Climate Emergency week at UBC seeks to convene and energize communities of climate action at UBC. Join our events, workshops and activities, and take collective action for justice, people, and our planet.
**Climate Emergency Week 2024 is arriving on Feb 12 - 16. More details will be published here soon!!**
We are in a climate emergency. Greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk 1. We need to dramatically reduce emissions and hold big polluters accountable now.
UBC declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 and produced a report in 2021 that focuses on climate justice, which goes hand-in-hand with climate action to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on those communities least responsible 2.
Climate Emergency Week is your chance to join collective action for justice, people, and our planet.
Take part in events, workshops and activities, and share your thoughts, experiences, and ideas on social media to show your support for climate action at UBC. UBCclimatelove
Gratitude to all UBC Climate Emergency Week partners. ❤️
**Climate Emergency Week 2024 is arriving on Feb 12 - 16. Events below are from 2023.**
"Humanity and Mother Earth are suffering the consequences of human behaviour. Our ancestral lands, communities, and cultural identity depend on immediate climate action."
- Regional Chief Terry Teegee, B.C. Assembly of First Nations.
WEDNESDAY FEB 1 – SATURDAY FEB 4
7.30PM – 9PM | IN PERSON | FREDERIC WOOD THEATRE
PuSh Festival: Are we not drawn onward to new erA
Ontoerend Goed’s palindromic take on the climate crisis uses structure as metaphor, employing repetition and reversal to symbolize the need for a worldwide undoing of our actions. The play starts off with backward speech from the actors, but fear not: this strangeness is temporary, and as things become clearer the genius of the creation reveals itself.
The Feb 2 performance will be followed by a post-show talkback, featuring UBC students talking with the audience about the role of theatre and art in addressing climate change, and what universities can and should do to address the emergency.
This PuSh Festival performance is funded by Ontroerend Goed in coproduction with Spectra (BE).
THURSDAY FEB 2
5PM – 7PM | IN PERSON | LIU INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL ISSUES
How Ancestral Voyaging Mobilizes Knowledge of Biodiversity & Climate Change
The future of the ocean is essential to the planet’s future and human life. Climate change intersects profoundly with biodiversity, food security for billions of humans, culture, and economy and peace. This is an opportunity to learn ways of knowing from Pacific knowledge keepers, to deeply enrich the understanding of the complex inter-relationships of ocean phenomena and what must be done to protect and live with the ocean for our own future survival. The session will bring together different forms of knowledge, including ocean science, geoscience, plant science and zoology, along with cultural history and narratives, music, anthropology, archeology, navigation, and others.
Featuring Dr. Rashid Sumaila, Dr. Yves Tiberghien, Dr. Andrea Reid, and eight speakers from organizations representing traditional knowledge on Pacific Islands.
This event is sponsored by Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, the Department of Political Science, the Museum of Anthropology, the Liu Institute for Global Issues, the Centre for Japanese Research, and the UBC Konwakai Chair.
FRIDAY FEB 3
3PM - 5PM Drop in | IN PERSON | CIRS Policy Lab
Divestment and Reinvestment Workshop
Join this student-organized workshop to learn about the ways divestment and reinvestment can teach us to create just, regenerative economies.
Organized by Climate Justice UBC and Climate Resilience Community Ambassadors.
SATURDAY FEB 4
1PM – 4PM | IN PERSON | VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE
Say no to deep sea mining!
Deep-sea mining poses one of the greatest threats facing biodiversity, climate and humanity. As the world is convening en masse in Vancouver for IMPAC5, the ocean conservation community is coalescing together to organize an anti deep-sea mining demonstration outside the headquarters of the industry’s main player – The Metals Company.
Please join us to let The Metals Company, other industry players, and governments worldwide know that deep-sea mining is not wanted, not needed, and not worth the risk.
Location: The demonstration will begin at Vancouver Convention Center (1055 Canada Plaza) at 1PM before marching to The Metals Company HQ (595 Howe St)
Organized by Green Peace, Ocean Uprise, and UBC Surf Club.
SUNDAY FEB 5
2PM | IN PERSON | MORRIS AND HELEN BELKIN ART GALLERY
Tea with Glenn Lewis
Join artist Glenn Lewis for a discussion of his work in The Willful Plot along with curator Melanie O’Brian. Over five decades, Lewis has photographed and created gardens in an investigation of paradisial symbolism. Tea with Glenn Lewis touches on the artist’s interest in the symbolic stages of the garden as an allegory of the cycles of life (and death), both from its emergence in his practice and how it relates to the current climate crisis.
Tea will be served following the discussion and audience Q&A. All are welcome and admission is free.
The Willful Plot is part of the 2023 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program.
MONDAY FEB 6
2pM - 4pM PST | IN PERSON | CIRS BC HYDRO THEATRE
Climate Slamposium
Combining elements of a slam poetry event and symposium, the Climate Slamposium invites student researchers, activists, artists, and others engaging in climate justice to share their work in fun and creative forms. This is an opportunity to showcase the climate grief, love, activism, and hope of student leaders and storytellers.
Featuring:
- Climate Eulogies
- Climate Justice Research Collaborative
- Dance party!
Event organized by the UBC Climate Hub, Sustainability Hub, and AMS.
TUESDAY FEB 7
9am - 5pm DROP IN | IN PERSON | OUTSIDE AMS Nest
AMS Waste Audit
How are we showing #UBCCLIMATELOVE in our daily lives through the items we buy and discard?
Join a team of 40+ volunteers organized by the AMS and Common Energy to learn about what recycling, food waste, and landfill items fall into the sorting stations inside of the Nest. This waste audit provides a hands-on opportunity for students to help UBC progress towards a zero-waste community. Data collected from this audit will allow the AMS and Common Energy to identify current waste practices and how they can be improved. Celebrate waste sorting and circular initiatives with music, hot drinks and snacks.
Drop in on the day, or sign up to volunteer if you want to guarantee a good time.
RSVP form closes on January 29. Previous experience is not required to volunteer. Please note that all necessary materials including cleanroom suit, gloves, and masks will be provided for volunteers.
Event organized by the AMS and Common Energy.
11.30AM - 2PM | IN PERSON | ALUMNI CENTRE
Campus Vision 2050 Workshop
How UBC can take bold steps to balance growth with climate action on the Vancouver campus?
Over the past year, UBC’s Campus + Community Planning department has been engaging members of the campus community and neighbourhoods on how the physical Vancouver campus should change and grow to support the needs of the university, its community and host nation, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm.
Join this session to learn about how Campus Vision 2050 is evolving to incorporate ideas to support climate adaptation and mitigation, and to keep pushing for bold climate action across UBC planning and policies.
Event organized by UBC's Campus + Community Planning.
12PM - 1.30PM | IN PERSON | BC Hydro Theatre
Climate Just Futurities
As we reflect on cascading climate disasters and imagine alternative climate futures, how might we shift our efforts towards necessary changes and effective transformation?
Join for an interactive workshop and creatively engage with peers to envision a more climate just future. With contributions from Dr. Bernard Perley, Dr. Dallas Hunt, and Dr. Sharon Stein.
Light lunch and refreshments included.
Event organized by the Sustainability Hub.
12.30PM – 1.30PM | ONLINE | TIKTOK + ZOOM
Can TikTok help solve the climate crisis?
TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform with over 1 billion global monthly users. What does this mean for the climate emergency?
This “Ask-Me Anything” with Ian Gill, Global Sustainability Lead at TikTok, will explore the Chinese social media giant’s popularity, its corporate climate policy and targets, and how it provides a platform for influence on climate through new features such as TikTok for Good. Ian will also address how activists should use TikTok to mobilize people to take climate action.
Join live on TikTok or Zoom and ask the newest social media giant about business, the climate emergency, and your dance moves.
Featuring:
– Ian Gill, Global Sustainability Lead, TikTok
– Linda Nowlan, Senior Director Sustainability Hub
– Jill Robinson, Sauder School of Business student
– Dr. Katherine White, Senior Associate Dean, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Professor, Marketing and Behavioural Science Division
Event organized by the Sustainability Hub.
4.30PM – 5.30PM Drop IN | IN PERSON | MACLEOD 3038
Fixing for Change: Stories and Aspiration in Local Repair Initiatives
While digital platforms have made do-it-yourself repair information more accessible, local repair events, where people meet in person to repair together, were growing in numbers and popularity before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under names such as Fixit Clinics and Repair Cafés, people come together to repair artifacts, assisted by volunteers with skills, tools and expertise in different kinds of repair.
Reporting on her dissertation research with repair initiatives in the Metro Vancouver area, Michelle Kaczmarek will share insights from her conversations with local repair organizers and volunteers. The talk explores different ways in which participants’ involvement with repair was not only a case of fixing broken objects, but of engaging with systemic conditions that they also considered needed “fixing”. Outlining a selection of perspectives that spoke to the question, “What is being repaired?”, a case will be made that listening for the diverse stories told about repair can help to broaden and enrich our understanding of the information sources, systems, and practices engaged in climate adaptation.
Michelle Kaczmarek is a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia’s School of Information. Through her research and teaching, she explores the intersections of information policy and practice, human values, climate justice, and research ethics. Michelle holds a Master of Library & Information Studies from the University of British Columbia, and a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Durham, U.K. She is a UBC Public Scholar and a recipient of the Theodore E. Arnold Fellowship. She has volunteered with MetroVan Repair Café and is a founding Board member and Systems Coordinator of Language Partners BC Co-op.
Event organized by the UBC e-Kitchen.
Drop in only, no registration required.
WEDNESDAY FEB 8
11AM - 3PM DROP IN | IN PERSON | AMS NEST ATRIUM
Climate Emergency Fair
Who is working hard to build climate solutions at UBC and across our region, and how can you get involved?
The Climate Emergency Fair – organized by the student led UBC Sustainability Ambassadors – is an opportunity to meet local organizations, student clubs, and UBC faculty and staff working hard to solve the climate crisis.
Come drop by to visit these exhibitors:
AMS Sustainability; Banking on a Better Future; CityHive; Climate Justice UBC (CJUBC); Collab for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP); Centre for Community and Engaged Learning (CCEL); Food Hub Market; Move U Crew; Sierra Club BC; Surfrider Foundation Canada; The Ubyssey: Unwreck the Beach Column; The Wilderness Committee; West Coast Environmental Law; UBC Bike Kitchen; UBC Campus and Community Planning (C+CP); UBC Centre for Climate Justice; UBC Climate Hub; UBC Farm; UBC Library #ClimateAction Team (L#CAT); UBC Project 529; Sustainability Hub.
5PM – 6.30PM | IN PERSON & LIVESTREAM | GREEN COLLEGE
On Being Situated
The city of Vancouver is often celebrated for its environmentalism and high quality of life for residents, but sitting with the harm of settler colonial influences on this land reveals deep-seated problems of cultural exclusion, environmental extraction and animal exploitation, real estate speculation and housing unaffordability, and social resistance to engage with antiracist critique.
Featuring:
- Sharon Fortney, Museum of Vancouver
- Tyler Hagan, Experimental Forest Films
- Wilson Mendes, xʷc̓ic̓əsəm: Indigenous Health Research and Education Garden at UBC Farms
This event is part of the series Growing Reparative Justice in Vancouver.
5.30PM – 7.30PM | IN PERSON | CIRS BC HYDRO THEATRE
Dorm to Table: Activating Sustainable Food Practices with Microgreens
Interested in sustainable food systems, but have trouble growing your own greens? Microgreens like kale, spinach, and watercress can be eaten in just 10 days!
Join a campus-wide microgreen growing competition that is designed for all students living in residence, and hear from community speakers including Andrea Carlson; Chef, Burdock & Co, Harvest Community Foods, and Duncan Chambers; Owner of City Beet Farm. FREE microgreen growing mats and seeds for every participant! Please bring a takeout container to repurpose into the base of your growing kits.
Through this workshop, students will learn how to:
- Grow microgreens in their dorms
- Increase their understanding of food literacy
- Build their connections to a community centred around sustainable food practices
Growing mats and seeds are limited so sign up now to secure your spot!
Event organized by the UBC Climate Action Mobilizers at the Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL).
THURSDAY FEB 9
11AM – 12PM | IN PERSON | CIRS POLICY LAB
Workshop: Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, and Taking Climate Action
With 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction and over 40% of insect species in decline, it is more important than ever to develop sustainable practices and habits to protect our environment. This workshop will explore the interconnections between sustainable food, climate change and insect biodiversity. During this workshop, you will be engaging in group discussions and hands-on activities to equip you with the knowledge to take action.
Workshop facilitated by UBC Campus + Community Planning.
12.15PM – 1.45PM | IN PERSON | CIRS POLICY LAB
Workshop: Peace Engineering + Lessons from Past Social Movements to Accelerate Change
Impactful climate action is happening “behind the scenes” with the rise of renewable energy and other major systemic changes, yet it can feel as if decades of “doom and gloom” have failed to mobilize in enough numbers, and some have “checked out.”
This workshop will show that the glass is half full in Climate Action and what it mostly needs is inspiration from recipes for success from large social movements across post-war North America and Europe.
Presented by Peace Innovation Institute, Peaceful Society Science and Innovation Foundation, and ClimateActionWorks
1-2PM | IN PERSON | OUTSIDE AMS NEST (GRASSY KNOLL)
UBC Climate Action Mobilizers’ Climate Walk
Interested in learning more about the sustainability features around UBC Vancouver’s campus? The walk will help you to view campus through a climate lens by identifying the Causes, Impacts, Mitigations and Adaptations (CIMA) of climate change on UBC’s Point Grey Campus.
Through this walk, participants will:
- Develop a climate change lens through which to analyze the world around them
- Challenge their assumptions and change their perspective about campus sustainability
- Meet and build connections with like-minded participants to foster a sense of community on campus
The UBC Climate Action Mobilizers at the Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) are hosting the walk around UBC’s Point Grey Campus -- free and open to all!
2PM – 3PM Drop in | IN PERSON | CIRS POLICY LAB
Workshop: Happy Climate Action
Dr. Jiaying Zhao will present a brief talk on happy climate action as a preview to her upcoming TED talk in NYC and conduct a workshop on creating a climate action plan that enhances personal and planetary well-being.
Activities:
– 10 minute TED talk
– 30 minute workshop
Presented by the UBC Climate Hub.
3PM – 4PM | IN PERSON | CIRS POLICY LAB
Workshop: Building Climate Resilient Communities
How do we bolster our collective ability to adapt to, mitigate, and build capacity around responding to the climate crisis? This workshop explores various approaches to climate resilience that range from community care & nature-based solutions, to bold climate policy & coalition building. It aims to offer hope by mapping examples of climate solutions on both a local and global scale, while also holding space for participants to collaborate on a case study activity
Presented by the Sustainability Ambassadors
5PM – 6.30PM | IN PERSON & VIRTUAL | CIRS BC HYDRO THEATRE
Sue Big Oil: A Made in BC Climate Campaign
In July 2022, Vancouver city councillors voted 6-5 in support of a motion to set aside about $700,000 — roughly $1 per every Vancouver resident — to fund litigation against Canada’s biggest producers of oil and gas.
Join leaders from UBC, West Coast Environmental Law, and Vancouver City Council to find out what this means.
Featuring:
- Law professor Stepan Wood
- Activist Fiona Koza
- Lawyer Andrew Gage
- PhD student Manvi Bhalla
- Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr
- Moderated by filmmaker and geography professor Avi Lewis.
Presented by the Department of Geography Climate Action Committee, Centre for Law and Environment, Centre for Climate Justice, West Coast Environmental Law and UBC Sustainability Hub.
FRIDAY FEB 10
11AM - 2PM Drop-in | IN PERSON | West side of the Earth Sciences building
Community Climate Garden
Join the Climate Hub to break ground on out new community garden space! The team will have shovels and wheel barrels and all interested in lending a helping hand are welcome to join in the effort.
Presented by the Climate Hub
2.30PM – 4PM | IN PERSON | MEET AT GRANVILLE LOOP PARK BY THE WATER FOUNTAIN
False Creek Climate Tour
Join the Sustainability Ambassadors on a 4km False Creek walking tour and learn about local biodiversity, climate policy, and community resilience initiatives! Bring comfortable shoes, water, perhaps a snack, and your enthusiasm!
If you are unable to join us but would like to obtain a self-guided version of the tour, feel free to email j.suchodolski@ubc.ca
Presented by the Sustainability Ambassadors.
2.30PM – 4.30PM | IN PERSON | VANCOUVER CITY HALL
Mega rally at Vancouver City Hall
Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) Annual Report will be presented to the new City Council and Mayor on February 15.
This public rally is one way you can let council know how you feel about taking urgent climate action. We need urgent action — the climate emergency needs to be treated like a true emergency.
Rally organized by Fridays For Future Vancouver and allies.
SATURDAY FEB 11
8.15Pm - 9.30PM | IN PERSON | P. A. Woodward Instructional Resources Centre
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture
Join award-winning author and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, for a presentation on her latest work Under a White Sky (2021). Kolbert is an observer and commentator on the crisis faced by humans in the Anthropocene for The New Yorker magazine, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (2014).
Presented by The Vancouver Institute
MONDAY FEB 13
10AM – 1PM | IN PERSON | CIRS BC HYDRO THEATRE
Imagining Climate Futures Through Verbatim Theatre
Join us in this free theatre workshop to craft a “live documentary” on the climate emergency. This is a 2-day workshop (3 hrs each on Monday, February 13 and Tuesday, February 14), refreshments and lunch provided) where you will learn the skills needed to make a verbatim theatre play. Through live interviews, workshop participants will create a draft script on the climate emergency. The script will then be performed by actors during a staged reading. The intention is for this initial script to evolve into a larger project, that can help advance the discussion about the climate emergency here at UBC and beyond. All are welcome and no theatre or journalism experience is required.
Presented in partnership with the Sustainability Hub, Faculty of Education, and Department of Theatre & Film at UBC.
4PM - 5PM | IN PERSON | CIRS BC HYDRO THEATRE
How Local Governments Create Climate Policy and How You Can Help
How can students play a role in critical climate policy development in the Vancouver area?
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, we will need to reduce carbon pollution outputs by 50% by 2030. Reaching that challenge will require multiple actions made by multiple players – including local governments like the City of Vancouver
In this moderated conversation we will explore the policy being developed by local governments to catalyze a reduction in carbon emissions. Learn about the key actions being advanced, the challenges in the way, and opportunities a different future will create. Ask questions and learn how students can play a role.
Featuring:
- Matt Horne, Climate Policy Manager at the City of Vancouver
- Jason Emmert, Climate Change Policy Program Manager, Metro Vancouver
- Binoy Mascarenhas, Policy Practitioner and Adjunct Professor at the UBC School of Public Policy & Global Affairs.
- Audrey Choong, student observer
Event organized by the Sustainability Hub and City of Vancouver.
TUESDAY FEB 14
12.30 - 2PM | IN PERSON | ALLARD LAW SCHOOL, ROOM 122
Land-based research and climate adaptation in Palestine. A guest lecture by Dr. Omar Tesdell
The Climate crisis has not received considerable attention in Palestine amidst seemingly more pressing matters. Yet Omar explores how techniques of agroecological adaptation have enabled Palestinian communities to persist under various forms of duress. In this talk Omar will explore some adaptations, especially with tree and grain crops, as well as the unique land-based research methods used to investigate them. Both the technical aspects of agroecological adaptation and the ongoing research methods may hold insights for land-based research in other communities around the world.
Omar Imseeh Tesdell is associate professor in the Department of Geography at Birzeit University in Palestine, and studies landscape and agroecological transformation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This event is co-hosted by the Centre for Climate Justice, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, and UBC Geography and Middle East Studies
Drop in only, no registration required.
3PM – 4PM | IN PERSON | CIRS POLICY LAB
Workshop: Building Climate Resilient Communities
How do we bolster our collective ability to adapt to, mitigate, and build capacity around responding to the climate crisis? This workshop explores various approaches to climate resilience that range from community care & nature-based solutions, to bold climate policy & coalition building. It aims to offer hope by mapping examples of climate solutions on both a local and global scale, while also holding space for participants to collaborate on a case study activity
Presented by the Sustainability Ambassadors
WEDNESDAY FEB 15
1PM – 2.30PM | IN PERSON & VIRTUAL | GREEN COLLEGE, COACH ROOM
Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. A virtual guest lecture by Dr. Thea Riofrancos
Will green capitalism save us from the climate crisis? “Clean” technologies and renewable energy are growing sites of capitalist investment, with government policies playing a key role in making these sectors profitable. This talk will unpack the challenges of clean technologies through the lens of lithium, a so-called “critical mineral” essential for its role in decarbonizing one of the most polluting sectors: transportation. It will also consider the role of environmental and Indigenous movements contesting the rapid expansion of extraction, defending ecosystems, livelihoods, and waterways already under pressure from global warming from a new boom in mining.
Thea Riofrancos is an associate professor of Political Science at Providence College and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow (2020-2023). She is the author of Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020) and the coauthor of Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019).
This event is co-hosted by the Future Minerals Research Cluster, Centre for Climate Justice, and Killam Heavy Metal Series.
5PM – 7PM | IN PERSON | GLOBAL LOUNGE
Food for thought: A conversation on food security for students at UBC
To many students, the main goal of their degree is graduation. With the unstable funding to food security and the response from student groups, this event seeks to educate and connect people involved in the food security scene. This event will hold conversations about meal skipping, the intersection of food accessibility, the climate emergency, education fees and academic success.
Event hosted by the Simon K.Y. Lee Global Lounge and Resource Centre, with campus food heroes Sprouts, Agora, AMS Food Bank, and FoodHub
Drop in only, no registration required.
THURSDAY FEB 16
12PM - 1.30PM | IN PERSON | Place of Many Trees, Liu Institute
Human Rights and the Environment: Are Human Rights only about Humans?
This session will focus on the relationship between human rights and the environment. Are human rights only about humans? How can we use human rights to improve our environment? Dr. David Boyd will present how we can harness the power of human rights to improve our environment.
Presented by the UBC Human Rights Collective.
4PM - 7PM | IN PERSON | CHAN CENTRE, ROYAL BANK CINEMA
Imagining Climate Futures Through Verbatim Theatre
Drawing from interviews with UBC students, staff and faculty, join for a play reading of this verbatim theatre project to advance conversation about the climate emergency. Led by theatre artist and journalist Joel Bernbaum, this performance aims to spark ideas for action towards a more hopeful climate future.
Presented in partnership by the Sustainability Hub, Department of Language & Literacy Education, and Department of Theatre & Film at UBC