Monday, July 20, 2009

Home Comforts

Is it greener to shop online?

Well, now you can ask.leo.and.lucy@guardian.co.uk... um... online

Living in the heart of a market town we have no need of the food aspect. However, my missus pretty much gets all her gear via the web. Working from home I accept the parcels in, dispatch the rejects back, and appreciate the results retained.

Hard to say whether the planet is better served, but for sure she is not driving off at the weekend hither and thither, and better yet me and the boys are not in tow.

However, this all seems a) rather complex to get one's head around and b) possibly not something worth obsessing about too much. Until we're knocked back to the stone age and are born, live work and die within ten miles of a self-sustaining community it seems rather fanciful tinkering.

If money were no object, I would buy that joint of lamb from our local butchers, who sources just down the road. But I'd do it for flavour mainly. We now have a news Sainsbury's and I got a truly lovely bit of meat for one third the price... all the way from New Zealand. Eco-shame? Well, maybe not, if the various conflicting food mile arguments fly (sorry).

In fact, this debate could shape up like any climate change one, keeping lot of extreme views negatively preoccupied and the majority of us in the middle in the dark and simply confused and slighly uneasy.

Still, as a data junkie the tip about shoeboxx as a way of moving away from and/or filing receipts was worth it. I wonder way the graphic has $ in it?

No comments: