The Climate Nexus: Water, Food, Energy and Biodiversity

166 Pages·2016·0.531 MB·English

by  Harford, Deborah;O'Riordan, Jon;Sandford, Robert William

T H E
C L I M A T E
N E X U S
Water,
Food, Energy
and Biodiversity
in a Changing
World
DR. JON O'RIORDAN and
ROBERT WILLIAM SANDFORD

The
ClimaTe
Nexus
Water, Food, Energy
and Biodiversity in a
Changing World
Dr. Jon O’Riordan
Robert William Sandford
Copyright © 2015 by Jon O’Riordan and Robert William Sandford
First Edition
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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the
Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and of the province of British
Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax
Credit.
Nous reconnaissons l’aide financière du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise
du Fonds du livre du Canada et le Conseil des arts du Canada, et de la province de la
Colombie-Britannique par le Conseil des arts de la Colombie-Britannique et le Crédit
d’impôt pour l’édition de livres.
An initial step in the long journey of
educating how we can understand and
thus adapt to changes in the nexus.
— Dr. Jon O’Riordan
For Cara Nelson and all the 20- and
30-somethings out there who will inherit the
nexus and be the next generation’s leaders
in realizing a vision of a better world.
— Robert Sandford

Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Introduction: The Age of Consequences 1
One: Nervousness at the Nexus: Tensions
at the Centre Where All Things Meet 13
Two: Warnings Repeated: The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change and the Global
Nexus Narrative 35
Three: Bringing It Home: The Nexus Narrative
in Canada 67
Four: If We Fail: Truth and Consequences at
the Nexus of Environment and Economy 103
Five: The Ultimate Nexus: The World We Want 117
Postscript 145
Bookshelf 147

ACknowledgements
The lead authors wish to acknowledge the support
of the advisory board for Simon Fraser University’s
Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT), in par-
ticular Professor Nancy Olewiler in the School of
Public Policy; Dr. Stewart Cohen, senior researcher
with Environment Canada and adjunct professor of
Forest Resources Management at the University of
British Columbia; and Doug McArthur, director of
the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser. These
experts have offered wise advice, astute scientific per-
spectives and valuable direction to all who have been
involved in our work on the changing adaptation.
The authors also wish to acknowledge that this
book would not have come into existence without
the tireless support of ACT Executive Director
Deborah Harford.
We are also grateful for the hard work and dedi-
cation of researchers Chelsea Notte, Sukhraj Sihota
IX
and Anthony Cotter of the School of Public Policy
at Simon Fraser University, who contributed enor-
mously to the content and perspectives put forward
in this book.
The authors further wish to acknowledge and
thank the Real Estate Foundation of British
Columbia for its support of ACT’s work on climate
change adaptation and water governance, without
which this book would not have been possible; and
the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, whose
support of Sukhraj Sihota’s work was invaluable.
The authors accept sole responsibility for any errors,
omissions, misperceptions or misunderstandings.
X