Hot Air

Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge

About the Book

The bad news: Our Kyoto commitments are now far out of range.

The good news: We’re not too late to fix this problem, by following the solutions provided in this book. It’s the perfect recipe.

  • Take Jeffrey Simpson, renowned political expert, and writer of clear prose aimed at the intelligent reader.
  • Add Mark Jaccard, prize-winning author of academic books, and Simon Fraser University’s famed climate change guru.
  • Add tireless SFU researcher Nic Rivers, a leading policy analyst and writer with special graph-creating skills.
  • Mix well together, season with a dash of outrage, then add the CIMS secret ingredient, shake up, and place in a warming country till done. Slice into chapters and serve.

The result is a book that explains what is happening here in Canada. Equally important, it explains what is not happening, and why — with politicians, business leaders, and even environmentalists taking their share of blame. Even more important, it demonstrates what needs to happen, and precisely how to bring it about.

Readers who have long forgotten their high-school science classes will be grateful to have this complex subject laid out so simply and clearly, chapter by chapter. And the CIMS planned simulation system – developed by Mark Jaccard but used around the world – shows us exactly what our options are.

Tables of Contents

Part I
How We Got Into This Mess: The Science and the Politics

  • Why a Warmer Canada is Bad News
  • Canada's Do-Nothing Strategy
  • More Wasted Years of Talk

Part II
Getting Out of the Mess: Options and Solutions

  • A Tour of the Options
  • Unhelpful Allies on Both Flanks
  • Dion and Harper: New Leaders, Discredited Ideas
  • What We Should Do
  • The Role of Government and Citizens

Conclusion
References

About the Authors

Jeffrey Simpson has been the Globe and Mail's national columnist since 1984 and is a nationally recognized figure and an Officer of the Order of Canada. A former Governor General's Award-winner, he is the author most recently of The Friendly Dictatorship, and has long recognized the importance of climate change for all of us.

Dr. Mark Jaccard is a professor at SFU's School of Resource and Environmental Management and an internationally respected authority on climate change. His academic publications have won him the Best Policy Book Award and the Donner Prize, and he has been called "Canada's best mind on the environment."

In the summer of 2007, the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment's scheduled hearing was abruptly adjourned by its Conservative Chair to prevent Mark Jaccard from testifying about climate change. He was not silenced for long, as this book shows.

Nic Rivers, an engineer and resource manager by training, who was an analyst and writer at SFU at the time the book was published. He has written for academic journals, government agencies, and think tanks such as the Institute for Research on Public Policy. He is now a professor and the Canada Research Chair in Climate and Energy Policy at the University of Ottawa.

Press Information

Jeffrey Simpson and Mark Jaccard are available for interviews. For more information or to book an interview, please contact: 

Ruta Liormonas, Senior Publicist 
Phone: (416) 598-1114, ext. 293
Email: rliormonas@mcclelland.com

Purchase Hot Air

$29.99 Hardcover, ISBN: 9780771080968
Release Date: 9/25/07

To purchase, visit Amazon.ca, Chapters.Indigo.ca, or McClelland.com.

Publisher contact:
McClelland & Stewart
75 Sherbourne Street, 5th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5A 2P9
dgibson@mcclelland.com
Tel: (416) 598-1114 ext 307
Toll Free: 1-800-788-1074
Fax: (416) 598-7764