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.

Harold Coward is a scholar of international reputation with distinguished contributions to both the University of Victoria and University of Calgary throughout his extensive career. After retiring from the University of Victoria as director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, he continues to be involved as a research fellow. He is currently a member of the Genome BC Board of Directors, where he serves as a specialist on ethics and biotechnology. In June 2002, Dr. Coward was also selected as one of the twenty-five power thinkers in British Columbia by BC Business Magazine.

Leslie S. Kawamura is an Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, Alberta. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, in Far Eastern Studies (1974). He has studied at the Kyoto University (Japan) and has taught at the Nyingma Institute (Berkeley), Institute of Buddhist Studies (Berkeley), and the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon). His publications include Mind in Buddhist Psychology (with H.V. Guenther, Dharma Press, 1975) and Golden Zephyr (Dharma Press, 1975). He was a founding member of the Honpa Buddhist Church of Alberta and the Canada-Mongolia Society.

Harold Coward's profile page

Dr. Andrew J. Weaver is a MLA in Oak Bay-Gordon Head, and a professor and Canada Research Chair in climate modeling and analysis in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria. He was a lead author in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, the Chief Editor of the Journal of Climate from 2005-2009, and has authored or coauthored over 190 peer-reviewed papers in climate, meteorology, oceanography, earth science, policy, education and anthropology journals. In 2008 he was also appointed to the Order of British Columbia. Andrew is the author of Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World (2008).

Andrew J. Weaver's profile page

''Hard Choices goes beyond the usual books on climate change in its presentation of all the issues with a focus on choices, so people can understand and take personal action....It is written to make a difference and it will.''

Gordon McBean

''Hard Choices cuts through the disinformation promulgated about climate change by certain vested interests in order to produce a clear explanation of the nature of the problem and our options to respond to it. If you are seeking a book that will help you to understand the nature and implications of the climage change debate, then selecting this volume will not be a hard choice, but a good choice.''

Gord Miller

''The high-powered scholars who have contributed to [Hard Choices] have made a serious attempt to describe and further popularize the problem of climate change, and how to solve it.''

Canadian Book Review Annual, 2006

''What is actually happening to the climate, and why.''

Globe and Mail, June 26, 2004

''Hard Choices is very well written, free of errors, and nicely illustrated with many color maps and diagrams....I recommend the book to scholars, students, and policy makers who have interests in Canada, climate change, and humanistic dimensions of difficult environmental choices.''

Robert Balling,

''It's challenging to cover the complex issue of climate change in a 250-page book...[but] Hard Choices does cover the ground quite well, reviewing climate science, impacts, adaptation, technology, policy, law, equity, and ethics.''

Matthew Bramley

''Comprehensive, well-researched, and provocative discussion of climate change.... Twenty highly qualified authors have contributed twelve chapters plus a summary that cover climate change in Canada from the basic science through politics, economics, and religion to national and international law. Hard questions regarding the value of emission controls versus adaptation to inevitable climage change are thoroughly discussed. ... The assessment presented of the adequacy of the Kyoto Protocol does not paint a happy picture. The text was completed before the Protocol was ratified, and now that it has been brough into force and is due for renewal in 2012, the analysis presented is even more relevant.... This book should be mandatory reading for all future negotiators.''

Bulletin of the American Meterological Society, November 2006