Did you know that leaving the TV or stereo on 'standby' uses up nearly as much power as keeping it on? There are loads of ways that we can reduce global warming - and not just while we're at home. Here are some ways you can help.

Mobile phones:
Every time you upgrade your old mobile phone, why not take the old one to a mobile phone shop for recycling? This way you're saving on natural resources and reducing the carbon dioxide used to produce new phones.

Don't leave your phone charging all night:
95 percent of the energy used by the UK's mobile phone chargers is wasted energy? Only 5 percent is actually used to charge phones, the rest is used when the charger is plugged into the wall but not switched off at the socket.

Driving:
Every day, more than 10m empty seats congest the roads. Do you really need to make this journey by car? If so, reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide you make and the amount you spend on fuel - as well as the wear and tear on your car by following some simple tips:

- Avoid hard acceleration
- Keep your speed down
- Only make essential car journeys
- Walk or cycle on short trips
- Share car journeys with others (car pooling)
- Work with your school to reduce the school run
- Make sure your car is serviced regularly
- Check your tyre pressure every week
- Travel outside the rush hour to avoid congestion
- Travel light and remove unnecessary loads and roof racks
- Choose your fuel wisely - buy ultra low sulphur petrol which produces 45 percent less harmful chemicals (nitrogen oxide) and is lower in benzene (a known cause of leukaemia)
- Go electric!

Travel tips:
Flights are one of the biggest causes of emissions of carbon dioxide, which causes global warming. Do you really need to go abroad for your holiday? Do you really need to fly? Other things you could consider:

- Ask for your towels to be washed every other day instead of every day (only 17 percent of people do this already)

- Switch off your air conditioning when you are out or don't really need it. If just half of everyone staying in air-conditioned hotel rooms turned off the air conditioning for their week away - we could save more than 5m tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.

- Hire bicycles instead of a car or motorbikes if you are exploring locally - lose your beer belly AND save your carbon dioxide emissions

CDs and music tips:
The production of music and all the packaging that goes into it also damages the environment - from wasted packaging ending up in landfills, to the plastics and products used in manufacturing the case and paper used to make the inset.

- CDs are made from a non-renewable plastics that usually end up in landfills. Send your CDs to one of the recycling firms that re-uses CDs and turns them into something else.

- Packaging on CDs is wasteful - don't go for the CDs in long boxes, just buy CDs with jewel cases.

- Sell your old music and buy second hand CDs and shops and online to save resources.

- Buy and download your music from the internet

Clothes and unwanted goods:
It's easy to be green and raise money for charity. Over 25m tonnes of rubbish is created by households each year in the UK. But organisations like Help The Aged can take a lot of what you might class as rubbish and re-use it or sell it to make money for their good causes.

For example, toner cartridges - each recyclable cartridge is worth between 25p and £4. Spectacles - can be reused to help older people in other countries to see. Your clothes can be re-used or your could buy your clothes from charity shops - all reducing the amount of natural resources used to make them. 


There are loads of other ways that your actions can help reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and help reduce global warming - this list is not even the tip of the iceberg. No pun intended!

See the Useful Links page for more information.