I had the real pleasure and honour of giving a public talk at Science World this evening on the topic of pipelines as part of the Science World Speaker Series (the next talk is on November 27th, and is titled, "The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living: Science, Skepticism and Evidence in the Age of 'Alternative Facts'"). We had over eighty in attendance and the audience contributions and efforts to explore the values and interests that underpin opposing pipeline positions was valuable and inspiring. Thank you to everyone who came out, including my fellow EPTers and KPU colleagues! Special thanks to those who provided feedback on the presentation so that I can refine it for future talks. Despite the seriousness of the topic, I had a lot of fun, and I hope you did too.
As promised, here are the PowerPoint slides I used, free for public consumption (please note, I don't have copyright for all images/graphics used, and I rely on the Fair Dealing provisions of copyright for educational purposes).
Also, if you're interested, I did an interview this morning with CKNW radio as a preview to tonight's talk, and we touched on some related pipeline issues. The interview starts at Chapter 4 of the audio file titled, "Feds Join the Fight, Union Work & Defusing Pipeline Politics." Have a listen and let me know what you think.
Finally, if you've read this far, I'll leave you with the conclusion I intended for tonight's presentation but didn't quite get to (we had a lot to talk about):
A mediated solution between the opposing pipeline positions may not be possible, but those involved in the pipeline debate have not yet deeply listened to the other side, or explored their respective interests and values.
By focusing on interests and shared values we open the door to a clearer picture of future possibilities and the prospect of a collaborative future.