A study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, with Environmental Defence, talks about yet another inconvenient truth of our time. (See this Globe and Mail story).
Canadians leave a bigger ecological footprint than the majority of nations on the planet. Within Canada, the richest 10% of households leave a substantially bigger ecological footprint -- 66% bigger than the average Canadian household.
The study, which is the first of its kind in Canada, raises uncomfortable truths about how much Canadians are contributing to climate change. We're among the worst in terms of ecological footprints.
The study also serves as a warning flag to governments seeking policy solutions to climate change: taking into account consumer behaviour and differences in greenhouse gas emissions by household income will be important to effectively tackle climate change in the future.
Inconvenient truths present themselves for a reason. It's time Canadians engage in a public debate about how we're going to reduce our ecological footprint as individuals, and collectively through government actions to protect our planet and our people.
-- Trish Hennessy