Catalyst Collaboration Funding Awardees
October 6, 2022
PWIAS is pleased to announce the awardees for the first cycle of the Catalyst Collaboration Fund:
Bianca Eskelson, Forest Resource Management
Project: Variable Selection in Natural Resources Analyses
A collaboration between colleagues in Forestry, Statistics and Geography at UBC as well as the Canadian Forest Service, this project aims to write a best practices paper that will provide practical recommendations on the use of variable selection approaches when dealing with large sets of highly correlated independent variables to support natural resource management in the face of rare climatic events like those experienced in BC over the past few years.
“The biggest impediment in many research areas that deal with the Climate and Nature Emergency is the often poor support in quantitative methods when data are collected and analyzed. Proper statistical methods will improve the quantification of climate change effects on our natural resources.”
Alexei Kojevnikov, History co-PI: Shandin Pete, Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science
Project: Climate Displacement, Indigenous Priorities & Federal Policy: Post-Lytton Community Engagement in the Fraser Canyon & Canada’s UNDRIP Action Plan
This interdisciplinary community engagement project that investigates disaster displacement recovery and policies for indigenous communities adversely affected by climate change involves scholars from the sciences and humanities. The Kanaka Bar Indian Band will be conducting community engagement with Indigenous emergency workers and residents displaced by the 2021 Lytton fire, with the aim of understanding Indigenous priorities around federal climate displacement policies and informing the government’s UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Action Plan.
“As a community engagement project, the core of our research is around respectful listening.”
Diane Srivastava, Zoology
Project: Assessing Effects of Changing Rainfall Patterns on Costa Rican Biodiversity with a Sentinel System
Working with several international universities and a local conservation agency in Costa Rica, this project brings together methods from field ecology, physiology, hydrology, remote sensing and climate modeling to examine the impacts of reduced and more variable rainfall across the region.
“So far, research on the ecological effects of climate change has been overwhelmingly focused on the effects of warming on terrestrial ecosystems in the Global North. This project addresses this disparity by focusing instead on effects of precipitation change on aquatic ecosystems in the Global South.”
Elise Stickles, English Language & Literatures
Project: Differential Impacts of Metaphor on Climate Doomism and Eco-Anxiety in English and French
This project draws on linguistic theory, psychology, public policy, and global health to investigate the relationship between climate change metaphors and the rise of ‘climate doomism’: the belief that catastrophic warming of the planet is now inevitable, and that there is no possible action that can be taken to avert this. The study will examine the effects of different climate change metaphors on behavioural outcomes.
“In order to continue to engage people with the issue of climate change, we need metaphors that convey the fact that mitigating the negative consequences of global warming is still an achievable goal.”
Stepan Wood, Law
Project/Event: Green Rights & Warrior Lawyers Virtual Academy and Inspirathon
This project brings together international collaborators for the First Annual Green Rights & Warrior Lawyers Virtual Academy and Inspirathon on Oct 18 and Nov 9 & 10, 2022. This innovative event will inform and inspire people around the world about the role of law in securing environmental rights and justice, using the power of stories to bring this topic to life and inspire action.
“The climate and nature emergency demands new paradigms for law and society that support sustainable relationships amongst all beings. This project helps catalyze these paradigm shifts by exploring which legal and political strategies are commensurate to the emergency”
The Catalyst Collaboration Fund provides up to $10,000 per project. Funds are available for collaborative research projects and/or events, knowledge translation and mobilization related to the climate and nature emergency (CNE).
The application window for Cycle 2 of the Catalyst Collaboration Fund is open now. The deadline for applications is November 15, 2022. Learn more.
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