W2B-037 Groundwater - Ecology-1.txt
enfo information for the environment GROUND RULES FOR THE GREEN CONSUMER
Green is the colour to be these days as environmental awareness grows. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the 'greening' of supermarket shelves. But how does a consumer evaluate the 'environment friendly' claims of products? Here, David Jeffrey explains some fundamental concepts and, as an aid, suggests a set of green consumer demands.

From the ecologist's perspective the globe is being struck by the hammer of human population growth against an anvil of pollution and resource exploitation. The human race is depleting non-renewable resources, creating pollution and causing massive adverse changes in living systems. These changes increase the extinction rate of organisms and impair the functioning of ecosystems.

All these ills may be placed at the door of the consumer, and the spirit of the age is to respond positively in some way. 'Green consumerism' is already up and running, being sent on its way by the advertising industry.

However, the ground-rules are not yet laid down for truly meaningful efforts on the consumers' behalf. It is the environmental scientists' nightmare that this 'green' wave will pass, leaving little trace on either political or domestic consciousness. On the other hand, injection of ecological ideas may lead to some working principles. These may persist, and be incorporated into education and policy.
SOME BASIC IDEAS
Environment: The best simple definition is:'surrounding for living things'. It includes the chemical and physical conditions represented by climate, soil, air and water. These conditions have an intense effect on the interactions between organisms in communities and ecosystems. Altering them, 'impacting' is the buzz word, has an effect on all living things within range.

'Environmental friendliness?' There are no truly 'environment friendly' products. Each transaction which people make leaves an environmental trace. This is as true in the developing world as in our own, but we consume some 25 time more products per capita. The only thing we can try to evaluate are comparative impacts on a unit-product basis.

Phases of impact: The interaction between a product and the environment starts at the earliest stages in manufacture, continues through a 'use' phase and persists to 'post-use' or disposal. Consumerism tends to be over focused on the 'use' phase, by analogy with good value for money to the user.
