Marcus Tay's List: Environmental behaviour guides

• all else being equal, locally-grown food is friendlier to the climate than food grown half a continent away.   But if you're looking for a single food choice that will help curb your climate impact, your best bet is to stay away from cows!

  • Local food is more environmentally friendly than imported food and beef is the most important to stay away from

• t's the electricity your appliances keep sucking down even when they're turned "off". (Also called standby power.) Sometimes it's surprisingly large: a DVD player might use 75% as much power when off as when on, and the average desktop computer sucks down 35 watts when in standby.
• As GrinningPlanet points out, this still only amounts to 10% of most people's energy bills, but that still adds up, particularly in an office. Vampire power is an issue that's been known for quite a while, but industry is accelerating on things you can do to stop it.

• Century Gothic uses 30 percent less ink than Arial.

• arguments for people to go vegetarian or vegan to stop climate change and reduce pressure on rising food prices were exaggerated and would damage the developing world in particular, where many people depend on animals for essential food, other products such as leather and wool, and for manure and help in tilling fields to grow other crop
• utting meat consumption by at least half and making sure animals were fed as much as possible on grass and food waste which could not be eaten by humans.
• head of the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, Rajendra Pachauri, also sparked global debate this month when he urged people to have at least one meat-free day a week.

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• Studies carried out in San Francisco have found they account for just a few percentage points of all the pieces of street litter in the city, less than chewing gum or cigarette butts. But because they blow and drift so easily, bags are highly visible, and they become traps for fish and birds.
• Increasingly, cities and states seeking greener grocery stores are proposing taxes on all disposable bags.