A REPORTER AT LARGE about measuring carbon footprints and
trading carbon emissions. Writer tells about Sir Terry Leahy,
chief executive of the British supermarket chain Tesco, who
recently laid out a series of measures that he hoped would
ignite “a revolution in green consumption,” including the
development of a system of carbon labels for each of Tesco’s
seventy thousand products. A person’s carbon footprint is simply
a measure of his contribution to global warming. Possessing an
excessive carbon footprint is rapidly becoming the modern
equivalent of wearing a scarlet letter. Discusses the need to
reduce worldwide carbon emissions and the possible environmental
consequences if they are not reduced. Yet the calculations
required to assess the full environmental impact of how we live
can be dazzlingly complex. Writer visits a Tesco store and
interviews shoppers about how environmental concerns influence
their purchases. Tells about Walkers crisps, which became the
first food company in Britain to feature a car