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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

In British Columbia (BC), Canada, a majority of electricity is produced and distributed by the crown corporation BC Hydro, which sources 90% of their power from hydroelectric generation. However, many remote areas around the province lack connection to the electrical grid and consequently depend upon diesel generators for electricity production, resulting in negative environmental externalities and an increased cost of power. To understand present legislative, technological, and financial barriers to the use of tidal energy as a strategy to displace the use of diesel in BC, and how they may be overcome, I reviewed and analyzed existing literature, and sourced primary data from interviews with industry experts. I determined that policy is the key driver to revitalize funding and technological development. However, first, the case for tidal power must be made to policy makers by communicating both the market and non-market benefits and risks of tidal power in comparison against diesel.

Purpose. Firm level case using action research (AR) to investigate constraints to productivity improvements leading to sustainability (social, economic, environmental) to help organizations and municipalities understand how firm behaviour slows adoption of action on social agendas, such as sustainability. Methodology. Action research involved attending to a single organization for 12 months to observe two organization selected projects using multiple qualitative methods, observation, an interpretive reflection through cycles of action and evaluation. Methods where used as interventions to inform the action team and design further project interventions. Findings. Research findings included limits to organizational capabilities regarding strategy and standards, objectives and measures, structure, and skills development, which were constrained by learning and inertia, knowledge, and founder created culture. This limited the organizational members to reacting to external market forces, internal dilemmas, or nonpecuniary whims of management. Originality. This exploratory paper offers a specific case of organizational constraints led by a foreign founder in the senior living industry by using action research as an intervention. Originality is marked by the observation of constraints without directly inquiring into those constraints, as opposed to most other studies reviewed. I make specific recommendations for the business and municipal government to work towards reciprocal benefits. The paper also gives insight into the challenges of a doctoral study using action research, and the design and conduct of that research methodology as an organizational outsider.

The impending climate crisis creates a critical need to understand the complex social phenomena of human behaviour for the purpose of meaningful interventions to support and foster sustainable practices. Using a qualitative case study approach, the annual Earth Day Festival (the Festival) in the rural community of Roberts Creek, British Columbia, is examined for its supporting effect on pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). Using grounded theory, the research finds six themes identified as place, education, community, support, practice, and celebration. These themes, when mapped onto the belief, normative and control constructs of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, demonstrate how the Festival successfully influences PEB at the individual and community levels. Explored also are three unique properties of the Festival that further support PEB change. These are diversity of experience, interconnection of interventions, and the supportive feedback of celebration. These properties emerge from the combination and interaction of the six themes.