From Treehugger:

Global Action Plan has developed a questionnaire to determine how green your household is, considering your (and anyone you live with) energy and water use, along with shopping habits and transportation choices. By answering questions about how you heat, cool and light your home, what goes down the drain, what products come through the door and how you get around when you leave, their calculator will crunch the numbers a determine a "GreenScore"; the closer to 100 your household scores, the greener you are. Nobody is perfect, and neither is the survey; it's meant to relatively gauge the lifestyle habits of thousands of people, so there will almost certainly be questions that don't apply or don't accurately reflect the way things go in your house. Still, it's a decent litmus test for the green things you do, things you don't and things you know you should, but just haven't gotten around to yet. It's geared toward TreeHuggers in the UK, but should apply to most anyone reading this post. When you finish up, there are tips to improve each of the four areas.

Via GroovyGreen.com:

We’ve all been there. You’re in a great mood, talking about some important article regarding the merits of solar panels on rooftops, when along comes some individual hell-bent on making your discussion a case study for debate clubs. Even if you have all the science in the world to back you up, sometimes common sense discussions regarding the environment can turn into you vs. the world.

The Independent reports on a new UN study that cites cattle as the number one cause of greenhouse gases, especially methane which heats the earth 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.

Please accept our apologies for a recent email glitch that has inadvertently sent multiple copies of our holiday email to certain members of earthscreen. We have shut down our mail server until the problem can be fixed. Thank you very much for your patience. Sincerely, The earthscreen team

From earthtimes.org via LIME:

An industry research company predicts that sales of hybrid-electric vehicles will increase to 3.9 million units by 2015, and 8 million by 2020, with buyers primarily located in the U.S., Western Europe, and Japan; the growing Chinese market should also fuel demand.

From Treehugger:

A new study coming out in today's issue of Science argues that a period of warming 55 million years ago may provide a parallel for the current climate crisis. Lead researcher Mark Pagani, associate professor of geology and geophysics at Yale, and team claim in their paper that massive releases of greenhouse gases triggered many of the same changes in land and ocean ecology that we're beginning to see in our own environment.

Schwarzenegger to light fuel-cell-powered Christmas tree:

"A hydrogen fuel cell will light California's Christmas tree, governor of the pro-environment US state Arnold Schwarzenegger announced, giving the low-emissions technology a boost. 'For the first time in California's history, a small hydrogen fuel-cell system will power the energy-efficient Christmas tree throughout the holiday season,' said a statement from his office."

By Amanda Griscom Little | Grist | Main Dish | 07 Dec 2006:

Does the music mogul who signed the Rolling Stones and Janet Jackson have what it takes to make a pop star out of biofuels? Earlier this fall, publicity-chasing British entrepreneur Richard Branson made a $3 billion bet that he could do just that -- and help solve the climate crisis to boot -- via Virgin Fuels, a new company in his wide-ranging Virgin Group. An ear for music doesn't necessarily indicate an eye for energy technology, of course. Branson has proved himself remarkably versatile over the last few decades, expanding his Virgin brand beyond the record label into successful airline, locomotive, cable, and mobile-phone companies. But there have been flops along the way -- Virgin Jeans and Virgin Cola, to name just a couple. Virgin Fuels could be an even riskier venture given that it's plunging headlong into unproven markets, but Branson insists that biofuels are a critical near-term solution to climate change and could fully supplant conventional fuels within 30 years.

Brand Neutral A new earthscreen partner:

Brand Neutral helps companies create and sustain a competitive advantage by reducing costs, driving profits and maximizing energy efficiency. We make saving the planet profitable for our clients and deeply meaningful for their customers.

MIT survey:

According to a recent MIT survey, Americans now rank climate change as the country's most pressing environmental problem--a dramatic shift from three years ago, when they ranked climate change sixth out of 10 environmental concerns.

Almost three-quarters of the respondents felt the government should do more to deal with global warming, and individuals were willing to spend their own money to help.

"While terrorism and the war in Iraq are the main issues of national concern, there's been a remarkable increase in the American public's recognition of global warming and their willingness to do something about it," said Stephen Ansolabehere, MIT's Elting R. Morison Professor of Political Science.

The survey results were released Oct. 31 at the seventh annual Carbon Sequestration Forum, an international meeting held at MIT that focuses on methods of capturing and storing emissions of carbon dioxide--a major contributor to climate change.

From green LA girl �

40% efficiency achieved - Engadget

Solar World: Installers Go Online

From Treehugger It is a miracle planet, but like anything, there are issues.

1,300 years As if we need more evidence of global warming.

Oprah did a great show today with Al Gore on the DVD Release of An Inconvenient Truth. In addition to presenting segments of the now famous slide show, Gore pushed a cart through a home improvement store and bought 5 things to reduce a family's carbon dioxide output by 20%:

thermal blanket for the water heater

compact fluorescent light bulbs (5 per home to reach the 20% reduction

filter for the AC/heater (replace often)

Energy Star appliances

Solar outdoor lights earthscreen members can buy all of these things through the earthscreen mall and get cash-back rewards to spend or donate to Friends to Save the World. Also, they did a non-Gore segment on the holidays and made the following suggestions:

use 100% post-consumer recycled cards and gift wrap

use kids artwork, fabric or reusable bags to wrap

natual trees are better for the environment, but recycle them through www.earth911.com

15 things you can do in your home. From Climate Solutions.