As David Suzuki and SFU economist Nancy Olewiler note in a Vancouver Sun article today (September 22), "addressing climate change is one of the biggest environmental and economic challenges confronting our society."

It's such a huge challenge that we expect real leadership and real solutions from the people we elect to government. But governments often do what is politically expedient in the short term without considering the long-term implications. Such is the case with cuts to the diesel tax.

As Dr. Suzuki and Ms. Olewiler point out, the tax cut "is the textbook case of a band-aid solution that doesn't necessarily help the economy, clearly hurts the environment and costs the government a lot in terms of lost revenues that could be used to enhance both the economy and environment."

Yes, the trucking industry has been hurting, and it's something we all end up paying for, as the cost of transporting goods we all need goes up. But the price of nonrenewable fossil fuels like diesel will continue to rise with or without taxes, so finding ways to reduce reliance on these fuels, though measures such as fuel-efficiency retrofits for trucks, would be much more beneficial. Measures such as tax cuts that keep us on the same unsustainable road will only lead to a dead end. Using revenues from taxes to provide real solutions will lead to a brighter future.