The Great Lakes, like the rest of our planet, are under threat.
Join us and learn the historical underpinnings of past environmental endeavours, so we can move forward with sustainable solutions today.
Silent Spring was responsible for bringing the massive environmental issues of a post-war world to the attention of the voting public in the 1960s. However, the challenges besetting “Spaceship Earth”, including the North American Great Lakes, such as urban contaminants and agricultural runoff, stressed fisheries, drinking water issues, invasive species impacts, and unhealthy outbreaks of algae, overlain by the ominous threat from climate change, are present today. Additionally, loss of wetlands and other natural habitats, alongside an unchecked proliferation of impermeable city hardscapes, have led to unsustainable and unhealthy ecosystems. However, solutions are available and the answer lies in a broad-based citizen engagement strategy that would have all peoples become deeply informed and thus, deeply committed to, developing and protecting resilient environments, including a healthy Great Lakes watershed.
Note: This event is taking place on Zoom and Facebook Live.
About our Speaker: Dr. Lynda McCarthy is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University. Her research includes aquatic ecotoxicology, Great Lakes pollution and remediation, and examining the impact on organisms from land-applied pulp mill and municipal biosolids. She received her BSc from Queen’s University and her PhD from the University of Waterloo and she was a federal government scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for many years at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW). In the past decade, she has received funding for her research from sources such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the National Centres for Excellence’s (NCE) Canadian Water Network. At Ryerson University, Dr. McCarthy is a founding member of Ryerson Urban Water (RUW), a collective of multidisciplinary experts working towards ensuring sustainable urban water. And lastly, she is active in attempting to help the experts move the environmental dialogue forward through the education of youth in the grade school and high school systems. Her motto is: from the classroom to the boardroom to the legislature.
Cambridge Third Age Learning (CTAL) is a movement that encourages learning and discovery experiences for those in the “third age”—the stage in one’s life beyond full-time employment. By cultivating opportunities for discussion and engaging the expertise of local university professors and community professionals, CTAL supports anyone with intellectual curiosity and an interest in life-long learning.
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