Careful Consumption Alone Can't Save the World's Fish

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by danlewer

Sure - the idea is that 'fast moving consumer goods' (which generally means anything that is cheap, you don't take long to decide to buy and is often sold in a supermarket) will have information on the packaging showing how much carbon dioxide (or other greenhouse gases) has been released during production. The thinking behind this is that consumers are prepared to spend more on green products and labelling will allow this preference to be reflected in the market.

Tesco has announced that it is developing its own scheme, and just yesterday DEFRA (the UK's environment department) said it will work to develop a standard system - http://inbalance.wordpress.com/2007/...eco-labelling/

Dan

Thanks Dan. I see the fly in the ointment as the determining of these numbers can be highly subjective and subject to prejudice. Do you think the numbers for beef would be skewed if the head of PETA determined them? That's a ridiculous extreme but you see where I'm going.

Also, if you choose A, the carbon number is 10% less than B, but bringing A to market fouls half the Worlds fresh water in the process, you really can't make an intelligent choice based on the carbon number alone.

Nobody has ever invented a system, that I can't criticize.