GEOG 128 - Human Geography: Space, Place and Community - Fall 2023

Canada has been an engaged participant in global climate change negotiations since the late 1980s. Until recently, Canadian policy seemed to be driven in large part by a desire to join in multilateral efforts to address climate change. By contrast, current policy is seeking a "made in Canada" approach to the issue. Recent government-sponsored analytic efforts as well as the government's own stated policies have been focused almost entirely on domestic regulation and incentives, domestic opportunities for technological responses, domestic costs, domestic carbon markets, and the setting of a domestic carbon "price" at a level that sends the appropriate marketplace signal to produce needed reductions. A Globally Integrated Climate Policy for Canada builds on the premise that Canada is in need of an approach that effectively integrates domestic priorities and global policy imperatives. Leading Canadian and international experts explore policy ideas and options from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including science, law, political science, economics, and sociology. Chapters explore the costs, opportunities, or imperatives to participate in international diplomatic initiatives and regimes, the opportunities and impacts of regional or global carbon markets, the proper mix of domestic policy tools, the parameters of Canadian energy policy, and the dynamics that propel or hinder the Canadian policy process.

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.

Business and Environmental Politics in Canada examines the way in which industries and firms work to influence the regulatory standards intended to improve their environmental performance. Filling an important gap in the environmental policy literature, this is the first book-length treatment of the subject in Canada. A review is provided of political action taken since the 1960s by the large firms which have found themselves at the centre of the hot-button issues of the day--water pollution, refillable pop bottles, acid rain, chemicals, smog and climate change. Three questions focus the analysis. What determines the political objective of the regulated firm? What strategies do the large firms use to influence environmental policy? And, finally, how powerful is business in the arena of environmental politics--to what extent is Canadian environmental policy shaped by business lobbying? This book will be of interest to scholars, environmental professionals, and all those concerned about the degree to which environmental standards are determined by the regulated industries themselves.