Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson and Simon Fraser University profs Marc Jaccard and Nic Rivers go to town with this look at Canada’s abysmal record on climate change. They’re mostly preaching to the eco-choir here, but they’ve got some interesting (if not particularly original) ideas to share about where we should be taking the environmental debate.

Grassroots movements are all well and good, write Simpson et al, but efficient lightbulbs and public transit are pitifully small drops in the collective bucket. Their solution, put very crudely, is taxing to reduce emissions and placing a greater emphasis on sustainable development, not to mention fostering a critical public attitude.

Fair enough. But as long as politicking trumps best interests, we’ve got a problem. Strangely absent from this book is any analysis of the Canadian environmental lobby, such as it is. There’s nary a Suzuki reference to be found, and the record on social movements for change is largely ignored in favour of haranguing Parliament. In places, the book feels more like a PhD thesis than a book intended for a general readership, particularly when the discussion turns to models for change and potential results.

Like gay marriage and gun control, the climate change issue is as much social as it is political, but the authors’ discussion of social environmentalism lacks colour and detail. The authors suggest that a change to our national identity is in order, but they shy away from statements that are emotional as well as practical. Without emotion, all we’ve got is the cold comfort of facts, figures, and more than two decades of truthiness.