Is global warming driving industrialists and environmentalists crazy, world over?

A few days ago, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Colorado, released pictures and data on the receding ice-line of the Arctic sea ice. According to the report, the extent of the sea ice reduced to 4.52 million square kilometers, which, even in layman terms, looks alarming. Environmentalists and industrialists around the world, who are already concerned about the many ill-effects of global warming, are innovating and inventing many new technologies and ideas that may help reduce the emission of green house gases into the atmosphere. Green cars, solar energy and wind energy technologies are making a lot of appearances in newspapers and webzines around the world, enabling enough visibility to the people in both developed and developing countries.

I just came across an interesting piece of article from Live Science, that was talking about how Carbon Trust, a UK government non-profit initiative, is helping companies to keep a check on their carbon footprints they make while creating a food product. So, when you got to a grocery store and pick up a product, it will sport a label indicating the quantity of green house gas that was emitted while producing, packaging and shipping the product. Now, people will not only look for the calorific value in a food product, but also for the small ‘carbon footprint’ information tagged to it. This is expected to raise the literacy levels on green house gas and global warming for the people buying these products.

Well, practically speaking, I think consumers will be more interested in knowing how many calories the product serves, than on looking for the carbon footprint information. Even if they do and if the carbon footprint is higher than those similar products that are costlier, there is very little that can be done if the consumers prefer being economical. Alternatively, I think this labeling can have the desired effect if those companies with lesser carbon footprints are given incentives by the government, so that they can pass that benefit to the customers by pricing it cheaper. Anyways, we live in a capitalistic world governed by monetary ideals, and achieving the aforesaid thing is a bit difficult. What say you?

Let’s see how this initiative progresses. Good luck!