Laurier expert alert: Earth Day

April 14, 2021
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Earth Day is Thursday, April 22. Wilfrid Laurier University has experts available to speak about topics related to the environment, climate change, environmental policy and citizen engagement, among other topics.

Hind Al-Abadleh is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. She is an expert on air pollution, aerosols and climate change, as well as arsenic and phosphorus in the environment. In 2018, she was named Fullbright Canada Research Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry, Air Quality and Climate Change. She is currently chair of the Environment Division for the Chemical Institute of Canada and a Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.  She has been studying the impacts of pandemic lockdowns on air quality. Contact: halabadleh@wlu.ca

Christopher Lemieux, associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and John McMurry Research Chair in Environmental Geography, is an expert on biodiversity conservation, protected areas, climate change, and the human health and well-being benefits associated with nature. Contact: clemieux@wlu.ca

Philip Marsh is a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and Canada Research Chair in Cold Regions Water Science. He uses observation, modelling and remote sensing to understand and predict the impact of climate change on the freshwaters of arctic and subarctic North America. Read his article about the impacts of collapsing permafrost on lakes, ponds and streams in the Arctic. Contact: pmarsh@wlu.ca

Robert McLeman, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, is an expert on the human dimensions of climate change, including the relationship between the environment and human migration, community adaptation to climatic variability and change, and citizen participation in environmental science. He is available to speak about the impacts of climate change on global migration patterns and the impacts of environmental migration to North America. Read more about his work. Contact: rmcleman@wlu.ca

William Quinton, professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and former director of Laurier’s Cold Regions Research Centre, is an expert on the hydrology of cold regions, permafrost and peatlands. He leads the Dehcho Collaborative on Permafrost and is the director of the Scotty Creek Research Station, south of Fort Simpson, NWT. The site is located in one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, giving researchers a unique opportunity to study the hydrological impacts of permafrost thaw. Contact: wquinton@wlu.ca

Manuel Riemer is a professor of community psychology and sustainability science in the Department of Psychology and director of the Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability (VERiS). He is an expert on the psychology of sustainability, including global climate change mitigation and resiliency. He and his research partners have set up a living lab in Waterloo’s evolv1 building, a net-positive energy, multi-tenant office building, to better understand how to engage workers in a culture of sustainability and promote wellbeing in high-efficiency green buildings. Previous research has shown that green buildings often do not meet their targeted energy and emission goals because their occupants don’t support those targets by following sustainable practices. VERiS is also partnering with local, national and international organizations on several projects to address equity and accessibility in climate action planning and to incorporate sustainability justice more broadly into municipal planning. Contact: mriemer@wlu.ca

Tracy Snoddon is an associate professor in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and an expert in public economics, public policy, federal-provincial fiscal relations, and the fiscal dimensions of climate change policy, including carbon pricing. Contact: tsnoddon@wlu.ca

Andrew Spring is a research associate, an adjunct professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and the associate director of the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. His research focuses on issues of food security and the impact of climate change on communities in the Northwest Territories. He works closely with governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and local communities to support the creation of sustainable food systems in the NWT. Contact: aspring@wlu.ca

Debora VanNijnatten, professor in the departments of Political Science and North American Studies, is an expert on environmental and climate change policy in North America; Canadian environmental politics; and transboundary cooperation on water management, especially of the Great Lakes. Contact: dvannijnatten@wlu.ca

Brent Wolfe, professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, is an expert in characterizing the hydrology of lakes and identifying drivers of hydro-ecological change. His research focuses on assessing the impact of changing climatic conditions and industrial development on northern boreal-tundra freshwater landscapes in Canada. Contact: bwolfe@wlu.ca