An all-day research colloquium April 23 shows there’s more to Earth Day than picking up litter and cool T-shirts.
From growing chickens in urban back yards to mining biodiesel from human sewage to using yeast to extract copper from industrial waste water, the student-run event tackles environmental topics with implications for everyday life.
Keynote addresses and research presentations take place in the Spencer Engineering Building rooms 2200 and 2202 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The organizers are graduate students in the Environment and Sustainability program.
This multi-disciplinary research sampler touches on work from the sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, policy and management. If a presentation isn’t to your taste, wait a few minutes – lectures are 10 to 12 minutes in duration.
The keynote speaker is Dean Jacob, consultation manager for the Walpole Island First Nation. Invited speakers include Sean Galloway, London’s urban planner; political scientist Jamey Essex of the University of Windsor; and Doug Haffner, of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER) at the University of Windsor.
View the schedule and abstracts at www.uwo.ca/enviro/edc
Some examples:
A presentation from the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo describes North House, a prototype solar-powered home designed for northern
climates that produces more energy than it consumes.
Pollution makes some fish cranky. Western biologists will describe how brown bullhead (a catfish) become more aggressive in the polluted Detroit River than nearby in Belle River. The finding suggests a genetic response to pollution.
Political Science Hélène Lawler asks a tough question: Is there really space in a consumer-oriented, neoliberal society for sustainable food production on a scale
larger than that of a niche market?
Western engineering research used yeast cells to separate copper ions from solutions. The objective is to implement an inexpensive technology for removing copper from industrial effluent.
Biodiesel is an attractive alternative to fossil fuel for cars. Western engineers collected dried sewage sludge from London’s Adelaide Pollution Control Plant and used solvents to extract material suitable for biodiesel.
Plants may hold the key to their own protection. Western engineers exploring the potential uses of farm crop residue have shown that one component is toxic to potato beetle larvae and pea aphid reproduction.