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A closer look at some of the commandments of green living could greatly reduce your carbon footprint. Photograph: Getty

1. What they tell you: Turning off the lights saves CO2

What they don't tell you: It makes sense for individuals to use less electricity to help reduce the emissions of British power stations. However, it's worth bearing in mind that the total amount of CO2 that can be released by power plants and other industrial facilities across the EU between now and 2012 is fixed by the European Emissions Trading Scheme. This means that if the UK power sector reduces its emissions, extra carbon permits get freed up for use elsewhere, such as German power stations or French cement plants. In other words, the same amount of CO2 will be released, just from different sources. If you want to ensure that your electricity savings do make a real environmental difference, join Sandbag, a charity that will remove CO2 permits from the EU scheme to stop your good work being traded away on the carbon markets.

2. What they tell you: Buy a greener car

What they don't tell you: If you definitely need a new car, it makes perfect sense to buy a small, super-efficient model with low CO2 emissions. However, making a new car – including mining and processing the metals and manufacturing and assembling the components – takes a huge amount of energy. According to an expert at the Stockholm Environment Institute, the production of a typical modern car causes around 8 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to driving 23,000 miles. Because of this, unless you currently drive a lot in a highly inefficient car, it will often be greener to stick to your existing vehicle than to sell it and buy a new one.

3. What they tell you: Going veggie cuts emissions

What they don't tell you: It's true that animal products tend to have much higher carbon footprint than food produced from plants. Hence vegetarianism tends to be a good idea from an environmental point of view. The devil is in the detail, however, because certain dairy products are more "carbon intensive" than some meats. In particular hard cheese, which takes a lot of milk to produce, can have a bigger footprint per kilo than chicken. So while cutting out meat – especially beef and lamb – definitely makes ecological sense, the benefit will be reduced if you make up the calories by consuming more dairy. The most effective way to reduce the emissions of your diet is to go vegan – or as close as you can get.

4. What they tell you: Don't overfill the kettle

What they don't tell you: It's not just how much water you boil that determines the carbon footprint of your tea or coffee, but also the type of kettle you use. Jug kettles are fast and convenient, but their fuel – electricity from the national grid – produces almost three times more greenhouse gas for each unit of heat than burning gas in the home does. Hence switching to a stove-top kettle on a gas cooker will usually reduce emissions – especially in colder months when any heat from the flames that escapes around the side of the kettle will warm the room, reducing the burden on the central heating system.

5. What they tell you: Use more efficient appliances

What they don't tell you: Choosing highly energy-efficient appliances is one good way to ensure that routine tasks such as dishwashing and laundry don't create more carbon pollution than necessary. But there are other ways, too, such as simply running your machines at night. In the daytime, when electricity consumption is at its highest, the dirtiest, least efficient power stations are rolled out to help meet peak demand. At night, when demand is lower, these power stations can be switched off, which means that each unit of electricity has a lower carbon footprint. Turning your washing machine and dishwasher on before you go to bed therefore shaves a little off your carbon footprint by "spreading the load" on the electricity grid – though the difference isn't as huge as some websites have claimed.

6. What they tell you: Sign up with us, we provide 100% renewable electricity

What they don't tell you: Various electricity companies promise to provide customers with power from renewable sources. This gives the impression that by signing up you'll be increasing the amount of clean electricity being produced. The truth is rather more complex. The government requires a certain proportion of UK electricity to come from renewable sources. If an electricity company exceeds this target by generating most or all of its power from renewables it can sell its extra green electricity credits to other companies which in turn can avoid producing any green power themselves. The net effect is that not very much changes. That's not to say don't sign up, but if you do use a green power supplier don't expect your electricity to suddenly be carbon-neutral, no matter what the adverts suggest.

7. What they tell you: Wood fires are green

What they don't tell you: If you burn the wood in an open fire, the majority of the energy in the wood will be lost up the chimney. Assuming it comes from properly managed forests, however, wood is a green fuel because the CO2 released when it gets burned will be sucked from the air by the trees planted to replace the felled ones. The inefficient burning typical in a fireplace also creates plenty of soot. Like CO2, soot warms the atmosphere by absorbing heat from the sun – and it can also travel thousands of miles to settle on Arctic ice, where it accelerates melting by darkening the surface. A much better option environmentally is a log-burning stove. These capture most of the heat from the fuel, greatly reducing the amount of wood required, and they slash soot emissions too. Some modern stoves are so clean-burning that they can even be used in smoke-free zones.

8. What they tell you: Use eco detergents

What they don't tell you: "Ecological" washing up liquids and clothes detergents offer an environmental benefit by favouring rapidly biodegradable, low-toxicity, plant-based ingredients over harsher synthetic ones. However, when it comes to climate change, most of the footprint of washing up or cleaning clothes is not caused by producing the detergent but by heating the water. Hence the most effective way to cut emissions is simply to be sparing with hot water when washing up and to use low temperature cycles for laundry. If you find a 30-degree wash sufficient with an ecological powder, then that's ideal; if not, then arguably it would be better to use a more powerful detergent rather than turn up the temperature dial.

9. What they tell you: Reusable nappies are better for the planet

What they don't tell you: It's true that disposable nappies occupy a lot of space in landfill sites and consume a fairly large amount of oil in their production. However, an in-depth study from the Environment Agency (pdf) found that the total impact on global warming could be slightly higher for washables than for disposables. Washables can have a lower carbon footprint, but only if you have an energy-efficient washing machine, use a 60-degree wash cycle, limit yourself to 24 nappies, and don't tumble dry or iron them. Nappy washing services have the highest footprint of all.

10. What they tell you: Buy local

What they don't tell you: The transport of goods accounts for a small but significant proportion of the human impact on the climate. It generally makes environmental sense, therefore, to favour local food and other products. However, it's not always true that local is best. One study suggested that lamb from New Zealand, with its clean energy and rich pastures, has a lower footprint when consumed in the UK than locally produced lamb, despite the long-distance shipping. Another study showed that cut flowers sold in Britain that had been grown in distant but sunny Kenya had a smaller carbon footprint than those grown in heated greenhouses in Holland. So while transport is important, it's not the only factor to consider.

• The examples above are all drawn from the Rough Guide to Green Living, which was published this month.

I'm a luke warm (for the sake of the environment you understand) green campaigner. I hope these myth busters don't put you off doing "your bit" but make you wiser in the way you do it.

Australia’s venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships, a wildlife expert warned Wednesday. The spiders, named after their fiery markings, have infested the Osaka region and are drawing closer to Tokyo, said Japan Wildlife Research Centre official Toshio Kishimoto.

A dozen people have reportedly been bitten in Osaka Prefecture alone, media reports say, including a six-year-old boy who was treated with antivenom in June, the first time the medication had been used in the country.

“Their poison is strong and they are particularly dangerous to people in weak physical condition, like children and the elderly,” Kishimoto said.

“Redbacks are becoming a common species in Japan. They are very numerous, especially in the western region, and are now often sighted in residential areas. Once the spiders spread, it’s hard to eliminate them.”

Redback bites, which inject a potent neurotoxin, have caused numerous deaths in Australia, although an antivenom stocked in hospitals has prevented fatalities more recently.

Redbacks were first spotted in Japan in 1995, around Osaka, a major port where, experts believe, they may have arrived in a container of Australian woodchips used to make paper in Japan.

Several years ago, a major redback infestation was found in the street drainage system of the city, and the arachnids have now spread to prefectures covering roughly a third of the country.

Kishimoto said Japanese people must become more aware of the dangers of redbacks, a species long feared in Australia, where the creatures are known to lurk in garden sheds, in shoes left outdoors, and under toilet seats.

“People need to be warned on how to treat them, and to be careful when they’re out cleaning ditches, and to wear thick cotton gloves for example,” said Kishimoto.

Corporate Social Responsibility News: CSR Minute: Climate Counts Corporate Scorecard; Intn'l Oeko-Tex Assoc/Textile Insight's Sustainability Panel

Although world leaders fail to reach a binding climate agreement this year in Copenhagen, there is still hope and action at the grassroots level.  Expert web hosting service, Site5, is doing their part.  Site5 has partnered with mokugift to plant a tree for every new hosting account.

“Tree-planting with new accounts is a natural extension of Site5’s existing environmental philosophy.  Site5’s business was designed around a remote workforce which is the greenest possible option for a company.  None of Site5’s employees drive to work.  Virtually all of Site5’s operations is waste free, excluding the last few vendors and partners that haven’t gone paperless yet.” explained Ben Welch-Bolen, CEO of Site5. 

The vast majority of the impact Site5 has on the environment is through the electricity our servers and related equipment use. Luckily for Site5, with today's energy prices, being green and being cost effective can go hand in hand. Site5 is constantly working to reduce costs and environmental impact by leveraging new technologies to lower power consumption, using natural DC cooling technology, and using virtualization software to scale efficiently. 

Site5 takes a pragmatic approach of eliminating impact where it can and working with environmental organizations such as Mokugift to counter impact areas that are unavoidable.

Mokugift’s enables progressive, fast-moving companies, like Site5, to plant a real tree as a gift for customers at $1 apiece.  Mokugift trees are planted by farmers practicing environmentally sustainable forestry and agricultural methods in tropical zones in Central America, Africa and Asia. The plantings not only restock, with native trees, existing forests that have been depleted, but also contribute to more diverse, productive and economically sustainable land-use systems.

An official partner of UNEP, mokugift not only empowers corporations and individuals to participate in the Billion Tree Campaign, it also provides the tools to inspire others to participate. Tree planting is an easy first step towards more environmentally responsible choices, and Mokugift enables every company and individual concerned about climate change to make a difference and inspire others to do likewise.  It is grass roots action like Site5’s environmental programs that will show world leaders that the citizens and corporate citizens of our planet demand an environmentally sustainable future.

About Site5

Site5, founded in 1999, provides quality web hosting to individuals, small businesses, and enterprise clients. Our customer service team is 100% in house and we provide guarantees on our uptime and quality of support. Our current hosting philosophy is based on guaranteed performance. While other hosts may try to cram as many accounts as possible on shared servers, we have used our years of experience and the technical analysis performed by our technical gurus to determine exactly how many accounts we should be putting on any given server. In addition, we are continually upgrading our hardware platforms to be among the best in the industry.

We are so confident you will love our web hosting and customer service that we offer a free 30 day trial. Just use the coupon code "FREETRIAL" to try us today!

About UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign
Launched in November 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the objective of encouraging the planting of at least one billion trees worldwide each year, “Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign” is now recognized as one of the UN’s most successful environmental campaigns. To date, UNEP has tracked the planting of more than three billion trees in 166 countries. Now in its second stage, the campaign, which stresses the power of partnerships, has set a new goal of seven billion trees planted before the end of 2009—roughly one tree for every living person on the planet.  Every tree counts, and UNEP counts every tree.

For more information on the UNEP’s billion tree campaign, please visit http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/

About mokugift
A social venture focused on customer experience and tangible, positive benefit to the environment and society, Mokugift makes it easy and rewarding to plant trees, for $1 apiece, through online “gifting.” Giving a mokugift tree is similar to sending an e-card, and recipients can proudly display their trees online at Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo!, and 50 other popular Web sites.

An official partner of the United Nations Environment Programme's Billion Tree Campaign, mokugift collaborates with award-winning nonprofit agroforestry organizations such as Trees For The Future and Sustainable Harvest International to plant trees in twelve countries: Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burundi, Senegal, Zambia, India, the Philippines and Haiti.  Using environmentally sustainable methods, farmers in these countries plant mokugift trees to restock existing forests and enable more diverse, productive and economically sustainable land-use systems.

For more information on mokugift, please visit http://www.mokugift.com

Originally found over at grist This is the epitome of truth in advertising. Humble Oil eventually made its way to being the not-so-humble Exxon and now produces enough energy to melt 914 tons of glacier per SECOND.

The ad copy reads in part:

Each day Humble supplies enough energy to melt 7 million tons of glacier!
The giant glacier has remained unmelted for centuries. Yet the petroleum energy Humble supplies -- if converted into heat -- could melt it at the rate of 80 tons each second.