What it did help, though, was to make me understand the cost in everything in life. The way we all consume the latest gadgets and tech when we don’t need to is a massive cost, for one.

So what do you do to keep green, and what more could you do?

The waste itself is believed to have come from a Latvian army base and was dumped from Russian boats in the cover of night. What happened to it is unknown as no attempt was made at the time to track or recover the barrels.

While this is no real surprise, in that the USSR and latterly Russia have been known to have little regard for environmental concerns, it is worrying due to the fact that the Baltic Sea is already in trouble pollution-wise and is mostly enclosed, making it harder for the pollution to dissipate.

Surprisingly, China is leading the cuts with a promise to reduce “emission intensity” (whatever that means) by at least 40% by 2020.

The Eu plans to cut emmisions by just 20%, America just 17%.

Only time will tell if these promises are realistic and if they do anywhere near enough to protect what’s left of our environment. There are all sorts of forecasts, some predicting most the UK will be underwater by 2020, some say its too late, others say we’ll pretty much be unaffected.

I can’t help but wonder where the money for a country wide reform on flood systems would come from if the UK did take any notice. We (in the UK) are already in more debt than ever before (even the great depression). It’s going to take us 30 years of cuts before we can work off the current debt. I’d hate to admit it but there just isn’t enough money.

It’s a pretty amazing little thing that weighs under 100 grams.. It spends it’s entire life flying from the north pole, to the south, where it breeds, then flies back again.. Its a journey of about 43,000 miles

Tiny radio trackers were used to track the birds as scientists wanted to know the exact route they took.. (up the spine of Africa if you are interested)

I find it pretty amazing that this little thing can make it half way around the world, where it takes us thousands of pounds of fuel, technology and carbon released into the atmosphere to do the same thing.

Utah in America has changed it’s working hours to 8-6 o’clock and taken the Thursday off.. the effects of which have been sum-what surprising.. Workers are happier while still putting in the same amount of hours; pollution has reduced as people use their cars less on the extra day; people are more relaxed; productivity shoots up.

Think of it as the opposite of Dolly Parton singing 9 to 5. Sounds great to me.

The poorly attended protest planned a “scream-in” to display their frustration at the failure to come to any sort of an agreement at the Copenhagen climate change talks.

It only took an hour or so for the 6 people that turned up to pack up their bull horn and posters and head off home after conditions deteriorated and the blizzard closed in around them.

I can taste the irony from here.

Easy wins are probably going to be continue recycling, looking at green travel options and making sure that the energy consumption within the home is minimal.

But why stop there, why not take this to the office and try and convert the work colleagues.  Look around your office and think of what you do and what could change ??

Turn appliances and lights off where possible, this may mean changing the location of work stations for the best use of natural light.  Think outside of the box on further things you can possibly do and make 2010 the greenest year yet.

The ever-changing climate is expected to see the unwelome introduction of species such as clawed toads from Africa.  This added to the fact that breeds such as salmon, which rely on cool freshwater, will be forced elsewhere could be ultimately devastating for a country which prides itself on the type of nature that exists.

I for one, have sampled nature at first hand, being brought up in the North East and getting to experience the North York Moors would find it hard to take if slowly it was taken away from us.

I was a healthy child, and very active in lots of sports including running and swimming.  But I found myself struggling to recover my breath and it was getting worse.  So a trip to the doctor was booked and they performed a peak flow test over 2 weeks which determined I had exercise induced asthma and an inhaler was duly prescribed.

Now I find that I can take a dose of the inhaler if Im ever struggling which tended to be in extreme temperature, either very hot or very cold weather.

Maybe its time for the government to do more research into this as an issue and help protect the future youth’s potential health problems.