Shopping has become a private affair. Obvious consumption does not look good during a depr

ession , which explains why so many of us are accepting e-commerce. Online shopping on these shores is projected to grow from sales of ￡ 8.9bn to around ￡ 21.3bn by the end of 2, 011.

Often people proclaim they've accepted e-commerce because it's "green". This is understandable. If many shopping bags in a depression looks bad, bricks and mortar retail — huge out-of-town shopping centres, retail shopping center that insist on leaving their doors open even in winter and grocery stores full of the most inefficient freezers — look terrible during an ecological emergency.

Should we buy the idea that e-commerce is any better？ Several studies have tried to answer this with cold, hard data.

A 2, 000 study on Webvan, a now disappearing US online grocer, concluded that a wider a-doption of e-commerce would not give us environmental gains, while a 2, 002 study of US book retailing found no greater energy savings selling online. But the study that all e-tailers are talking a-bout is a new one from Carnegie Mellon University, which has found that shopping online via Buy. corn's e-commerce model for electronic products uses 35 percent less energy consumption and C02 emissions than a traditional bricks model.

This is largely because it avoids the usual retail distribution model and, of course, the impact of consumers driving to a store. And, from the shopper's perspective, online buying often allows you to avoid the desire for retail.

But both models are flawed, because online or on the high street, retailers are dependent on a hydrocarbon-fuelled delivery system. Trucks deliver 4. 8m tonnes of freight each day in the UK, which works out at about 80kg per person. To make matters worse, after a truck drops off the goods it often returns empty to the depot. A 2002 study of 20, 000 transportation trips found that only 2.4% of return journey legs found suitable backloads. This journey represents a large part of the impact of what we buy.

Online shopping may prove marginally more green in terms of energy saving, but we shouldn't forget progressive retail. Places such as Ludlow in Shropshire, a fairtrade town based on ethical trading ideas, where the independent high street has been hard won. It brings consumers face to face with products with shortened supply chain and with values. This is a wiser and wider retail experience; anything else could leave you feeling short change.

The main idea of the first paragraph is

A．The economy remains depression.

B．More and more people like to choose online shopping.

C．Shopping center are growing.

D．Online shopping is cheaper than shopping center.