The World Wildlife Federation just released its 2010 Living Planet report, which includes more than 100 exceptionally uplifting pages about how, at this rate of consumption, we would need about 1.5 planets to sustain our habits. By 2030 the federation estimates we'll need two.

I think it's safe to say you could probably file this under "They needed a study to figure this crap out?" although it's always nice to have impending doom drawn out in purple and green graphs alongside pictures of pandas.

Canadians, as usual, were high up on the WWF's carbon footprint list, coming seventh behind such environmentally friendly nations as the United Arab Emirates, Estonia and the United States. We couldn't get onto the UN Security Council, but we fit into this exclusive club quite easily.

As Ian Robertson pointed out in his column here a couple weeks ago, Delta council recently set a goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 30 per cent by 2020. Then he pointed out that since our trajectory is currently going in the opposite direction, this won't be too easy to achieve.

I'm not going to be the one to draw a line between the potatoes rotting in Delta's fields and our tendency to abuse the planet, because someone would surely write in saying that's presumptuous, but things aren't looking too good, are they?

On one hand, it's really, really great that Delta's farmers are getting as much media and political attention as they are, but on the other hand, it's because people are throwing around words like "disaster" and "out of business."

The B.C. Vegetable Marketing Commission estimates that over 2,900 acres of potatoes and 4,622 aces of vegetables have been lost so far, and MLA Vicki Huntington speculated it is the worst season for farmers in 80 years.

You can give the municipality kudos for buying hybrids, installing solar panels and running the Climate Smart program for local businesses -- the steps Delta has taken definitely put some other municipalities to shame -- but without a concrete yet outside-the-box plan, that 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases won't be reached.

You can go ahead and blame the following suggestion on me being a young idealist who can't afford a car and doesn't have a mortgage, but Delta needs to do something radical. We can't afford not to.

Canadians care about the environment and aren't naive about what is happening to it, but for a real reduction in emissions to happen we need gutsy leadership from our politicians.

Recycling, lowering your thermostat, using energy efficient lights and hopping on the beloved 601 more often are good steps to take, but that's kind of like trying to save money when you're raking in a good salary -- you might cut your spending here and there, but you'll still be leading a good life.