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Canadians can be an insufferably smug bunch, not least in popular conceit that we're somehow more commendably ethical and responsible than those philistines south of the border in environmental matters, so it is with balloon-pricking amusement that we see Canada finishing dismally second-last in a recent 14-country National Geographic Society survey ranking consumer habits and how they affect the environment, beating only last-place America.

The study found consumers in developed countries, with more environmentally-friendly options to choose from, typically don't take advantage of them, living in larger homes, centrally-heated and often air-conditioned, own more cars, driving alone frequently while walking, bicycling, and using public transport less than consumers in less-developed countries.

In short, while Canadians like to talk the green talk, few of us are evidently willing to walk the green walk, at least if it actually involves actually walking or other inconveniences. Commenting on the National Geographic report to CTV News, Environment Minister John Baird called the study a "wake-up call," but trotted out the old rationalization that Canadians have to use more energy because "we're a northern country where it's cold. Obviously, Florida would use demonstrably less energy than we would."

Well, Florida has a pretty bad environmental track record too, profligate energy use for air-conditioning there probably pretty much canceling out our heating-cost handicap. Canada's oil consumption of 68.703 bbl/day per 1,000 population virtually matches America's 68.838 bbl/day per 1,000. In any case, boilerplate "colder climate" and "longer distances" excuses come up lame compared with those sharing similar climatic and geographical characteristics.

A report by the Conference Board of Canada entitled "How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada," ranked this country 14th out of 17 industrialized countries on a range of environmental indicators (Belgium, Australia and the United States did worse) and deflating the "colder winters" defense, the top three environmental performers, Sweden, Finland and Norway, are all farther north with longer, darker winters than the latitudes where most Canadians live. Norway even has an oil and gas industry, and is the third largest exporter of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia and Russia, while still managing to remain much greener consumer behaviour.

Not that Norwegians live in poverty and austerity. Per-capita income there is $65,509, greater than Canada's, but the country conducts its high living standard more responsibly. And even though Norwegian energy consumption is more than three times higher than the world average, it's still only 65 per cent of Canadian and US figures on a per capita basis.

The the U.S. and Canada consume almost 3 gallons of oil per day per capita, while the Europeans in general do roughly twice as well with about 1.5 gallons of oil consumed per capita, per day. In metric terms, people in the U.K. use some 5.0 L of oil per day as opposed to 8.9 L in Canada, or 1.78 times as much. On greenhouse gases, Canadians annually belch out some 23 tonnes per capita of CO2 equivalent or just a hair better than the U.S. at 24 tonnes per capita, while heavily-industrialized Germany and Japan emit 12 tonnes and 11 tonnes per capita respectively.

As for those "long distances," according to Statistics Canada 77 per cent of Canadians live in urban centres where distances between homes workplaces, and shopping are not necessarily greater than in other countries, although urban sprawl of North American cities makes automobile use less optional than in typically more compact and densely-populated European and Scandinavian cities and would be a contributing factor in our higher per capita oil energy consumption.

Canadian homes have also almost tripled in square footage since 1950, which increases heating and energy demands commensurately. Canadians also use more water than anyone in the industrialized world except the Americans - 1,500 cubic metres per person per year. Among the 30 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development member nations, Canada ranks 28th in performance on energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution according to a 2004 David Suzuki Foundation report: "Sustainability Within a Generation: A new vision for Canada."

We also covet our domestic comforts, conveniences, toys, and amusements - central winter heating and air-conditioning in summer, fresh produce and fruit year-round, lots of red meat (beef requires eight times more energy to produce than vegetables), daily (or more frequent) hot showers, dishwashers, clothes-dryers, other power-sucking home appliances, big-screen TVs, computers and video games, power lawn and yard tools, lawn-watering in summer, speedboats and jetskis, RVs, ATVs, motorbikes and snowmobiles, long summer road trips and winter vacations in Florida, Mexico and Cuba. If the whole world lived like us, it would require the resources and capacity of four planets. Whatever else Canadians are, green R not us.

Charles W. Moore is a Nova Scotia based freelance writer and editor. He can be reached by e-mail at cwmoore@gmx.net. His column appears each Thursday.