UNBC Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences

10/09/2026

✅ Dr. Nadia Mamontova is returning to UNBC for several weeks of research & delivering this evening talk at The Exploration Place

Previously, Dr. Mamontova was a postdoctoral scholar who worked with Dr. Gail Fondahl and taught the Geography of Russia for our department. Welcome back, Nadia!

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Repost from The Exploration Place
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Anthropology in Our Backyards is back, presented by University of Northern British Columbia Department of Anthropology.

Join us on Thursday, October 22, at 6:00pm at The Exploration Place for “Underground Encounters: Indigenous Siberian Evenk Geological Knowledge and Relational Environmental Ethics” with Dr. Nadia Mamontova of the University of Birmingham, UK.

Dr. Mamontova will explore Indigenous Evenk ethnomineralogy and relational environmental ethics, in which minerals, humans, and environmental phenomena are understood as deeply entangled and connected through relations with non-human forces and broader ecosystems. This talk further examines how this Indigenous society has negotiated and reconfigured its relationships with state geology, which operates through a fundamentally different onto-epistemology, and the encounters and transformations that emerge between these distinct ways of knowing.

This free public talk is open to everyone. Cash bar available.

Can’t join us in person? The talk will also be available online through Microsoft Teams. Meeting ID: 229 508 595 195 290. Passcode: gL3Rr22q

10/06/2026

THE CLIMATE CONVERSATIONS, Episode 10 - In this week’s Climate Conversation, Dr. Joseph Shea and Professor of Geography at UNBC Tristan Pearce discuss the question:

What happens when you stop looking at climate change as a single problem and start looking at it from the perspective of a geographer?

Dr. Tristan Pearce Professor of Geography and Canada Research Chair in Cumulative Impacts of Environmental Change at UNBC, brings a perspective shaped by research across the Arctic, the Pacific Islands and central B.C. He argues that understanding climate change means thinking across scales — from an individual tree to global treaties — and paying attention to how environmental change is experienced on the ground.

Dr. Pearce also reflects on encountering the politics of climate change as a UNBC undergraduate during the Kyoto Protocol era, when Alberta sent representatives to campus to challenge the science. Drawing on decades of work with Inuit communities, he discusses reports of abrupt environmental changes spanning more than 40 years and why meaningful adaptation can depend less on infrastructure than on preserving the knowledge, skills and social networks that allow communities to function through change.

He is critical of the pace and politics of international climate negotiations, while emphasizing the importance of bringing overlooked voices into local conversations — including longtime fur trappers with deep ecological knowledge. He also argues for depoliticizing climate discussions in classrooms so students from resource-industry backgrounds aren't alienated.

Dr. Pearce’s message to students: stay curious, stay objective and remember that the solutions haven't been written yet.|

Dr. Tristan Pearce is a Professor in UNBC's Department of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, based on the Prince George campus, where he also holds the Canada Research Chair in Cumulative Impacts of Environmental Change and serves as Program Coordinator for Northern Studies. He holds a BA from the University of Northern British Columbia and both an MA and PhD from the University of Guelph.

His research examines the cumulative impacts of environmental change on communities, using this understanding to identify and evaluate pathways for adaptation, with a focus on the Arctic, the Pacific Islands Region, and British Columbia. He currently accepts graduate students and supervises in the PhD NRES, MA NRES Geography, MSc NRES Geography, and MNRES programs.

WATCH:

What happens when you stop looking at climate change as a single pr...

10/05/2026

Sharing from Dr. Adam Hawkins at Lowell Glacier

Check his post for all the details.

Adam Hawkins

10/03/2026

FIELDWORK FRIDAY - from Dr. Raquel Portes

“BC is definitely a Disneyland for and lovers! Our FSTY 425/NREM 625 Soil Formation and Classification class headed to Pinnacles Provincial Park and Nazko Cone to investigate how soils form in different parent materials.

Pic 1 - Just a bunch of soil enthusiasts 🙂

Pic 2 – The Pinnacles were formed by differential erosion of phyllite saprolite. Resistant basalt on top of phyllite acts as a protective cap, shielding the softer material beneath it from erosion and helping form these spectacular hoodoos.

Pic 3 - A Brunisol (or Andosol) formed from a tephra layer deposited over glacial till 7,000 years ago. Note the sharp transition from the darker C horizon, developed from tephra, to the lighter grey 2C horizon, developed in the underlying till.”

09/29/2026

REMINDER: Join us for our annual GEES Meet and Greet this Thursday at 5:30pm in the Bentley Centre. Meet your professors & learn about upcoming opportunities like our Spring semester field schools, the annual road trip to the WDCAG geography conference in March, and meet members of thee GEES Club & learn about all their events for the year.

Pizza and refreshments provided. See you on Thursday!

09/28/2026

THE CLIMATE CONVERSATIONS, Episode 9- In this week’s Climate Conversation, Dr. Joseph Shea and Dr. Alexander Lautensach discuss the question: What if climate change isn’t the whole problem — but a symptom of something much bigger? Dr. Lautensach takes a step back from the usual climate conversation to examine what he calls “ecological overshoot”: humanity consuming more than the biosphere can sustainably provide. Drawing on the ecological footprint work of William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel, Dr. Lautensach connects climate change to a broader crisis in how humans understand our place in the natural world.

Dr. Alex Lautensach is an adjunct professor in UNBC’s Education program, based on the Northwest campus in Terrace, BC. He holds a PhD from the University of Otago (New Zealand), an MScT from McMaster University, an MSc from the University of Guelph, a BEd from the University of Toronto, and a Diploma in Biology from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

WATCH: https://youtu.be/TYkhf7V4rfg?si=WJjMPLakTD2VImNL

09/24/2026

UNBC GEES Student Club event with Dr. Adam Hawkins!

Repost from UNBC Geography Earth and Environmental Science Club
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Where is the gold panning happening you ask? I guess you’ll have to go to find out!!! 🤫🤫🤫

09/23/2026

Congratulations to our GEES colleagues recognized today at the Provost’s event to celebrate Tenure, Promotion & Continuing Appointments.

Dr. Hossein Kazemian is now a Full Professor of Environmental Science, Dr. Zoe Meletis is now a Full Professor of Geography, and Dr. Siraj Ul Islam achieved tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor of Environmental Science.

Nice turn out of GEES faculty & staff to celebrate! We like to have fun 🎉