As the world becomes more environmentally conscious, we're all paying more attention to our carbon footprint. Measuring carbon footprints is complicated -- different items are measured on different scales, and many of the measurements are based on research that weighs varied criteria.

When determining a carbon footprint, we must look at both the primary footprint that can be controlled (such as how much oil we use and how often we wash our clothes). We must also consider the secondary footprint, which is the amount of energy that is used to make the oil and water available to us. Still, it is interesting to compare different aspects of our lives to see what has the greatest negative impact on the earth.

Hamburgers vs Hummers: If you were going to compare the carbon footprints of eating meat versus driving an SUV, you might look at the carbon study of a hamburger by Jamais Cascia. According to the study, America's consumption of hamburgers leads to 941 to 1023 pounds of greenhouse gas per year. It is believed that eating hamburgers is equivalent to 7,500 or 15,000 large vehicles. Compare the average of habit of 150 hamburgers a year to the yearly footprint of a Hummer and you get an average of 56 kilograms of carbon emissions versus 11.1 tons of CO2. It's a good thing we don't eat Hummers, but even better that every hamburger eating American does not drive a Hummer.

It's hard to believe that Earth Hour started just three years ago, in 2007. In this short period of time, a one hour, one-time action by two million people in Sydney, Australia, has grown into an international movement with nearly one billion participants.

The idea is simplicity itself: Everyone, at the same time, all over the world, turns off their lights for one hour. It's a symbolic gesture to show that people can work together to address the climate crisis.

Last year there were participants in 87 countries. Some of the major landmarks that shut off their lights for an hour included the Parthenon in Athens, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in London, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and of course the Sydney Opera House. According to the Earth Hour site, it was the largest mass action in human history.

It's been one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record on the East Coast, but here in San Francisco we've been lucky enough to escape with a few frigid, rainy days.

Not everyone appreciates our temperate weather. Some residents probably wish we'd get more of the white stuff, including the three polar bears who live at the San Francisco Zoo.

Two of the bears, Pike (pronounced PEE-KA), and Andy, (who is the star of the popular children's book "Andy Bear,") got a special holiday surprise the week before Christmas, courtesy of the San Francisco Ice Company: snow!

On January 20th the Senate is voting on the national debt ceiling. An important issue, but hardly one that concerns environmentalists, right?

In a sane world, that would be the case. However, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has drafted a completely unrelated amendment to the bill which would hamstring the EPA's ability to enforce the Clean Air Act by banning them from regulating carbon dioxide as pollutant.

This is contrary to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that the EPA in fact must regulate greenhouse emissions, and standards, such as those for new car emissions.

If you're a sci-fi fan you've probably read one or five of the books in the the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy. (Yes, a five book trilogy -- Adams was English and bad at math.)

One of the most important plot points is about dolphins being the second most intelligent species on the Earth, just ahead of humans. (Yes, ahead of us, lab mice are the most intelligent ... oh, just read the books!)

Adams came up with this idea in the '80s, but it's taken scientists until 2010 to reach to the same conclusion: Dolphins are very, very smart; possibly even smarter than Great Apes!

The two week long carnival in Copenhagen, which featured dramatic politics and inventive activism, mixed in with a genuine desire to address climate change, wrapped up hours past the planned deadline, with a whimper that disappointed many.

Even before COP15 started, it was clear that a binding international agreement was a long shot. The first week was marred by disagreements over process and responsibilities -- particularly over who was going to foot the inevitable bill -- and the split between developed and developing countries got worse as week two progressed.

In the end, the US, China, India and Brazil announced a non-binding statement of intent, and almost all of the countries participating in COP15 indicated that they would "take note" of the so-called Copenhagen Accord.

Greenpeace wasn't the only group to stage a protest in Copenhagen this weekend. In fact, not all of the protests are even happening in Denmark!

Over the weekend, one of the most active and vocal climate action groups, 350.org, staged a series of 3000 vigils in 139 countries around the world. The purpose of the vigils was to reiterate to world leaders that we want a "real deal" in Copenhagen -- not just some "agreement to agree at some point" like we've been hearing about.

The video above shows some of the devastation already happening around the world because of climate change, and it has the heartstring-pulling music. Get ready for goosebumps and tissue-reaching.

Blame it on a public used to movies filled with gory and realistic CGI monsters, like the really scary skull headed dudes on horses in "Lord of the Rings." Yesterday Greenpeace did a protest reenactment of the Bible's biggest terror-mongers and harbingers of doom, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and it was just sort of ... meh. Not scary at all.

Four protesters with some amateurish face paint and costumes borrowed from the Eastville, PA, junior high wardrobe cabinet, don't make much of an impression on an average Monday, nevermind in the middle of Copenhagen when every activist is there with their "nudity/fake bloody polar bear/effigy of a world-leader-on-a-stick" A-game.

Which is a shame, because the Greenpeace message was actually pretty smart, and pretty scary.

Kate Walsh Wants to Save Sea Turtles from Oceana on Vimeo.

You know what kind of aquatic creature is having a really hard time? Turtles. They've been around for over 100 million years, since before the dinosaurs, and now all seven species are either threatened or endangered.

What's going now to make it so hard for turtles to catch a break? Oh, the usual. Us.

It's the usual marine mix of climate change -- higher temperatures, rising waters, changing coast line -- and interference from overzealous fishermen. Turtles get tangled in ghost nets and drown, or are unintentionally caught in fishing lines. Their nesting areas are destroyed by development and pollution.

If it was just in one area, or only effected one or two species, it would be easier to have hope for the turtles. But it's all of them, and it's everywhere:

If you keep up with Climate Change gossip, then by now you've heard about the emails that were hacked from the computers of some leading climate scientists, and leaked to the world press by a group we can most easily refer to as "The Deniers".

The Deniers maintain that climate change is an elaborate hoax, or bad science, or a combination of the two. They are gleefully clapping and pointing at the substantial lack of professionalism (and in some cases outright jerkiness) in the email exchanges, which they consider "proof" that climate change is fake. Or at least less serious than the climate scientists "want" us to believe, in their apparent bid for the riches, power and willing women for which a career in climate science is so well known.

Because everyone agrees, being a climate scientist is like being James Bond with mystery, intrigue and dreamy locations like East Anglia, England.

Caution -- video is graphic, and you don't want kids to see this!

Holiday travel often means flying across the country, sometimes just for a day or two so that you can see family. But gone are the days of glamorous flights. Today it's expensive, uncomfortable, and a huge hassle to get through security.

Not to mention it's bad for the environment, right? Prepare to feel eco-guilt if you're flying this holiday season -- even if you did your TerraPass. The anti-flying group Plane Stupid made this video of polar bears falling from the sky to graphically demonstrate how much carbon is dumped into the atmosphere when you fly.

In case you miss the symbolism, the video ends with this:

I love Green Week on NBC because it means I'll get to see Alpha Green Al Gore be brilliant and funny!

Mr Greenius reprised his role as himself on "30 Rock", helping Kenneth change light bulbs and then super-hero-ing off to save some whales, making a joke about recycling everything, including jokes. Tee-hee -- admit it, you laughed.

Then he took the deadpan funny up a notch on SNL -- yes, SNL was funny this week! And much of the credit goes to the Nobel prize- and Academy Award-winning former vice president. Big Al killed!

Over the weekend, President Obama and other world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Singapore, announced that they will not be able to reach a binding agreement on stopping global warming during the the Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15) in December.

Instead, Obama and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that COP15 should focus on accomplishing political cohesion as the first part of a two step process. They want to use the conference to agree on a basic framework for an agreement, including how to finance carbon-reducing activity, and wait to try to create a binding commitment to global carbon caps at a later date.

So ... they want to agree to agree that they will put off doing the work until later. Which would be fine if we could put climate change on hold. Since doesn't seem to be an option, I think a lot of activists are going to be really upset that global leaders, led by Obama, are watering down the goals of the conference.

Admit it, we're all suckers for cute, smart kids. And when they're saying things like "really cool animals like polar bears and walruses will lose their habitat" and "we have to be brave right now" -- ahem, could some pass a tissue? I think some future hope for our planet just got caught in my eye.

The World Wildlife Fund made this video, which stars the kids of WWF staffers making a personal request to President Obama to go -- and lead -- the Copenhagen Climate Conference next month.

In the video the kids review the widely acknowledged fact that climate change will have catastrophic impact on the environment, and that the effects are already being seen, with weather changes and habitat loss.

Alpha Green Al Gore has invited those of us who want clean energy technology (yes, personally -- get on the mailing list and he'll write to you, too) to participate in a new communication channel called The Wall.

It's a pretty amazing display of the passion behind the grassroots RePower America campaign. People post a comment, photo or even a video to The Wall, explaining why they believe clean energy is the way to save the environment and the economy. And the whole world can see and hear the public consensuse -- this is what we want, and we want it now!

One great thing about this collection of voices is that it uses the internet to amplify the message of people who have deep convictions, but perhaps prefer not to participate in a naked formation of the number 350 on the side of a mountain. Sure, those in-person, occasionally naked, demonstrations are fun and meaningful, but way too cold for some of us!