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The purpose of this research was to describe oilfield workers in the Moose Mountain Provincial Park area in southeastern Saskatchewan views on climate change. This qualitative study, inspired by Grounded Theory, utilized fifteen, semi-structured interviews to analyze participants’ perspectives and experiences. For this research, climate change means, “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity and which is in addition to natural climate variability” (IPCC, 2014). This study has three main findings. First, participants have robust “sense of place” attachment that fosters environmental stewardship toward the Moose Mountain area. Second, participants hold conflicted understandings of climate change that alternate between the adoption of climate skepticism and acceptance of scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic climate change. Finally, this study demonstrates the importance of engaging in conversations with oil workers to facilitate a pluralistic narrative and navigate multiple worldviews to create understanding of a controversial topic in Saskatchewan.

Hotels are not just places where people sleep or eat; they can provide unique cultural opportunities and community experiences, and at the same time contribute to enhancing the local communities in which they are embedded. Hotels are also subject to prevailing social values and cultural shifts. Two such significant shifts now occurring are the growth of the leisure class and the demand from customers to provide greener alternatives. These shifts are challenging hoteliers to come up with ways to increase the sustainability of their operations and, ideally, as part of sustainable development, also contribute to the communities in which they are embedded. This research explores the role of sustainable hospitality and addresses the question: To what extent do hotel leaders integrate concepts of sustainability into their strategic planning process? A sustainable community development definition comprised of four conditions (scale, limits, place, and diversity) was used to guide the research and analyze findings. A multiple case-study approach was adopted. Research methods included semi-structured interviews and the use of visual explorer, a research tool where a set of images is used to support collaborative and creative conversations as well as background documentation. Three hotels in western Canada were studied. Due to the sensitive nature of the information disclosed by interviewees, hotel names, locations, and chain affiliation have been kept confidential. Research findings demonstrated that understandings of hotel sustainability were generally shallow as was the integration of sustainability initiatives into the case study strategic plans. A sustainable community development lens adapted from the scholarship of Dale, Ling, and Newman (2004 to 2015) was uniquely developed for hotel sustainability and a model subsequently derived from the case study data. This model, which integrates planning strategy imperatives with sustainability imperatives (ecological, social and economic) focuses on investment, innovation, sense of place, social capital, and leadership. Recommendations, both for practice and future applied research, include the development and implementation of a sustainability training and leadership development education program for hoteliers and the development of indicators based on the four conditions of sustainable community development (scale, limits, place, and diversity) to inform the greater understanding and implementation, as well as evaluate the sustainability of hotel organizations.

Young people’s futures are largely affected by society’s capacity and willingness to take action on climate change, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to a different climate reality. Young people are necessary collaborators and partners in solution design and decision-making, and should not be relegated to the margins. It is equally important that they are supported in enacting climate initiatives that educate, engage and encourage other young people – as well as adults – to become agents of change. Under the guise of “transformative climate change action,” this study explores motivations among young people to move from concerned observer to informed actor, and provides insight into the mechanisms and processes that contribute to the shift. These initiatives are meant to foster innovations and behavioral shifts, as well as challenge existing systems and demonstrate what transformative climate action is, conceptually and practically, on a local level in the specific context of Southern Alberta, Canada.

Hope is often credited as an inspiration for action and, in difficult circumstances, a protection against despair. But ill-considered hope can be an unreliable helper. If people choose only to hope for a happy outcome, rather than acting in their own interest, they risk losing the opportunity to improve their situation. Putting faith in hope alone, they may also find that, after crossing a critical marker, hope’s protection evaporates, suddenly and at great emotional cost. In that context and in the face of the gathering threat of climate change, this thesis records the search for a strategy that is better than hope – more active, robust and resilient. The search, including interviews with five high-profile and highly accomplished exemplars, suggests there might be value in simply recognizing the full extent of the threat and then embracing action in pursuit of a goal that is worthy, irrespective of a hoped-for result.

Several regulatory policies have been implemented in the past five years on methane mitigation and oil sands industry emission in Alberta, Canada; however, most effective technologies in methane reduction remain to be explored in the context of these new policies in the Alberta oil sands industry. The purpose of this research was to determine the most effective technologies, based on economic and environmental criteria, to mitigate methane emissions from Alberta’s upstream oil sands processes. This was achieved through qualitative analysis of current technologies, and the development and application of a qualitative risk analysis and quantitative cost-benefit analysis considering economic and environmental factors. I concluded that high risk technologies have the lowest ratio of cost to environmental benefit and suggest that more effective technologies incur a greater risk to the industry; conversely, precise emission inventories need to be completed in order to identify areas of high emissions in individual cases.

Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) frequently use anaerobic digestion (AD) to break down organics to reduce the total volume of biosolids produced. As population increases, cost of biosolids disposal increases while regulatory limits tighten. Bioaugmentation is an innovative process that enhances the biological activity within AD systems to improve performance through the addition of biocatalytic compounds (BC). Currently there is a knowledge gap regarding how the routine use of BCs, containing a consortium of bacteria and enzymes, applied directly within the AD system can affect the system’s performance and its by-products (biogas and biosolids). This study reviews the impact of routine bioaugmentation applications using a commercial grade BC on an AD system. An analysis of two full-scale AD systems inoculated with said BC has been completed to determine impacts on biosolids, and biogas production. This study provides significant information substantiating the claim that bioaugmentation enhances AD performance and long-term economic viability.

Energy is the dominant climate change contributor accounting for around 60% of total global gas emissions. Given the growing concerns and complexities associated with climate change, most countries worldwide have committed to delivering clean energy. One way to attain this is to invest in energy-efficient technologies such as efficient light bulb technologies. This study’s question was; what determines households’ energy efficiency light bulb adoption in Kiwatule? The main objective of this study was to investigate the behaviour and attitudes of households adopting energy-efficient light bulbs in Kiwatule. The research findings indicated financial motivation as the major determinant of efficient light bulb adoption. To facilitate this, the study suggested that the Ugandan government enacts the current energy light bulb bill and also extends efficient light bulb subsidies to all households. Keywords: Energy efficiency, efficient light bulbs, determinants, adoption, household

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the perspectives of the environment among Indo-Canadian, Sri Lankan-Canadian and Filipino-Canadian immigrant communities who reside in Surrey, British Columbia. Environmental perception has commonly been defined as awareness of, or feelings about, the environment, or “the way in which an individual perceives the environment; the process of evaluating and storing information received about the environment” (Oxford Reference, 2019). By identifying key stakeholders within these communities, I explored perspectives of environmentalism and concerns for the improvement of the health of the environment, through a series of open-ended semi-structured interviews. The participants in this research demonstrated a willingness to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment. In addition, they acknowledged their lack of awareness regarding consequences of environmentally harmful activities that were occurring during their childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. The findings help identify the issues that prevent inclusive environmentalism in Surrey in these targeted immigrant populations. They could also assist policy makers and environmental programs to implement more effective approaches for raising awareness and promoting more environmentalism among the three diasporas.

As a consequence of climate change, many populations of sockeye salmon in the U. S. Pacific Northwest are now experiencing significantly warmer river conditions during their spawning migration from the ocean to their freshwater spawning grounds compared to the 30 year average. The Columbia River witnessed an extended heat wave in 2015 and low flows pushed water temperatures to 21° C, which ended up killing 90 percent of the adult sockeye salmon returning to spawn in their natal streams in the summer months. Fish passage delays at hydro-electric dams potentially compounded this effect. The purpose of this study was to determine if water temperatures had a delay effect on run-timing and potential returning sockeye salmon population mortality in the Snake River in the Columbia Basin. Run timing and delays in migration patterns were examined over the years 2014-2018 in order to notice any trends in migration patterns. Results indicated that, as water temperatures increased, so did the travel time of returning adult sockeye salmon migrating between Bonneville Dam and Lower Granite Dam. Increased water temperatures were associated with migration delays, increasing them by as much as ten days more than the average in some years. Qualitative observations of fish vigor on migrating fish through fish windows also yielded signs of fungal disease on a small number of sockeye salmon during warmer water temperature outbreaks.

This mixed methods study was guided by the research question: How does the use of humour in secondary students’ communications about climate change relate to their feelings and actions towards climate change? It used an experimental approach to compare the experiences of two groups of Grade 11 students in creating a video concept about climate change targeted to their peers. Ten themes emerged from the qualitative data, with Humour and Burden both providing links between Engagement-related feelings and actions and Dissociation/Distancing-related feelings and actions. Relevant literature generally cautions against using humour in science communications as it may undermine the seriousness of the message, but this study has revealed that humour can play an important role in coping and maintaining engagement with climate change, and strengthening group cohesion. Recommendations for future research are provided, as well as suggestions for bringing the results into Environmental Education and Communications practice.