Canada Needs to Conserve
Jun 16, 2008
With the seemingly unending escalation in gasoline prices of late, it’s little surprise that public debate has once again shifted to discussion of greener technologies, such as alternative fuels and mass transit options like rapid transit.
But Canada as a whole should have been much more aggressively pursuing alternatives to our reliance on fossil fuels a long time ago. A Conference Board of Canada report in 2007 ranked us 14th out of 17 industrialized nations in a range of environmental indicators. It’s clear that we have a lot more to do in order to be pulling our weight in terms of conserving energy and taking actions to be as environmentally conscious as possible.
Canada’s total energy consumption is amongst the highest of all developed countries according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And we’ve only gotten worse over the last 25 years. The David Suzuki Foundation has found that of the 30 member nations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Canada ranks 28th in its performance on such important indicators as energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
The bottom line is obvious: There are very few developed countries that consume more power than Canada does. Of western industrialized nations, only the United States is worse. But the tough part is figuring out what to do about it.
Why are Canadians so bad at energy usage? Basically, as an affluent nation we have too much of a good thing. Energy consumption tends to rise along with increases in average household income. For comparison, India’s energy consumption in 2005 was some 30 times less than Canada’s. But as India’s economy continues to improve, it’s consumption is rising dramatically. This is also true of China. Some might think that Canada’s high rate of usage relates to our northern climate. This isn’t the case, however, as the top performing countries in the Conference Board study were Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Some of the west’s failures in energy conservation no doubt are related to historical development. Most European cities, for example, are smaller and denser than their North American counterparts because they predate the arrival of the automobile. This predisposed them to public transit and other green measures.
However, much of Europe has also taken significant steps such as introducing taxes on carbon and introducing incentives for smarter building projects. Norway adopted a carbon tax way back in 1991. And earlier this year, even British Columbia introduced a comprehensive levy on carbon emissions. It’s not the most popular solution, but it may be a necessary evil and a first step in getting Canadians to think more seriously about energy usage. After all, our poor ranking in terms of environmental matters should be humiliating enough to force us to take more drastic measures.
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Why are Canadians so bad at energy usage? I will tell you why....it's frickin cold here for 6 months of the year, that's why.
pissinginthetent.com - 2008-06-18 21:36