Google Earth has recently released a set of new tools to illustrate the scale of climate change and deforestation. Along with greater detail than ever on the rainforests of Amazon, Madagascar and Borneo, they also include audio tours narrated by Al Gore. They do a great job of highlighting how breathtaking, and precious our rainforests are and how the protection of them is a crucial step in fighting climate change.
CleanTechnica has more information and of course the maps and tours can be found at Google Earth.

Carbon offsetting has a mixed reputation around the world. Some view it as a wonderful thing - providing an easy way for everyone to lower their carbon footprints and push us all towards a greener future. Others however regard it at best as a counterproductive idea which draws attention away from cutting emissions and at worst a cynical method by which big businesses can pollute all they like whists still being able to tick their little 'green checkbox'. In reality it is a combination of the two - it is a genuine way to invest in renewable energies which provide great benefit to the world and help us down the road to sustainability but it is a system that can definitely be abused. The focus should still remain on cutting overall emissions - if you're producing carbon dioxide then you're still contributing to global warming, no matter what you are contributing to carbon offset schemes.
 
However the schemes that exist, if used properly, can be very very beneficial. They range from investment in renewable technologies such as wind and hydroelectric power to sustainably managed forestry to carbon capture systems to systems for the safe destruction of industrial pollutants. All of these are vital for the future sustainability of our energy needs and the survival of the planet which the arguable exception of carbon capture systems
Carbon capture relies simply on generating power with fossil fuels as normal but capturing the emissions and storing them in underground geological formations, trapping them under impermeable rocks or injecting directly into the ocean at very deep levels. Underground storage is, by it's very nature, unsustainable and unreliable and ocean storage contributes to the acidification of the oceans which is incredibly harmful to ocean life and will fairly quickly leak back into the atmosphere anyway.
 
If you really want to help the environment, first look at ways to cut down your own emissions - insulate your home, turn your heating down a degree or two, use your car less etc. Then if you want to offset the emissions you do generate look at the carbon offset companies out there and the projects they run and pick the ones with the best eco-credentials. I am a big believer in the eco-tariffs available from most energy companies - for a small subsidy the best ones guarantee that for every unit of energy you use a unit will be generated from a sustainable source. Since it's the energy companies that do the bulk of the polluting, directly helping push them away from fossil fuels and towards renewable power generation is one of the best ways to help our planet.

Freegle (formerly Freecycle in the UK - see here) is growing in popularity on a daily basis yet I'm still surprised and how few people use it. It's a fantastic example of how a simple idea implemented correctly can help individuals and the environment in a genuine win-win situation.
Basically Freegle is a free mailing list (or to be more precise, a collection of mailing lists - one for most major towns in the UK) to which people send a message if they have something they need to get rid of. This message arrives in the inbox of all subscribers and if anyone wants the item they simply reply and arrange collection. It's an unwritten rule that the receiver collects making it a very beneficial service for the giver too when they have bulky items that need shifting.
So unwanted items find homes that need them and every item that is 'freegled' is an item that doesn't end up as landfill.
 
Visit http://www.ilovefreegle.org for more information and to sign up to your local group.

Let me share with you one of the saddest sights I ever saw.
A couple of years ago I was in South Africa spending a month on safari learning to be a field guide. It was a fantastic experience but very hard work. We were up at 5.30 am every day for a quick cup of coffee before heading out into the bush to learn the the trade of the guide. Lessons would end at about 6pm giving us time for a shower and some dinner before flaking out in front of the camp fire.
In all this time we had a single day off two weeks in. A group of had hired a car to go and explore some of the local sights - we had heard wonderful things about the local waterfalls and beautiful forest trails where we could see even more wildlife.
Now of course at most of these locations there were groups of tradespeople selling local arts and crafts. The stalls would be lined up at the side of the road or the end of the car park and they would be flogging everything from oranges to Springbok-skin hats.
The most beautiful spot we saw that day was a huge lush valley with a massive waterfall at the opposite side - it wasn't on our map as a particular tourist spot but as we came out of a road tunnel the land opened up to the side of us revealing this breathtaking landscape and we had to stop for a look and a couple of photographs. The locals had realised that many tourists would be doing a similar thing and had set up camp on the edge of the drop into the valley.
Just as we were taking our snaps and perusing the craftwork on offer one of the tradesmen stood up, grabbed the plastic bottle from which he'd been drinking and hurled it over the edge into the valley. I was quite shocked by this particularly since it was a local (who clearly used this valley as his main income) doing this horrible act of littering. I then walked over to the edge of the valley and looked down to see a whole stream of litter descending from the edge down and out of sight under the vegetation at the bottom of the valley. There were literally hundreds of plastic bottles and bags (which will not degrade for at least 500 years) scattered all the way down and I was close to tears thinking about how much this was hurting all the wildlife which, before these people arrived, were living in paradise.
I saw similar things in Morocco - mostly plastic bags that you would see in their thousands lining the roads, caught in bushes etc. but, although terrible, this seemed more a case of negligence than the active destruction I saw in South Africa.
 
As I understand it there are three main reasons behind this sort of pollution in less developed countries:
Education - many simply do not realise the damage they are doing
Lack of waste disposal services, particularly in more rural areas
Plastics are a relatively new product in many places and people are used to their waste being bio-degradable so still treat it all the same.
 
Damn it makes me sad

There has been a lot of talk about green energy tariffs lately and how (for a small increase to your monthly bill) you can help the planet by going low or zero carbon in your home. Now many people dismiss these as gimmicks or come out with the same old tired line that it's up to the government to produce clean energy and why should we pay more for it?
Well here's a newsflash - clean energy is growing fast and getting a great deal of investment from many sectors including the government but if we really want to help the planet we have to do our bit too. So I thought what better way to encourage this than to do a rundown of the top green energy tariffs offered in the UK.

British Gas

Zero Carbon gives you a genuine zero carbon footprint for your home at least for an average increase of £7.50 on your monthly bill (assuming you are a dual fuel customer). The endless calls trying to get a word of sense out of British Gas' customer support team however will cause an average increase of £10.42 on your monthly phone bill.
Future Energy is basically giving British Gas an extra £3 a month (on average) that they promise to invest in renewable energies which they will then supply back to the national grid.

E.On

E.On are focusing on an overall 'green attitude' with great investment in offshore wind farms and an extensive portfolio outlining their future plans for green energy production.
They have one business and one domestic 100% green tariff - EasyGreen and Go Green respectively. Both match every unit you use with a unit from a renewable source.

Scottish Power

Green Energy Fund is quite simple - as they say on the site "Each year, no matter how much or how little energy you use, a fixed amount of £10.50 (inc. VAT) is automatically donated to the Green Energy Trust on your behalf". So it's exactly the same as you setting up an 88p a month direct debit to trust yourself. Well as they say - something is better than nothing!
Green Energy H..2..O is a plan that matches every unit you use with one generated at one of Scottish Power's own hydro-electric plants. To encourage you on to this plan they also offer you an (average) discount of £16.80 a year if you use them for dual fuel (of course some fairly substantial Terms and Conditions apply). This is the first tariff I've seen where it could actually be cheaper to go green.
 

NPower

Juice is a tariff that matches your energy consumption unit for unit (although based on an estimate of your usage) with energy from renewable sources. They also claim it will cost you nothing extra on top of your monthly bills and there is even an £80 discount if you switch to it for gas and electricity (£20 discount if you just switch one). I'm very impressed by this.
 

Green Energy UK

Green Energy UK only have two tariffs - Deep Green and Pale Green. Deep Green being 100% renewable energy and Pale Green being a combination of renewable and 'low impact' combined heat and power generators. They don't give any indication of their pricing relative to other providers but have great eco-credentials.
 

Good Energy

Good Energy claim to be the UK's only 100% renewable energy provider. they don't have different tariffs but claim their weekly premium is "equivalent to 2 pints of beer or an average bottle of plonk" - so about a fiver a week then?
 

Ecotricity

New Energy uses power from Ecotricity's own wind turbines topped up with normal power from the National Grid. Currently the percentage of their own wind power is 30% and rising by 10% a year.
New Energy Plus uses power from Ecotricity's own wind turbines as above topped up with renewable energy from other sources making it a 100% renewable tariff. They claim the premium to be in the region of £20 a year for the average household.
 

The Verdict

Well it's hard to tell what the catches are for any of these plans without signing up yourself but certainly on paper I'd say that Scottish Power's Green Energy H..2..O and NPower's Juice are looking like the best bet. I very much admire these new smaller energy providers with fantastic green credentials but economies of scale mean often that the bigger companies are generally able to provide the same level service for a better price.

Generating your own energy though photovoltaic cells (solar panels), wind turbines or even micro-hydro generators is really not as difficult or expensive as people seem to think. Prices have come down greatly in recent years and of course once the solar panels or wind turbines are installed, every unit of energy you produce is a unit you are not paying for. You can even start selling any excess energy to back to your supplier.
 
Government grants are hard to come by, purely it seems, due to the huge interest that has been shown since they were announced. The Independent has a very good article discussing the issues surrounding these grants and indicates some costing involved in the installation of generation equipment. Do bear in mind however that the article is a year old so these prices will have dropped further by now.
The Energy Saving Trust details UK wide grants available from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the Scottish Community Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) grants available to residents of Scotland only.
 
Npower have a scheme where they will design and install solar panels for you, factor in any subsidies you are entitled to (through Renewable Obligation Certificates or other green energy certificates) and then buy back any surplus energy you generate.
 
Good Energy also have a scheme to buy back surplus energy you generate and also subsidise the energy you produce for your own home.
 
If you're interested in wind power and are of a DIY persuasion look at BWEA's detailed information on types of wind turbine, how to install them, arranging a surplus energy deal with your energy supplier etc. They even have a build your own turbine guide!
 
Remember also that renewable energy generation is not just about generating electricity. You can harness solar power or the heat produced by digestion in compost bins to heat your water directly. Even greenhouses are a classic way of harnessing renewable energy. Look at the Energy Saving Trust's list of renewable energy types to see which may be best suited for generation in your environment.
Also the Centre for Alternative Technology has some fantastic information on all types of renewable energy generation and what will work best for you. The information sheets are packed full of knowledge but, I'll warn you now, get very technical.