Hard Choices: Climate Change in CanadaWilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2004 M06 24 - 273 pages Drought, floods, hurricanes, forest fires, ice storms, blackouts, dwindling fish stocks...what Canadian has not experienced one of these or more, or heard about the “greenhouse” effect, and not wondered what is happening to our climate? Yet most of us have a poor understanding of this extremely important issue, and need better, reliable scientific information. Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada delivers some hard facts to help us make some of those hard choices. This new collection of essays by leading Canadian scientists, engineers, social scientists, and humanists offers an overview and assessment of climate change and its impacts on Canada from physical, social, technological, economic, political, and ethical / religious perspectives. Interpreting and summarizing the large and complex literatures from each of these disciplines, the book offers a multidisciplinary approach to the challenges we face in Canada. Special attention is given to Canada’s response to the Kyoto Protocol, as well as an assessment of the overall adequacy of Kyoto as a response to the global challenge of climate change. Hard Choices fills a gap in available books which provide readers with reliable information on climate change and its impacts that are specific to Canada. While written for the general reader, it is also well suited for use as an undergraduate text in environmental studies courses. |
From inside the book
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... growth, which would be a means of tackling the prob- lem from the other end. These, then, are the constraints on the possible “fixes” explored in Part ii. Increasing earth systems' abilities to absorb carbon—adding to our “carbon sinks ...
... are determined by making assumptions about future economic and population growth, technological change, energy use, etc. Clearly, it is difficult if not impossible to make accurate projections of these 24 What's [Going] to Happen[ing]?
... growth, technology paths, economic growth, and other factors. For example, A1F1 represents a world characterized by rapid economic growth although global popula- tion peaks in the middle of this century and drops after that. A fossil ...
... growth, social behaviour, economic growth, energy use, and technology change. Compounding the problem of uncertainty is the potential existence of 'unknown unknowns' whose importance only becomes apparent once they are discovered ...
... growth, and other socio-economic options. Scientific challenges Some degree of climate change is inevitable as the Earth system moves towards a new global radiative equilibrium under increased levels of green- house gases. While the ...