Tesco's Greener Living website

Tesco has launched a new Greener Living site, which they say "has been set up to help shoppers become more environmentally-savvy" They wrote to me asking whether I'd "be interested in writing a review or letting your readers know about it".

Pics: Left a Tesco ad and below art from Russ inspired by this blog entry!!!

Well I have real serious problems with such sites - yes they may reach out to people who perhaps wouldn't get that info or want to find out more - a sort of cuddly feel good very pale, pale green sort of thing.....but I think they can do more damage by making folk think they are doing what is needed....hey just a brief look has me very worried...under food they are talking about satsumas and lots of meat - how is that all green? And where is the mention of buying locally?

Indeed you have to question how serious Tesco are with there special airmile offers and this ridiculous ad above. As Ed Gillespie commented in The Guardian: "Supermarket's offer of air miles in exchange for low-energy light bulbs is like giving away a pack of Benson and Hedges with every Nicorette patch."

Indeed giving away air miles to incentivise the lightbulb swap is well just plain madness.

Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas has said in the past: "Did Wilberforce ask people to cut down from two slaves to one? Or Emmeline Pankhurst politely suggest that husbands might consult their wives before going out to vote?"

We need sweeping changes to our carbon emissions, not tweaks. The signs running up to the UN summit in Copenhagen, are not great. Playing down hopes is not what I want to hear - we need to maintain ambition that we can have a deal that is based on fairness and science. To have even a 50/50 chance of keeping global temperature rise below two degrees C, the industrialised countries need to adopt binding targets to reduce emissions by at least 40% by 2020, based on 1990 levels. Importantly, these reductions should be made domestically – not ‘outsourced’ to poorer countries.

I'm not sure Tesco will be asking me to review their site again - but let's face it if we are to tackle climate change we need to all be on board. If those Greener Living folks are reading this I would urge you to really develop the site to take account of what we know needs to happen. Tesco have made some steps but we need some serious moves in the right direction not playing at the edges.