondment for five years to the Semester in Dialogue.

Tom Green is an ecological economist who has worked on environment and resource issues in BC since 1998 and has recently returned after a year at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. More info about Tom can be found at: www.viableeconomics.com