Carbon Shift How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives)

"We are now so abusing the Earth that it may rise and move back to the hot state it was in fifty-five million years ago, and if it does, most of us, and our descendants, will die." James Lovelock, leading climate expert and author ofThe Revenge of Gaia "I don't see why people are so worried about global warming destroying the planet peak oil will take care of that." Matthew Simmons, energy investment banker and author ofTwilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy The twin crises of climate change and peaking oil production are converging on us. If they are not to cook the planet and topple our civilization, we will need informed and decisive policies, clear-sighted innovation, and a lucid understanding of what is at stake. We will need to know where we stand, and which direction we should start out in. These are the questionsCarbon Shiftaddresses. Thomas Homer-Dixon, author ofThe Ingenuity GapandThe Upside of Down, argues that the two problems are really one: a carbon problem. We depend on carbon energy to fuel our complex economies and societies, and at the same time this very carbon is fatally contaminating our atmosphere. To solve one of these problems will require solving the other at the same time. In other words, we still have a chance to tackle two monumental challenges with one innovative solution: clean, low-carbon energy. Carbon Shiftbrings together six of Canada's world-class experts to explore the question of where we stand now, and where we might be headed. It explores the economics, the geology, the politics, and the science of the predicament we find ourselves in. And it gives each expert the chance to address what they think are the most important facets of the complex problem before us. There are no experts in Canada better positioned to explain the world that awaits us just beyond the horizon, and no better guide to that future than this collection of their thoughts. Densely packed with information, but accessibly written and powerfully timely,Carbon Shiftwill be an indispensible handbook to the difficult choices that lie ahead. David Hughesis a former senior geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada David Keithis Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment, University of Calgary Jeff Rubinis Chief Economist, Chief Strategist and Managing Director, CIBC World Markets Mark Jaccardis professor of environmental economics in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University and former member of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) William Marsdenis an investigative reporter and author ofStupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care) Jeffrey Simpsonis aGlobe and Mailnational columnist and author, with Mark Jaccard, ofHot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge With a foreword byRonald Wright, author ofA Short History of ProgressandWhat is America?

Thomas Homer-Dixon was born in Victoria, B.C., and holds a Ph.D. in political science from MIT. He is currently the Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo. His first book, The Ingenuity Gap won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.


From the Hardcover edition.