Author: Tony Gray

Using language to make the world of fossil fuels strange and ugly

Posted on by Tony Gray

They weren’t getting it.

I had a room full of bright first-year university students in front of me, but confusion reigned as I tried to describe how embedded fossil fuels are in every aspect of society.

“OK, let’s try this. What do you call a car that uses both gasoline and battery power?” Relieved to be asked a question they could confidently answer, a few students piped up: “Hybrid car!”

“Right. Now, what do you call a car that you plug in?” The number of students joining the chorus grew: “Electric car!”

“Right again. So, what do you call a car that runs only on gasoline?” The response was a bit delayed this time, but some wry smiles of understanding accompanied the answer: “A car.”

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Closed: Adams Sustainability Champion Internships

Posted on by Tony Gray

These internships provide exceptional students or recent graduates (undergraduate or graduate) with an opportunity to contribute to sustainability in a powerful way. The goal is to leverage them as future leaders in sustainability and to promote important knowledge dissemination and exchange. The chosen interns are employed in the summer to work full-time on CLL projects and tasks supporting the CECCS, and to travel to another university with a strong sustainability focus to build links, study their practices, and share ideas between the two universities.  Interns will produce a report and give a presentation summarizing the outcomes of their work. They will also be encouraged to share their experiences through social media in order to reach a wider audience.

Please visit the social media accounts below to learn about the visits to partnering universities and  experience of the Summer 2019 and 2020 Interns:

Twitter

Instagram

U of T President Meric Gertler attends global summit of university leaders in Paris

Posted on by Tony Gray

University of Toronto President Meric Gertler is in Paris this week to attend the inaugural summit of the U7 Alliance, a unique international partnership that brings together leading universities to tackle the most pressing global challenges of the day.

The two-day summit, which kicked off today, will see the leaders of over 45 universities – drawn from 21 countries and representing over 2 million students – discuss five major global challenges: climate change and clean energy, inequality and polarization, technological transformation, community engagement and the role of universities in a global world.

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