Green grow the balance sheets oh!

The morning after the world of pop and rock jetted to Wembley to tell us about climate change, a browse through the Sunday paper...

Nearly 12 pages of the 40-page main section of The Observer are given over to advertising. Top categories are:

• electricity, IT services and electrical goods (30 per cent of the advertising space)
• cars (25 per cent)
• financial services (14 per cent)
• holidays and flights (8 per cent)

Perhaps more revealing than these figures is the fact that 40 per cent of space is given over to advertisements that make environmental claims. A few are summarised below, without any lawyer-baiting discussion about the claims made:

• A satellite TV system switches itself off at night, transforming its dozing customers into 'eco-warriors';
• A credit card gives 50 per cent of its profits to climate change projects (thereby helping a cute wide-eyed baby);
• A bank is carbon-neutral, as illustrated by equally cute polar bears;
• A small car-manufacturer questions 'why spend 2 litres of petrol to get one litre of milk?';
• An IT firm points out that its inkjet cartridges are recycled through their 'Planet Partners' programme.

Keep shopping. Save the world.