This week, federal Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan released a disheartening report, slamming the Harper government for having no plan to meet its own 2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets (targets that are already completely inadequate). It's not surprising news, but adds to the feelings of desperation harboured by many.

The federal government released this year's greenhouse gas inventory report on April 11.

Environment Minister Peter Kent insists this is a good news story, that Canada's 692 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 being down from 731 in 2005 demonstrates Canada is on track to de-coupling emissions growth from economic growth.

I was at a talk on dematerialization a few weeks ago, and one of the speakers told "the parable of the Prius" to illustrate Jevon's paradox that efficiency gains do not necessarily reduce energy consumption (and from a climate perspective, greenhouse gas emissions). In the case of buying a fuel-efficient Prius, one saves a lot on gas bills but may be inclined to drive more since the cost per mile has dropped. Even if mileage is constant, the proceeds could be spent on a vacation to Mexico, offsetting and perhaps then some in GHG terms, the savings out of the tailpipe. It's also possible that savings could be poured into energy efficiency improvements, and seems to me that a rising energy/carbon price can conquer the paradox.

Cities cover just two per cent of the world’s land area, yet they account for about 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the United Nations, 59 per cent of us now live in cities; in developing countries, 81 per cent of people are urbanites. And those figures are rising every day.

A bi-annual vehicle emissions test got me thinking about my personal carbon footprint. A lot of broad-brush numbers and calculators exist out there to calculate one's footprint, but I've never found them to be very reliable because they have to generalize across a very heterogeneous population in terms of location, type of dwelling and size, family size, and fuel sources.

With the spotlight on the federal government's aggressive push to export tar sands bitumen via the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, and from there by tanker on to China, the B.C. government reclaimed some attention on the energy file when it released its Natural Gas Strategy last week. With lots of glossy pages, but little detailed content, it is reflective of Premier Clark's signature style. The short of it is that shale gas from B.C.'s Northeast is to be pipelined to Kitimat and loaded onto tankers in liquid form (LNG) to be exported to China.