Dr. Stephen Scharper

Dr. Stephen B. Scharper is a professor and scholar of the environment. He is Associate Professor with the Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Scharper’s research and teaching is in the areas of environmental ethics, worldviews and ecology, as well as nature and the city. He is the author of Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment, and co-editor of a new volume, The Natural City: Re-envisioning Human Settlements (University of Toronto Press).

Embodying the values of “public scholarship” and a deep commitment to engaging with environmental issues, Dr. Scharper currently serves as a columnist for The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper. He has appeared as a commentator on CTV News, VISION-TV, CityPluse 24, and CBC’s Counterspin as well as CBC Radio’s “Tapestry” and “Sounds Like Canada.”

He has also contributed over 500 reviews and articles to various academic journals, including Religious Studies Review, Worldviews, Environmental Philosophy, The University of Toronto Quarterly, Social Analysis, and has also published in more popular venues such as Commonweal, America, The Hour, The Montreal Gazette, The Walrus, and The Globe and Mail.

Dr. Scharper has taught at McGill University, Prescott College, the University of Waterloo, the University of Vermont, and the University of Notre Dame, where he held the John A. O’Brien Chair in Ethics as a Visiting Professor. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Massey College.

Providing a unique blend of the scholarly and the accessible in both his teaching and public speaking, Dr. Scharper has spoken to and inspired a wide range of audiences and remains a much sought-after lecturer.

Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor
Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

Climate Change Film Festival
Parks Canada Visitor Centre Theatre, Tobermory

Gary Nielsen

Gary Nielsen graduated as a forester from University of New Brunswick 1981.

Took several years to travel, working in forestry and generally exploring the world.

Settled in Eastern Ontario to work as a Management Forester, Stewardship Coordinator and Supervisor with the MNR.

He and Cathy own a 200 acre woodlot on Charleston Lake and have retired from several forest based family enterprises including Christmas Trees, Maple Syrup, and forest grown Shiitake Mushrooms.

A birder, a hunter and at this time of year an avid Telemark skier, he currently works for MNR Southern Region as the Climate Change Project Coordinator.

Professional Affiliation

Climate Change Project Coordinator
Ministry of Natural Resources

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

Ontario’s Approach to Climate Change

Christopher Lemieux

Chris Lemieux is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography & Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research focuses primarily on how natural resource managers integrate science, make decisions, and develop policy on environmental issues bounded by significant uncertainty and, within this, how various aspects of organizational capacity affect policy development and management performance.

Dr. Lemieux is current a Director of the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas (CCEA), Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Human Dimensions of Resource Management at Colorado State University, and is a Member of the Healthy Parks-Healthy People Task Force of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

Professional Affiliation

PostDoctoral Fellow

Department of Geography & Environmental Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

Prospects for the Bruce Peninsula in an Era of Rapid Climate Change

Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Bill is a retired financial services executive and corporate director who has had a life-long interest in climate. He is particularly interested in the long-term climate trends of the last thousand years.

His weather station on Big Tub Harbour has been operating continuously since 1996.

He is an avid photographer (whose work can be seen at www.billcaulfeild-browne.ca), a naturalist, boater and traveler.

He presently serves as a Director and Treasurer of the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Professional Affilation

Director and Treasurer of the Nature Conservancy of Canada

2102 Climate Change Forum Topic

Evidence of Climate Change on the Bruce Peninsula.

Dr. Barry Smit

Dr Barry Smit is Professor of Geography and Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change at the University of Guelph. He is a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His interdisciplinary research, exploring the relationships between environmental changes (notably climate change) and social and economic systems, has been published in over 100 scientific papers and books. His work on climate change adaptation has been influential in the international negotiations, and has been applied in development initiatives in Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Pacific and the Arctic. In Canada he has advised federal departments, the Senate, several provincial governments and business groups. He is a member of Ontario’s Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation.

Professional Affilation

Professor, Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change
Department of Geography, University of Guelph

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

 Climate Change, Ecosystems and Parks

Dr. Jones is the Chief Social Scientist at Parks Canada. She is responsible for providing direction for social science research nationally, and is responsible for a number of core programs including the Agency’s visitor attendance and visitor feedback survey programs, a regular national survey of Canadians and national stakeholder and partner engagement survey. She also leads the Agency’s market research programs, supporting more than 100 national parks, national historic sites, and marine areas across the country annually.

Dr. Jones earned her PhD in geography from the University of Waterloo in 2004 and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in climate change and tourism in 2006 at the same university. She taught applied climatology for several years at the University of Waterloo before joining Parks Canada. Dr. Jones is also a published author, with close to two dozen journal and book publications to date.

Professional Affiliation

Chef, spécialiste en sciences sociales | Chief Social Scientist
Relations externes et expérience du visiteur | External Relations and
Visitor Experience Directorate Parcs Canada | Parks Canada

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

 
Climate Change & Tourism In Central Ontario – Changing How We Play

Among other things that they do in life, Terri Munn and Elizabeth Burrows are both teachers at the local school in Lion’s Head. While researching for her geography course, Terri kept bumping into the notion of Peak Oil, finally settling on the course of action she recognised in the Transition Movement. Following the path outlined in the movement, Terri and Elizabeth, and others, have spent over two years learning and exploring, and finding ways of charting a course – through what could be a despairing turn of events – to a hopeful, joyful, sustainable future. They work closely with the wonderful JK-12 students in Lion’s Head, as well as the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group.

2012 Climate Change Forum Session Details

There are many challenges facing our communities, our regions, our nations. Climate change, along with Peak Oil and Economic Instability form a triad of challenges that are the basis of most news items these days, from uprisings, to environmental issues, to our governments’ belt-tightening and the repercussions that will have on citizens today – and for many tomorrows. Fortunately, there is a movement afoot that is empowering citizens of towns, and villages, and cities around the world to respond to these challenges in creative ways that build resilience and sustainable solutions. It’s organic, it’s mindful, it’s the Transition Movement, and the North Bruce Peninsula is a part of it. This presentation will give an overview of Transition, it’s values, it’s possibilities, and how it is bearing fruit in our area.

Information about the Transition Group can be found at their website: nbptc.wordpress.com.

Dr. David Pearson

Dr. David Pearson is a Professor of Earth Sciences working in the Vale Living with Lakes Centre at Laurentian University. He is the Co-Director of the Laurentian University / Science North Graduate Diploma program in Science Communication, and Senior Science Advisor to Science North, where he was the Project Director and then Founding Director from 1980 to 1986.

From 2001 to 2007 David was Chair of the Ontario Office of the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network, and is now science advisor to the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources. From 2008 to June 2010 he was Co-Chair of the Ontario Government’s Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and chaired the Science Advisory Panel for Ontario’s Far North Initiative. He has hosted two TV series: “Understanding the Earth” (TV Ontario) and “Down to Earth” (Mid Canada TV); and was “Dr. Dave” the scientist for CBC Northern Ontario’s weekly Radio Lab” from 1982 to 1997.

David received the Geological Association of Canada’s Ward Neale Medal for communication of the earth sciences and in 2003 he was awarded the McNeil Medal of the Royal Society of Canada for public communication of science. He is currently working with First Nations in the Far North of Ontario to develop climate change adaptation plans for their remote and isolated communities.

Professional Affiliation

Vale Living with Lakes Centre, Laurentian University

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

Communicating Climate Science

Dr. Patrick Doran

Patrick Doran is currently the Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy in Michigan and the Great Lakes region, where he leads region-wide investigations of conservation priorities in terrestrial and aquatic habitats. This includes the identification and prioritization of important conservation areas, as well as the development and implementation of conservation strategies and measures of success. Additionally, Patrick holds an appointment as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University.

Prior to his position with The Nature Conservancy, Patrick was Wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Senior Ecologist/GIS Analyst with The Wildlands Project and Two Countries/One Forest where he developed large-scale conservation plans for the Northern Appalachians. Patrick received his Ph.D. in ecology from Dartmouth College where he studied population and community dynamics of forest breeding songbirds. He also received Master’s degrees in ecology and environmental science from Indiana University where he studied the effects of forest fragmentation on bird populations.

In his life outside of the Conservancy, Patrick enjoys every possible minute engaged in some sort of outdoor or sporting activity with his wife, Heather, and their two children, Griffin and Carly.

Professional Affiliation

Director of Science Michigan/Great Lakes Project
The Nature Conservancy

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

Understanding Climate Change Adaptation in the Great Lakes Region

Dr. Stephen Murphy

Stephen D. Murphy (B.Sc. Hons. & Ph.D. – Biology) is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Environment and Resource Studies (ERS), University of Waterloo. He is also Chair, Centre for Ecosystem Resilience & Adaptation (ERA), Chair, Centre for Applied Science in ON Protected Areas (CASIOPA), Past-Chair, Society for Ecological Restoration Ontario (SERO), A Member of the Board & Past-Chair of Research/Control Committee, Ontario Invasive Plant Council, A Member of the Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Committee, Office of the Environment Commissioner of Ontario, and holds Associate Editor positions with Restoration Ecology and Weed Science.

He has worked as a consultant and researcher for the past 25 years and been involved in several hundred ecological restoration projects. He has worked with many colleagues in the private and public sectors, especially those in OMNR/Ontario Parks and Parks Canada.
As a Professor at the University of Waterloo, he has mentored and trained over 200 students one-to-one and over 4000 students in classes in assessing invasive species, ecological integrity, ecological modeling, ecological restoration, wildlife conservation, ecological indicators, experimental design, univariate, multivariate, and spatially explicit data analysis and management plans for private and public lands.

Steve has published over 60 peer reviewed journal articles, books/book chapters, conference papers in his total career as a researcher and academic. He has delivered over 300 conference papers. He has reviewed for over 50 academic journals and 20 textbooks and monographs. He will be an author or co-author of two chapters of the forthcoming text on Restoration Ecology and several chapters of a book on Novel Ecosystems.

Professional Affiliation

Professor and Chair, Department of Environment and Resource Studies (ERS), University of Waterloo

Director, Centre for Ecosystem Resilience & Adaptation (ERA)

Chair, Centre for Applied Science in Ontario Protected Areas (CASIOPA)

2012 Climate Change Forum Topic

Sustainability: Building Resilience to Climate Change