World's Environment Day is here!

• Take the “What’s Your Next Step?” – Sustainability Challenge. Adopt a sustainable way of life with lots of useful ideas and actions to help you play your part in enhancing the New Zealand way of life – go to www.sustainability.govt.nz now!

• Ask your local council if you can help clean-up your local area or plant trees.

• Undertake a community awareness campaign or project to reduce household consumption – eg replace light-bulbs with energy saving ones, switch off stand-by electrical appliances such as TVs and computers when not in use, check insulation and water heating options, encourage household rainwater harvesting, vegetable gardening or self-sufficiency.

• Promote ideas to reduce, re-use and recycle waste. Maybe even hold an event to make art from recycled material.

• Encourage others to use sustainable modes of transport (walking, jogging, cycling, skating, public transport, carpool) for a day.

• Hold a bicycle or walking parade or organise a walking school bus.

• Organise a visit to nature sites, botanical gardens or other sites of environmental interest.

• Hold an art competition or exhibition and ask others to create and show banners, drawings, essays, paintings, posters or poetry that promote the Kick the Carbon Habit theme.

• Organise community performances of plays, songs or poetry that promote the Kick the Carbon Habit theme.

• Hold an eco-fair or festival or ask local retailers to put in window displays that promote the Kick the Carbon Habit theme.

• Undertake an awareness campaign in your community to offset your greenhouse gas emissions – see www.carbonzero.co.nz.

A sculpture of a polar bear and her cub stranded on an iceberg was floated down the Thames to raise awareness of climate change. The 16ft high structure was launched in Greenwich, south east London and travelled upstream to Tower Bridge past the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.

1. Bag It
Today: When you go out shopping, bring your own reusable bags. This preserves resources by cutting down on the huge number of paper and plastic bags that are discarded after a single trip.

Tomorrow: Combine your routine shopping trips with other errands, which will save you time and fuel.

2. Save on Electricity
There are many ways to trim those electric bills. Wash your laundry in cold water instead of hot, line dry your linens, and use a toaster oven for small heating needs instead of a bigger electric stove. Open windows to let the light in, turn off unneeded lights and appliances, and unplug unused electronics to counter the 'energy vampire' effect.

3. Save on Gas
Every gallon of gasoline you burn produces 19 pounds of carbon dioxide, so it pays to conserve (in more ways than one). Your car will work more efficiently if you obey the speed limit and avoid rapid, unnecessary acceleration. Keep your tires properly inflated and get regular tune-ups. Forget warming up under most conditions.

4. Shop a FarmerToday: Shop at your local farmers' market. This will help support farmers in your area, so they won't be forced to sell off their land for development, and it will decrease your food miles, meaning less fuel will be used to provide your daily meals. Your food will be delicious and better for you.

Tomorrow: Eat as much local and seasonal food as you reasonably can. Your meals will be fresher, and will require much less fuel to transport, store and refrigerate.

5. Water Smarts
Today: Drink water from the tap, instead of buying single-use bottled water, which requires much more energy to produce, store and transport. Barely 20% of those plastic bottles end up getting recycled, and most are made out of petroleum. Use filters if you are concerned about your local water supply.

Tomorrow: Buy a reusable bottle to take with you on the go, so you can always refill it from a tap and avoid buying bottled water. Stainless steel is a good choice, because you don't have to worry about the potentially toxic chemicals that can leach out of many plastics over time.

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New evidence from ice buried deep in Antarctica shows that today’s greenhouse gas levels are higher than anything the Earth has seen in 650,000 years. A team of scientists collected ice cores from a depth of two miles in a remote area of Antarctica, allowing them a glimpse far back in time.

They found that levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – three gases that trap heat in our atmosphere – have been rising, since the industrial age began, to levels unmatched anywhere in the ice record that now goes back 650,000 years.

James White, a geologist and climate change expert at the University of Colorado, told the New York Times that the findings, published in the journal Science, mean we are likely in for significant global warming. “CO2 and climate are like two people handcuffed to each other,” he said. “Where one goes, the other must follow … Our current CO2 levels appear to be far out of balance with climate when viewed through these results, reinforcing the idea that we have significant modern warming to go.”

Looking for something more environmentally friendly than your typical dinner-and-a-movie date? Here are several green ideas:

Pick up your date in something other than a car

Tandem bicycles or Rollerblades are a fun green way to get around. For bikes, check your local rental shop. Rollerblades can often be found at secondhand stores. Be sure to bring a backpack to carry spare shoes!

Skip the store-bought cut flowers

They are covered in pesticides, and won't last more than a week or two. If you really want to give a token of your affection, consider a potted plant, or flowers picked from your own garden. Or bring some fresh, local, organic produce! Nothing says "love" like strawberries.

Consider an outdoors date

* Long walks along the beach (or lake, or river) are romantic, free, and non-polluting.
* Check out what events are being held by your local state parks. Some parks even offer rental equipment (canoes, skis, etc).
* Think about packing a picnic using Pyrex dishes to store the food, and real plates, silverware, and glasses that can be taken home to be washed afterward. Local food and organic winewill definitely set the mood.

Think about staying in

* No transportation needed!
* Turn the lights off for a candlelit dinner.
* Cook with local, in-season ingredients.
* Pretend you're old-school and woo your date with poetry, or perform a little serenade on that dusty guitar.
* Get a little crazy and play board games!
* If the weather permits and if you have a backyard, get cozy in a two-person hammock.

MYTH=Global warming is just part of a natural cycle. The Arctic has warmed up in the past.
FACT=The global warming we are experiencing is not natural. People are causing it.

People are causing global warming by burning fossil fuels (like oil, coal and natural gas) and cutting down forests. Scientists have shown that these activities are pumping far more CO2 into the atmosphere than was ever released in hundreds of thousands of years. This buildup of CO2 is the biggest cause of global warming. Since 1895, scientists have known that CO2 and other greenhouse gases trap heat and warm the earth. As the warming has intensified over the past three decades, scientific scrutiny has increased along with it. Scientists have considered and ruled out other, natural explanations such as sunlight, volcanic eruptions and cosmic rays. (IPCC 2001)

Though natural amounts of CO2 have varied from 180 to 300 parts per million (ppm), today's CO2 levels are around 380 ppm. That's 25% more than the highest natural levels over the past 650,000 years. Increased CO2 levels have contributed to periods of higher average temperatures throughout that long record. (Boden, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center)

As for previous Arctic warming, it is true that there were stretches of warm periods over the Arctic earlier in the 20th century. The limited records available for that time period indicate that the warmth did not affect as many areas or persist from year to year as much as the current warmth. But that episode, however warm it was, is not relevant to the issue at hand. Why? For one, a brief regional trend does not discount a longer global phenomenon.

MYTH=We can adapt to climate change — civilization has survived droughts and temperature shifts before.
FACT=Although humans as a whole have survived the vagaries of drought, stretches of warmth and cold and more, entire societies have collapsed from dramatic climatic shifts.

The current warming of our climate will bring major hardships and economic dislocations — untold human suffering, especially for our children and grandchildren. We are already seeing significant costs from today's global warming which is caused by greenhouse gas pollution. Climate has changed in the past and human societies have survived, but today six billion people depend on interconnected ecosystems and complex technological infrastructure.

What's more, unless we limit the amount of heat-trapping gases we are putting into the atmosphere, we will face a warming trend unseen since human civilization began 10,000 years ago. (IPCC 2001)

The consequences of continued warming at current rates are likely to be dire. Many densely populated areas, such as low-lying coastal regions, are highly vulnerable to climate shifts. A middle-of-the-range projection is that the homes of 13 to 88 million people around the world would be flooded by the sea each year in the 2080s. Poorer countries and small island nations will have the hardest time adapting. (McLean et al. 2001)
Scarcity of water and food could lead to major conflicts with broad ripple effects throughout the globe. Even if people find a way to adapt, the wildlife and plants on which we depend may be unable to adapt to rapid climate change. While the world itself will not end, the world as we know it may disappear.

MYTH=Recent cold winters and cool summers don’t feel like global warming to me.
FACT=While different pockets of the country have experienced some cold winters here and there, the overall trend is warmer winters.

Measurements show that over the last century the Earth’s climate has warmed overall, in all seasons, and in most regions. Climate skeptics mislead the public when they claim that the winter of 2003–2004 was the coldest ever in the northeastern United States. That winter was only the 33rd coldest in the region since records began in 1896. Furthermore, a single year of cold weather in one region of the globe is not an indication of a trend in the global climate, which refers to a long-term average over the entire planet.

MYTH=Global warming can’t be happening because some glaciers and ice sheets are growing, not shrinking.
FACT=In most parts of the world, the retreat of glaciers has been dramatic. The best available scientific data indicate that Greenland's massive ice sheet is shrinking.

In Greenland, a NASA satellite that can measure the ice mass over the whole continent has found that although there is variation from month to month, over the longer term, the ice is disappearing. In fact, there are worrisome signs that melting is accelerating: glaciers are moving into the ocean twice as fast as a decade ago, and, over time, more and more glaciers have started to accelerate. What is most alarming is the prediction, based on model calculations and historical evidence, that an approximately 5.4 degree Fahrenheit increase in local Greenland temperatures will lead to irreversible meltdown and a sea-level rise of over 20 feet. Since the Arctic is warming 2-3 times faster than the global average, this tipping point is not far away.

The only study that has shown increasing ice mass in Greenland only looked at the interior of the ice sheet, not at the edges where melting occurs. This is actually in line with climate model predictions that global warming would lead to a short-term accumulation of ice in the cold interior due to heavier snowfall. (Similarly, scientists have predicted that Antarctica overall will gain ice in the near future due to heavier snowfall.) The scientists who published the study were careful to point out that their results should not be used to conclude that Greenland's ice mass as a whole is growing. In addition, their data suggested that the accumulation of snow in the middle of the continent is likely to decrease over time as global warming continues.

MYTH=Accurate weather predictions a few days in advance are hard to come by. Why on earth should we have confidence in climate projections decades from now?
FACT=Climate prediction is fundamentally different from weather prediction, just as climate is different from weather.

It is often more difficult to make an accurate weather forecast than a climate prediction. The accuracy of weather forecasting is critically dependent upon being able to exactly and comprehensively characterize the present state of the global atmosphere. Climate prediction relies on other, longer ranging factors. For instance, we might not know if it will be below freezing on a specific December day in New England, but we know from our understanding of the region's climate that the temperatures during the month will generally be low. Similarly, climate tells us that Seattle and London tend to be rainy, Florida and southern California are usually warm, and the Southwest is often dry and hot.

Today’s climate models can now reproduce the observed global average climates over the past century and beyond. Such findings have reinforced scientist’s confidence in the capacity of models to produce reliable projections of future climate. Current climate assessments typically consider the results from a range of models and scenarios for future heat-trapping emissions in order to identify the most likely range for future climatic change.

MYTH=As the ozone hole shrinks, global warming will no longer be a problem.
FACT=Global warming and the ozone hole are two different problems.

The ozone hole is a thinning of the stratosphere's ozone layer, which is roughly 9 to 31 miles above the earth's surface. The depletion of the ozone is due to man-made chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). A thinner ozone layer lets more harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation to reach the earth's surface.

Global warming, on the other hand, is the increase in the earth's average temperature due to the buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities.