Amazon is rightly named.

Who hasn’t had a delivery where the box was numerous times bigger that the small item inside, containing layer upon layer of paper to wedge the purchase steady inside a box the cat would be happy to lie in? I won’t name the worst offender, but here’s a clue; The name is the same as a forest that is being decimated at ever-increasing rates.

It is no coincidence then, that the number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data? The area cut down was five times larger than last year, the highest January total since records began in 2015.

The two years involved were the ones involved in the greatest restrictions on movement ever. Ordering online was, for many people, the only way to get items not deemed “essential”. Though try working from home when your PC has crashed due to a corrupted drive. What’s essential then?

Coupled with the increase in delivery packaging, plastic is now seemingly a cause of concern, so the use of paper bags and cartons is flourishing. Supermarkets will let you take home a huge box to put your shopping in, but not a flimsy carrier bag.

So the next time a politician tells you there’s a CO2 crisis, how about asking them how they think chopping down an area once known as the “lungs of the world” is going to help? Brazil alone is not to blame, but all the politicians that have, once again, skewed the market to create unreal demand.

Martin Day – Party Secretary