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October 2008 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Grise Fiord Feature: Norway Carbon Tax The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Reverberations À la carte

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FEATURE Grise Fiord: Cold warriors Map: Ellesmere Island Sidebar: The bear facts CLIMATE CHANGE Slumping, sinkholes ... Low-carbon diet Ellesmere Island Ice Shelves Geoengineering Reviews & resources

Climate Change: Reviews & resources

BOOK REVIEWS

Preaching to the skeptics

This is a cranky, worthy book written by a climate scientist who has suffered too many fools none too gladly. Among them are credulous journalists, ignorant university students, manipulative ideologues and the current Canadian Prime Minister. The groups are not mutually exclusive, and Stephen Harper, for one, comes off as an even bigger climate boob than U.S. President George W. Bush, impossible as that may seem.

Andrew Weaver, the Canadian Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, holds two internationally important jobs. He develops and runs complex computer programs capable of predicting climate. And, as a key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared last year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, he is one of the world’s great synthesizers and explainers of the science of global climate change. People like Weaver are the planet’s epidemiologists, talking to those who don’t necessarily want to hear the diagnosis.

Here, his lucid science explaining the history of our understanding of climate change and the state of the knowledge today is punctuated with frustrated accounts of the indignities of holding two seminal positions in a society where skepticism about science is callously manufactured and the principles of scientific investigation are poorly understood by the public, media and governments. It’s a shocking tale, rich with the first-hand evidence of our species’ gravest flaws.

He sells himself a bit short, though. I remember the first time I spoke with him, years ago, when I was writing my first story on climate change and was as dumb as the other journalists he describes. He was rushing to another of the interminable meetings that scientists of his calibre must attend. He was just as frustrated then too, but he took the time to explain to me exactly what he explains successfully in this valuable book: global climate change is real, and it will have dire effects on human civilization unless we stop putting carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere and ocean.

Weaver is entitled to his choler. Knowing from the front lines all that he does about the planet’s future, knowing as an insider the international — and particularly Canadian — nonsense that is going on during these critical times, many of us would pack up and go home. He doesn’t. He keeps on going and, in the process, produces this book, which holds out a real chance of taking another crucial step to turning things around.

Chronicles of climate

A delightful little book aimed at young teens or precocious children, this is a model of how to make science appealing.

The Curse of Akkad is about past shifts in climate — both regional and global — and the devastation they have wrought on humanity, including the destruction of the Akkadian Empire 4,200 years ago. It is written with verve and admirable precision.

Peter Christie has interspersed fascinating climate facts throughout the story. Who knew that one theory why Stradivarius violins are so musically perfect is that Antonio Stradivari used spruce wood from the Italian Alps grown during the coldest years (1645-1715) of Europe’s Little Ice Age? It was so cold that the trees grew little, making the wood denser than normal, an excellent material for the instruments’ soundboards, never to be replicated.

Even better than the tales, facts and fun illustrations is the sense Christie gives that all these climate anomalies and catastrophes of yore don’t hold a candle to the global climate change we face today.

Hot books for a warming planet

Many people looking for information on climate change will head straight for the flashy likes of Google and Wikipedia. Yet faced with a problem that seems to dwarf both the available answers and our best efforts, and given the new crop of climate-change books, it might be more useful to seek the advice and expertise that come between hardbacks. Here’s a rating of what’s on offer this season.

Lowdown: Working with a scale of “deep green” to “not even a little bit green,” Waddington judges possible countermeasures to those dastardly agents of our climate- change fiasco: airplanes, showers, chocolate, etc. Still, the usefulness of this book is questionable. Its targets are occasionally too predictable to merit such attention, and some of the solutions entertained too coyly are unfeasible. But Waddington has a fine, wry sense of humour and convinces us that we should neither go to our doom nor save the day without some amusement.

Consciousness-raising: Raised with pleasure.
Practicality: Limited at times.

— Ben Fried

Lowdown: An assessment of the appliances and habits that constitute a modern, affluent life at home, at work, outdoors and on the road. While Shimo- Barry does not shirk from stating the blatantly obvious (jet-setting bad, cycling good), the book offers a convincing appraisal of how ordinary people can effectively, and often painlessly, change the way they live. Ratings are presented in terms of handily quantifiable carbon footprints.

Consciousness-raising: Clear and expansive.
Practicality: Excellent.

— B.F.

Lowdown: The wonderfully cluttered Earth Matters, which uses photos to explain the origins and facets of our climate, is targeted at children, but it should appeal to adults as well. Most people would be happy to have the basics explained to them, and it does not matter if the type is a little irritating and the “making a difference” sections lightweight. The lucid Eyewitness Climate Change aims for a slightly older audience and recognizes the urgency of education.

Consciousness-raising: Helpful in every way.
Practicality: Comprehensive, but not compelling.

— B.F.

Lowdown: Its title promises symptoms, science and solutions, and the book certainly delivers. Clearly written and utterly comprehensive, The Rough Guide to Climate Change is best read not from cover to cover but by dipping into its brisk sections on current situations and debates, basic science and — most important — personal change and further resources. If you have time for only one volume on the subject, this is it.

Consciousness-raising: Informs the reader on every aspect of importance.
Practicality: Quite helpful, especially on matters of home energy.

— B.F.

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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
www.ipcc.ch
Established 20 years ago with a significant contribution from Canadian scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a mandate to provide “decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information.” It is likely the most authoritative and balanced website on the topic. Its assessment reports and technical papers, on subjects ranging from aviation to land-use change and forestry, are the product of collaboration among hundreds of scientists worldwide and are rigorously reviewed. Scholarly in tone, the IPCC’s website provides an international outlook and specialized data for those who want to deepen their understanding of climate change beyond news headlines. A helpful glossary defines related terms such as “greenhouse gas” and “solar radiation” in six languages.

Pembina Institute
climate.pembina.org
Founded in Alberta, the Pembina Institute advocates sustainable energy solutions through research and education. Written in accessible language and brightly illustrated, its website provides an engaged Canadian perspective on climate change, calling, for instance, on the Canadian government to show leadership in negotiating the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol at an international conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. The website also contains a useful summary of the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and presents a solid understanding of the science, economics and politics of climate change with background papers on carbon taxes and the environmental implications of oil sands development, among other topics. A section called “Take Action” provides tools to help businesses and individuals reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions.

KYOTOplus
www.kyotoplus.ca
This website is for those who wish to take political action on climate change and Canada’s role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Led by Greenpeace Canada and Sierra Club Canada and involving more than 25 Canadian public-interest groups, the KYOTOplus campaign urges Canadians to sign a petition to “support an urgent solution to the global warming crisis.” The campaign aims to bring a minimum of one million signatures to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and challenges Canadian politicians to take the KYOTOplus Pledge, to honour Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. The website also lists what Canada’s Climate Action Plan should include, such as a charge on greenhouse gas pollution and a commitment to help developing countries fight global warming.

LINKS & RESOURCES
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007
Ellesmere Ice Shelf Project (PDF)
Endangered Species Act (PDF)
Climate Change
Canada 2050

À LA CARTE
Taiga meets Tundra
Slicing the polar pie
Akpatok Island
Arctic meltdown
Salt of the Earth
West Nile moves west
Alberta drought (Canada dry)
Canada’s Climate in 2050
What causes ice ages

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