As Canadians experience a year of record-breaking wildfires, floods, and extreme heat, experts are warning that these conditions will persist and likely intensify over the coming decades as we experience the escalating effects of climate change and global warming. These impacts are being felt even more acutely in northern regions of the planet, where temperatures are rising at four times the global rate.
McGill University is responding to these threats with the establishment of a new research chair in Northern Climate Change and Sustainability, thanks to a philanthropic gift from McGill graduates Marc and Marie Bieler, longtime stewards and supporters of McGill and its efforts to better understand climate change and environmental degradation through focused research and enhanced teaching programs. This gift builds on a landmark donation the Bielers made three years ago to bolster interdisciplinary teaching, research and experiential learning capacity at the since renamed Bieler School of Environment.
“I would like to thank Marc and Marie Bieler for this important gift and for all they have done to champion environmental research at McGill,” said Deep Saini, Principal of McGill University. “Environmental sustainability is one of the most critical challenges of our time, and McGill, with its tradition of excellence in interdisciplinary research, is well positioned to help understand and reverse the impact that a changing climate is having on our planet.
Enter the Bieler Chair
The Bieler Chair in Northern Climate Change and Sustainability, to be housed jointly in the Bieler School of Environment and the Department of Natural Resource Sciences of McGill’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, will spearhead research efforts aimed at identifying solutions to the climate crisis in Canada’s northern regions, where sea-ice deterioration and changes in permafrost are expected to put livelihoods, Indigenous culture, food security and community health at risk.
“Complex environmental challenges require interdisciplinary solutions,” said Anja Geitmann, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “The Bieler Chair will work closely with researchers and students at McGill’s Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and the Environment, the Lyman Entomological Museum, the McGill Herbarium, the Brace Water Centre, and other departments and centres with strong ties to climate change, sustainability, and northern research.”
The new chairholder, yet to be named, will be an internationally recognized leader whose focus on northern regions and Indigenous issues will enable McGill to consolidate environmental research and teaching across several key areas, including wildlife biology, landscape ecology, soil science, economics and natural resource policy.
A lifelong commitment to finding workable solutions
As someone whose long and successful career as Canada’s “cranberry king” has kept him in close contact with the land, agri-food entrepreneur Marc Bieler is deeply concerned by the signs of a warming earth that he sees all around him.
“I want to do something to help the world and the predicament it’s in right now,” he said. “Marie and I have children who are in their twenties. They must be worried about what’s going to happen 20 years from now, because if present trends continue, it will be disastrous.”
Bieler has a strong belief in the capabilities of McGill’s researchers to find workable solutions to these serious issues.
“Four generations of my family have ties to McGill,” said Bieler, “including my grandfather Charles, who was a professor of theology at the Presbyterian College, and my uncle Étienne, a renowned physicist and associate professor, who died at 34 on a scientific expedition. My father Jean Henri was a graduate (BA1913, BCL1919) as was my uncle Jacques (BSc1923), followed by my generation and the next.”
“So McGill has played a very important role in my life. It gave me my start, and it’s where I developed my passion for agriculture, the environment and food. I have a strong belief in McGill, and I am confident that this new Chair will propel environmental scholarship to new levels of excellence and ultimately motivate others to support this vital work.”
About Marc Bieler
Marc Bieler has spent his entire career involved in agri-food enterprises: from working as an international grain trader, to a partnership with his brother, Philippe (BEng’55), when they acquired Doxsee Food, a major US-based company, to apple processing and maple syrup production. His phenomenal success, both in Canada and the United States, culminated with the launch of his cranberry growing operation in 1984. Today, Bieler Cranberries, located in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, 100 km south of Quebec City, is the country’s leading cranberry producer, with 1,500 acres in production and an annual harvest of 40 million pounds. In addition to the cranberry farm, Bieler operated a cranberry processing plant, which in 2018 was acquired by Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.
A two-time McGill graduate, Bieler has been an annual donor to the University since 1964. He has contributed to the Bieler Family Internship Program and the Bieler School of Environment, and has been generous with his time and insights, as a volunteer and longstanding member of the Faculty’s Advisory Board.