Smoke from Canada: Climate Change, Forest Fires, & the Future

Canada sits at the frontlines of many of the most pressing intergenerational challenges of modern times. How Canadian authorities confront climate change through environmental policymaking and adapt to its harmful impacts, such as recent massive wildfires and smoke, has significant impacts within and beyond the nation’s borders. Declining birthrates in Canada likewise portend major changes to the nation’s workforce and civic society, while demographic shifts in Quebec and other francophone regions throughout the country fuel ongoing debates about linguistic identities and nationalism.

Our interdisciplinary symposium explores the international reach of these challenges, examines how Canadians have responded to them, and seeks to identify and interrogate the environmental, public health, legal, and social issues engulfed by the smoke.

Dr. Jennifer R. Marlon (Senior Research Scientist, Lecturer, and Director of Data Science, Yale School of the Environment), Dr. Sebastián Block Munguía (Research Affiliate, Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy), Professor Kai Chen (Assistant Professor of Epidemiology [Environmental Health]; Director of Research, Climate Change and Health, Yale School of Public Health) will each present on the international weight of climate change in Canada, particularly in the form of recent wildfires and smoke.

Professor Pierre Minn (Yale Class of 1999, Branford College; Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montréal), will deliver a keynote, “Blurry Horizons: Voluntary Childlessness and the Fate of Uncertainty in Québec.”

Dr. Brendan A. Shanahan (Associate Research Scholar, Committee on Canadian Studies; Lecturer, Department of History, Yale University) will serve as moderator.