Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada

by Harold Coward (Editor), Andrew J. Weaver

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 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.

282 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Harold G. Coward is a professor emeritus of history and the founding director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He served as president of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion and was the founding editor of the Journal for Hindu-Christian Studies and editor of the WLU Press series The Study of Religion in Canada. He has authored twenty books along with many edited books, chapters and articles. His publications include Scripture in the World Religions (2002), Mantra: Hearing the Divine in India and America (2004), and The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Eastern and Western Thought (2008).