Last updated 11:40, Thursday, 15 May 2008

THERE was a long debate in the supermarket the other day about my carbon footprint.

Cherries are my favourite fruit. The ones on display looked particularly luscious and juicy. Looks in this case proved accurate. They were superb.

Just one catch. These cherries came from America. Should I really be buying food that’s flown half way round the world to get to Cumbria, my friend asked.

Bystanders soon became embroiled in a good natured argument. I could buy the strawberries instead, one suggested. But then I looked at the packaging – “produce of Spain.” More carbon dripping off my anti-environmental footwear.

These days it’s difficult enough to engage in any debate, whether it’s about race, sex, art or the weather, without causing offence to some minority interest. But at least it’s still legal in this country to try and exercise freedom of speech.

Unless that freedom extends to the holy cow of the green movement – global warming and climate change.

I’m suspicious of people who preach environment then want to cover our magnificent hillsides with giant wind turbines that can’t operate half the time anyway.

When did that awful word “sustainability” creep into our language? One of the definitions in my dictionary is to “endure.”

That’s how it seems most of the time. A word used by greens to cover a variety of ideas, most of which rely on our endurance. Doing without cherries, for example.

Now the Government has some crazy plan to set up a series of eco towns across this green and pleasant land, each with up to 20,000 zero carbon houses.

They will no doubt have inspectors to come round and ensure not only is your loft lagged and your wall insulated, but that there are no cherries secreted away in your food cupboard.

But you daren’t voice your suspicions too loudly. The one thing you can not question is the mantra of the environmentalists. Otherwise they will probably string you up from the nearest windmill and pelt you with non-sustainable fruit.

Or worse, talk at you in the unrelenting, hectoring manner that so many greens adopt these days.