It seems that Canada is not alone in introducing taxes with the stated purpose of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. In the United Kingdom (UK), the Chancellor (Finance Minister) Allen Darling has just introduced a "green levy" that will double the tax on motor vehicles yet reduce total vehicle emissions by less than 1%.

This tax is similar to the "feebate" tax on vehicles introduced by the Conservative government in its 2006 budget. Similar to what is happening now in the UK, this tax on vehicles was introduced despite indications it would have virtually no impact on the total amount of emissions produced by motor vehicles.

In Canada, a 1995 report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy specifically recommended against a feebate tax on new vehicles. It concluded that potential buyers are encouraged to hang on to their dirty old clunkers longer when the price of new vehicles rises, even though new vehicles are more efficient than older ones regardless of size.

The other problem with so-called "green solutions" is that they can have unintended consequences. For example, many thought corn-based ethanol was a "greener" alternative to oil, but now this does not appear to be the case.

According to a recent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) article , the grain required to fill the gas tank of a mid-sized van is sufficient to feed a person for a year. The same article reported that the cultivation of corn for ethanol in the U.S. and Canada requires fossil fuel at every stage of production and consumes at least 30% more energy than the finished ethanol fuel produces. The process of cultivation also requires significant capital outlay and increased application of pesticides and fertilizers.

In addition to the inefficiency of the ethanol-production process, the diversion of land and production facilities away from wheat and other feed grains to corn has contributed to higher food prices and threatens several under-developed countries with mass starvation. This clearly raises the question, "What is the human cost of a ton of CO2?"