I have become active in the local Green Party in Shrewsbury, have met lots of friendly and well-informed people with similar interests and ideals, have learned a huge amount about local government and planning decisions, have discovered much more about my community, have tried as best as possible to walk the talk and am feeling much more positive about the future as a result. I thoroughly recommend this democracy thing we have in this country. It's so much more fun being a player rather than a hand-wringing spectator on the sidelines.

Huw Peach, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

I turn off all power and stay in bed for approximately one third of my life using only oxygen and stored resources want more do you want?
Recycling is ok in theory until you walk into the yards where they tip it and transfer it to other wagons for land fill not only wastiing resources but everyones time.
Energy efficient lighting is a no brainer but new flat screen technology is deceiving the cost is almost treble or at least double that of equivalent CRT in many cases, so I changed back to CRT!

Louis Cannell, Northampton, UK

We have low energy lightbulbs where possible, the central heating is turned down low, and is only on for three hours a day. We don't fly (unlike Dave Briggs, we love holidaying in the UK) and we have just moved 10 miles closer to work. We recycle what we can (paper, glass, grass cuttings) and look forward to the time when public buildings are not lit up like Christmas trees all year round. Stop the nonsense of wind and wave power and produce more nuclear electric, and our carbon footprint will get a bit smaller yet.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

I booked a long haul holiday to the Caribbean. I intend to enjoy it.
I didn't even ask about offsets. Leave that to state funded broadcasters.
Here's an engineer's viewpoint:
The worst enemies of doing anything about the environment are
environmentalists!
There is a straight forward path to offseting almost half of the
carbon dixodide emissions of Europe in less than ten years.
It is called nuclear energy for generation of electricity. We know
how to do it. France generates about 80% of their electricity
that way. It is not a problem. But insted, if you want to invent
some other new age religion, sorry but no thanks very much.

dave m, Tonopah / Brighton, USA / UK

I take no more than one flight a year, some years none. I'm trying to use more low-energy, long-life bulbs, but they're just too large for some lamp fittings. I try to leave as few electrical items as practicable on standby. My main contribution is that I don't have a car. Unless you live out in the country or you're a salesperson needing to make lots of calls per day, it's absurd to call a car essential. Indeed, not having one you save a lot of expense (buying, taxing, insuring, fuelling, servicing etc.) so you should have reserves to spend on the occasional taxi if you need one in emergency or for a particularly tricky journey.

Barry, Wallington, South London

OK, so since global warming is caused by man then wouldn't the most obvious response be to reduce the number of men? In all seriousness, while Richmond Council and various moral arbiters in the UK focus on the easy targets: big SUVs, frequent air travel (isn't it so satisfying to blame the fat cats), why isn't anyone pointing out that global population growth over the last millenia has produced a race of consumers whose needs cannot be satisfied by this earth. I would never advocate for overtly penalizing reproduction, but surely there should at least be some moral curb on what is really the ultimate selfishness. At the very least, let' s not romanticize large families as seems to be the case in an era when (white, middle class) families are getting smaller (for which I say - hooray).

Let's put it this way: with 4 children, and assuming each of them reproduces similarly, on and on, within 4 generations Al Gore will have spawned 1,024 additional human beings, each of them consuming the earth's natural resources. That beats my one SUV any day.

Rod, Twickenham, UK

I've arranged for the heating and lighting in the church and house to be more friendly to the environment and use the car less.

Father Bryan Storey , Tintagel, UK

Paying extra taxes ! For what good that does when we only account for as little as three per cent of global emissions. Green taxes this month. New increses council tax before Easter. My how the money rolls out !

Bernard Parke, Guildford,

In the past year I have: 1) replaced most incandecent bulbs in my house with compact florescents; 2) installed and use a timer thermostat; 3) replaced our old refrigerator with a new energy efficient unit; 4) worked on caulk & weatherstrip around my windows and doors; 5) changed jobs to one with only a 2 mile daily commute; 6) had my wife travel by train rather than auto to visit her mother this past summer; and 7) signed up with our electric utility to buy 500 kwh per month of green energy. According to the BP carbon footprint calculator, I have reduced our footprint from 9 to 6 tons, compared to a US average of 18 tons per household. There is still more to do, but it is a good start.

Stefan Stackhouse, Black Mountain, NC, USA

I try to limit my car use as much as possible, and am careful not to take unnecessary trips. But I'm loath to sacrifice my trips abroad each summer, Blackpool just doesn't have the same appeal as Brazil

Dave Briggs, Leamington Spa,