20 THINGS THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

1 Bring your own mug to work. Not only do polystyrene cups make your tea taste horrible but they'll be hanging around in landfill sites for a thousand years after your last sip.

2 Enjoy a candlelit bath for two. Minimising your carbon emissions needn't cramp your style romantically. On the contrary, a candlelit bath for two saves both water and electricity, as well getting you in the mood for love, according to green power supplier Good Energy.

3 Invest in a shopping bag. It doesn't have to be a Anya Hindmarch 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag' bag. Anything that you re-use time and time again will be better than adding to the 13 billion plastic bags a year which we throw away in the UK.

4 Go veggie for one day a week. Rearing livestock for meat generates more greenhouse gases than motorised transport thanks to the methane pumped out of flatulent cows' bottoms! And that's not counting the emissions from meat-packing factories and so forth.

5 Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. You'll save six litres a minute - that's a staggering 168 litres a week.

6 Start 'swishing' or swapping clothes. Get your best friends to dig out their cast-offs, throw a party and go home with a glam new wardrobe without spending a penny or generating any more carbon. Every bag of recycled clothes is worth 62.5kg of CO2.

7 Adopt a glacier. It's not just cuddly endangered animals who need friends these days. Melting glaciers are on the frontline of global warming. Pick your new icy idol from the US National Snow And Ice Data Center's photo collection at www.nsidc.org/ data/g00472.html

8 Take a hike. You save 2kg carbon for every three miles you walk instead of using the car.

9 Befriend a farmer. Cut your food miles by visiting your farmers' market for locally-produced food. Visit www.farmersmarkets.net

10 Buy a solar charger and use rechargeable batteries. You'll save money and protect landfill sites from the toxic chemicals they leach.

11 Let it bee. Help save the humble honeymaker from extinction by providing a bee house in a quiet corner of the garden, and by planting wild and cottage garden flowers such as geraniums, foxgloves, thyme, fuchsia and lavender. Visit www.bumblebee conservation.co.uk

12Swap chemical-laden cleaners for harmless home-made remedies. Baking soda is an excellent all-rounder, while mixing one part organic vinegar to six parts water in a spray bottle makes for an eco-friendly and cheap window cleaner.

13 Plant something. You don't have to be Alan Titchmarsh to cut down on your food miles. A windowsill, a pot and some seeds is all you need for the most delicious tomatoes and herbs you've ever tasted.

14 Buy second-hand. Shop without generating carbon and save money by visiting eBay or Freecycle (www.freecycle.org), on which items are given away free. With everything from garden furniture to handbags up for grabs, there's little need to buy anything new.

15 Go back to tap water. We insist on glugging 155 billion litres of mineral water a year worldwide, wasting plastic for bottling and fuel for transport, despite the fact that it's no safer, tastier and certainly no cheaper than the stuff that comes out of your tap. Invest in a filter for added purity and simply refill a durable, handy bottle.

16 Join your local library instead of buying books. You can enjoy a good read while saving money and trees, and reducing clutter.

17 Become a green giver. Making presents is not only eco-friendly, but will be appreciated much more than a shop-bought gift. Send an e-card and, if you're strapped for time, www.good gifts.org and www.oxfamunwrapped.com have got plenty of fun ideas.

18 Ditch the disposables. Use cotton hankies instead of tissues, toothbrushes with replaceable heads, kitchen cloths instead of paper towels and, if you can, terry nappies instead of disposables.

19 Be a good tourist. You don't change your sheets and towels every day at home, so why do so when you're on holiday? Nearly 300,000 litres of water are used and five tonnes of waste generated by each hotel room every year. Also, open the windows to save on air-con and stop pocketing complimentary toiletries (it drives up their production and the associated CO2).

20 Write to your MP. If enough people put pressure on their local politicians and threatened to vote with their feet, then climate change would inevitably move up the agenda. Visit www.writetothem.com or www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm

AND IF WE GET TOTAL MELTDOWN...

BUY A CAMEL: They can go weeks without food or water and are a good source of milk.

START A MENAGERIE: Travel the world collecting pairs of rare species to breed in your back garden.

BEAT THE HEAT: When global warming becomes unbearable, just make a burrow and live underground.

BUILD A FLOATING HOUSE: As the oceans rise, why not make a home out of wood and tie it to a convenient post to stop it drifting away?

EVOLVE: Unfortunately this is a slow process, but you could grow some giant ears to keep you cool, and fur-covered feet to help you cross the desert.

Taken from the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook by David de Rothschild, Virgin Books, pounds 7.99.

USEFUL WEB ADDRESSES

We're in this Together: www.together.com Live Earth: www.liveearth.msn.com I Count: www.icount.org Advice: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk Calculator: www.direct.gov.uk/actonco2 Friends Of The Earth: www.foe.org.uk Greenpeace: www.greenpeace.org

PICTURES: Alamy, Green Peace, Getty Images, National Geographic, Reuters, Press Association. Vox pops on page 3: Alan Lewis, Wales News, Ross Parry, Centre Press

COMPUTER SCREENSAVERS USE 70 PER CENT MORE POWER THAN PUTTING YOUR PC TO SLEEP

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DOUBLE BUBBLE: Bath with a friend and save water; SARA WALLIS TELLS YOU HOW TO BE ADVENTUROUS AND HAVE SOME FUN FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING