New Book: Canada and Climate Change

How Canada has ignored the reality of climate change for far too long and what we must do to change course.

Pandemics, massive earthquakes, war, and other catastrophes inspire immediate action because their casualties and destruction are immediately visible. Climate change is an unyielding problem because its long-range dangers are hidden, and thus it is a global risk unlike anything in human experience. 

The federal government recently announced aggressive climate targets for Canada. We have committed to producing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will require major changes for our economy and way of life. Canadian citizens need to understand why our most distinguished climate scientists and our senior political leaders think that we must meet this target. Canada and Climate Change explains the importance of policies that will ensure we meet the net-zero emissions target. William Leiss provides a firm grasp on what climate change is and how scientists have described shifts in the earth’s climate as they have occurred over hundreds of millions of years and as they are likely to occur in the near future, especially by the end of this century. 

Leiss argues that citizens have a right to place their trust in what climate scientists tell us. Canada and Climate Change is an essential primer on where we stand on the issue of climate change in Canada and what will unfold in the years ahead.

DETAILS

200 Pages, 6 x 9

4 tables

ISBN 9780228009160

November 2022

Formats: Cloth, eBook

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures | ix
Preface | xi

Introduction | 3
1 What Is Climate? | 13
2 The Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs | 21
3 Predictions of Climate Science | 31
4 Trusting Climate Science | 43
5 Canada: Negotiating Climate Change | 55
6 Treaty Framing and Climate Science | 74
7 Managing the Risks of Global Warming | 97
8 Canada: Mitigation, Impacts, and Adaptation | 115

Reminiscences and Acknowledgments | 137
Appendix 1: Notes and Calculations for Table 6.4 | 139
Appendix 2: The Risk Approach in ipcc’s ar6 – Impacts of Climate Change | 145
References and Sources | 149
Index | 175