Letter: How green are we?

From Holly Preston

I really enjoy reading your magazine, but I am curious to know how much Virgin paid for the full page advert for “Upper Class” service (18 October, p 4). It seems to me that in an issue about the folly of growth (18 October, p 40) to advertise a hugely carbon expensive means of travel for the business travellers who fuel this growth is a bit wrong.

In the same issue (of the UK edition) are adverts for cars, laptops and BP. The one that made me laugh most was for Land Rover. It is made green, apparently, because they have built a couple of wind turbines to power the Dagenham factory – while the top urban fuel consumption given at the bottom of the ad is a whopping 22.4 litres per 100 kilometres.

Given New Scientist‘s standing and position, wouldn’t it be a good idea only to advertise those companies that are really enabling a greener world?

And while we are on the subject, why are you still printing and distributing paper copies, rather then being fully online? What is the carbon cost of transporting these copies to those people who read it in the far-flung corners of the world?

Sorry, but all this just seems like common sense to me, and I’m only 13.

Yorkshire, UK