It’s the time of year when many people make New Year's resolutions – so we thought we'd look at some of your environmental resolutions. The first of which might be to eat your pet, if authors Brenda and Robert Vale are to be believed. Also on the show - carbon offsetting may be a good way to ease your guilt over flying, but what happens to your cash? We also sing the praises of bamboo and learn how not to argue with climate sceptics.

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Eat the Dog
Just what is the environmental impact of feeding the huge quantity of pets around the world? In a new book with the rather provocative title of Time to Eat the Dog our furry friends don’t fare well.
Marnie spoke to the authors Brenda and Robert Vale about our pets' carbon paw-prints.

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For those of you moved to follow the suggestion in the title, here's a recipe for Dog Soup

Solar Back-pack
For some the New Year is a good time to keep up-to-date with new gadgets on the block.
Shayne McQuade is the inventor of the Voltaic solar backback. He explains to Earth Beat how it works and who would want one.

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Carbon Offsetting
It seems so easy. You’re buying a plane ticket online and there’s a little box to tick to sign up for carbon offsets. But what are we really doing when we click that button? Marnie gets an explanation from Marilyn Larden of Sustainable Travel International, a company that sells carbon offsets and invests the money in projects around the world.

Not all carbon offset schemes are equally good.
We hear about a offset scheme in Uganda that went so badly wrong that locals ended up chopping down half a million trees.

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Bamboo Architect
Simon Velez is unusual among modern architects in that he prefers to work with bamboo rather than steel and glass. But we're not talking small huts here. Simon has built over 250 bamboo buildings, including a cathedral and a museum. We have a selection of images below

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The art of arguing with climate change deniers
The past year has been a challenging one for climate change deniers, as scientists from around the world come forward with ever more evidence of global warming.

But don’t worry, that hasn’t made much of a dent on the old “climate change – is it happening or not” debate. There’s something about this argument that brings out specious, tedious and often childish points from both sides.

Recently, author Gregory Norminton was invited to have a sensible adult debate against some prominent British climate change deniers. It didn’t stay sensible for long…
 

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Top photo by wsilver at Flickr