Few issues require as much research as climate change science. You have to know a whole lot about the biosphere, about energy, about the politics of adapting to climate change and investing in mitigating tools. It’s a confusing, and daunting, mass of information. George Monbiot, however, appears to have done a good job getting through what appears to be all of it, and he shows it in his book, Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning.

In a chapter discussing the incredible damage done to the environment by our growing penchant for traveling by plane, Monbiot states the case—both for and against—for practically every alternative. He steers us through the pros and cons of planes using, say, hydrogen; of supersonic planes which travel in the stratosphere rather than the troposphere (apparently a very bad thing); and of taking trains across great distances instead. His conclusion: we have to dramatically—perhaps by about 96 percent—reduce our flights. There’s simply no alternative fuel and no way of making our current fleet, or any conceivable one, efficient enough to carry on the way we do.

And this recurs throughout this dense and informative book. Monbiot’s essential claim is that by 2030 we must reduce our carbon emissions by 90% if we hope to preserve something resembling our current ecosystem. This is possible, he says, if we can muster the political will. He even says it wouldn’t alter our lifestyles by very much. We can still enjoy comfortable, modern lives.

But, of course, it’s difficult to imagine the political will being there when it counts. His chapter “The Denial Industry” displays with great force the extent to which oil industries and others invested in making money off damaging the planet have gotten their foot in the door of the media and government in order to misinform the public about the seriousness of climate change. The task of getting our public officials to think beyond upcoming elections and towards the overarching responsibility to our environment is immense, but Monbiot believes it’s one we can still achieve.

In the interest of Awareness, here’s our quick roundup of some Earth Day links and other environmentally topical reading:

Earth Day Canada has a handy guide to Earth Day events across Canada. Plenty happening today and over the rest of the weekend.

The New York Times on Earth Day as Big Business. The Globe and Mail chimes in with what seems like self-parody: “Four stock picks for Earth Day.” Really.

Carbon offsets are a scam, says the Christian Science Monitor in a new series of articles examining the industry:

They are buying into projects that are never completed, or paying for ones that would have been done anyhow, the investigation found. Their purchases are feeding middlemen and promoters seeking profits from green schemes that range from selling protection for existing trees to the promise of planting new ones that never thrive. In some cases, the offsets have consequences that their purchasers never foresaw, such as erecting windmills that force poor people off their farms.

Carbon offsets are the environmental equivalent of financial derivatives: complex, unregulated, unchecked and—in many cases—not worth their price.

Heather Rogers also calls foul on carbon offset projects in the current issue of The Nation.

Via this Worldchanging blog post, a recent TED Talk by Catherine Mohr about the hard reality of building an environmentally friendly home, eschewing the kind of green sentimentality that fuels carbon offsets and diving deep into the actual data. It’s short, funny, and educational:

Climate fight! University of Victoria Professor Andrew Weaver announced yesterday in a press release that he is suing the National Post for four articles it wrote about him over the past few months. Weaver, the Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis, says the Post “attributed to me statements I never made, accused me of things I never did, and attacked me for views I never held.” The four articles in question are “Weaver’s Web,” “Weaver’s Web II,” “Climate agency going up in flames,” and “So much for pure science.” Suing the Financial Post op-ed page for their ridiculous environmental reporting may seem like suing the sun for shining, but Weaver is one of the country’s top climate scientists, so this bears watching.

Rabble has some suggestions for Earth Day–related things to do on university campuses across Canada.

The David Suzuki Foundation is running a series of book swaps across the country until April 24. If you haven’t read it, it’s new to you — and might save some paper as well.

Finally, Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians sends a dispatch from Cochabamba, Bolivia, where she’s attending the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth: