Next-generation motivation

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This article was published 19/02/2022 (1374 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He’s an educator whose lived experience of record-breaking high temperatures in Canada’s Far North two decades ago not only intensified his academic endeavours in the field of environmental science, but made it the crux of his vocation.

Ian Mauro is an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Winnipeg, a father of three children and a year-round cyclist. The native Winnipegger is passionate about bringing issues of climate change to the forefront for all to consider in everyday life.

“I grew up here; the big blue Prairie sky has kept me grounded. My grandparents were on a farm. I spent some time there, on the border of a reserve, and was exposed to First Nations communities. That always stuck with me,” Mauro says.

After high school, Mauro cycled to California, experiencing the bicycle as the pace of the environment and learning to be a careful observer. He achieved an undergraduate degree in environmental science, a PhD in geography, and had the opportunity to travel to the Canadian Arctic, living and teaching on Baffin Island.

“When I was up there in early 2000s, there was record-breaking heat. You could see the change in the North, the elders were talking about it: the Arctic melt. You couldn’t help but be transformed. An elder suggested I work in climate change to understand what’s really happening.”

Mauro developed a post-doctorate project at the University of Victoria, on Inuit knowledge and climate change, and continued to delve further into bringing awareness to the public.

“I had the privilege to work with Zacharias Kunuk, a great Inuk filmmaker, director of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. He and I directed Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change. It was nothing short of mind-blowing, listening to the elders and their experience, the knowledge they have, the things they’ve seen. The changes happened first in the North. People are waking up and saying this is real. We need to do something about it,” Mauro says about his time with the Inuit elders who speak of the importance of observing the environment, watching the sun, the sky and the ground.

Together with climatologist Danny Blair, Mauro developed the Prairie Climate Centre in 2015, and serves as its executive director.

Headed by a small but mighty team of scientists, hydrologists, community-based researchers, communications experts and filmmakers, the Prairie Climate Centre at the University of Winnipeg aims to make climate change information accessible to everyone. The centre brings an evidence-based perspective to communicating the science, impacts and risks of climate change through maps, documentary video, research reports, training, writing and outreach.

A few years later, with co-director Nora Casson and the rest of their team, they launched the first interactive climate information website for the Prairies.

“It makes information accessible to Canadians. That’s where the atlas provides the science and storytelling of climate change. There’s data and stories from across the country. We are a really integrated and remarkable team that make these things possible. It’s a collaboration. The gold standard is transdisciplinary. We are trying to move people from risk to resilience, to make a real-world impact that makes a difference; that’s what universities should do.”

Climateatlas.ca is used by communities and individuals around the country, and features the best available data so that any citizen can go there and learn.

“When we think about the potential disruption that climate change represents, we can address it through our choices, through real investment, through government. Personally, I’m here for my children. The real challenge is for generations to come. To have the privilege of being a university professor, with that privilege comes responsibility and I take that seriously, with a commitment to communities: farming, Indigenous communities, all kinds of different groups where collaborations can be really meaningful.

“Science is a great tool. It’s rewarding to be at the University of Winnipeg. Our group is making a real difference. It shows that we don’t have to leave our province to do big and better things. We can do it here, have stewardship in our own back yard. We need to be looking at our place in our world.”

Mauro emphasizes that each individual can make choices, but the trick with climate action is that it’s a profoundly personal thing.

“We all live different lifestyles. We all have different means. Not everyone can afford an electric car. We can decide to live kinder for the planet we walk on, we have to centre ourselves in that. It’s deeply personal the kinds of contributions we can make. Everybody can make them. We can demand that the leaders make the choices with the best available science. We have to avoid fear, charge into that opportunity: a healthy sustainable future, where we are all healthier and all happier, and that it is worth the transition to get there.”

Careers in environment are on the rise and Mauro says the Prairie Climate Centre is a place to become part of that community of learning and training.

“There are grad students working on climate change. It’s such an exciting opportunity between students and professors, that continuum of knowledge exchange. We are in the centre of the continent; we are the centre of the country. We’ve become a hub for the country at the University of Winnipeg.”

In 2019, Mauro directed Beyond Climate, a full-length award-winning film narrated by David Suzuki.

“This work is really about the next generation; can we look our children in the eyes and say we’ve done enough?”

Mauro and his team will soon be launching some of the work they’ve been doing with Indigenous partners.

“If we make great efforts to solve this, we can show the world how to do it. That can be one of our greatest contributions. As we look at the abyss, should we jump in or are we going to fight tooth and nail? We have to try, there’s only one choice. In that attempt, once we can have agency we can do anything, agency over apathy. We are going to commit to figuring it out. I have faith that humanity will not let itself down. The trick is it might take some really challenging moments. We can steer ourselves in the right direction.”

Visit: prairieclimatecentre.ca

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca