There's now a whole industry devoted to making it slightly easier to turn off all our gadgets at once so we don't waste energy via the dreaded standby function, as countless articles have recently told you. There was even one featured on Dragon's Den as a revolutionary product. You'd be forgiven for being confused by what these fancy boxes do, but it's really very simple - they switch stuff off. Of course, you could always avoid putting appliances on standby altogether, or support a ban on making gadgets standby switches in the first place. But failing that, here's hippyshopper's quick roundup of the top 5 standby stopping products.

Gardening isn't traditionally the greenest of pursuits, with pesticides, weed killers and all manner of chemicals designed to wipe out anything that threatens the plants. Luckily things are beginning to improve and people are starting to realise that not all bugs are pests. Gardening Naturally sell ladybird larvae, which will hunt down and mercilessly kill any aphids that dare to set feet on your precious plants. An adult ladybird lays 20 to 50 eggs per day, and they take 4 to 8 days to hatch, depending on the weather. Then it's history for any greenfly or blackfly in the vicinity. Eventually you will end up with some rather pretty ladybirds, which will continue to scoff the evil leaf eating bugs until they eventually hibernate around September/October time.

30 larvae will treat around 5sq.m and cost £9.95. The latest batch of larvae are available from the week commencing 30th July.

Related: Bugs up close and personal with an insect study centre

Throwing away batteries is a both a waste of money and environmentally damaging. Think of all the toxic chemicals that go into making batteries being released back into the environment. This clever little gadget lets you re-use your disposable batteries up to ten times. This means you can dispose of one tenth of the number of batteries you would normally. I know for me that would add up to many dozens over the year. The charger takes up to four batteries at a time, and works with AAA, AA, C, D and 9v batteries.

The Deluxe Battery Wizard not only works with alkaline batteries, it charges re-chargeable ones too. The device has four LED indicators to let you know when the batteries are fully charged. The Deluxe Battery Wizard costs just £19.95 and is available on-line from gizoo.co.uk.

According to a feature in The Manila Times workers on Indonesian palm plantations are deliberately killing orangutans to stop them eating seedlings.

Hardi Baktiantoro, director of the Center for Oran­gutan Protection (COP) says that at least 1500 orangutans died in 2006. Most died as a result of deliberate attacks, but the destruction of their habitat was also blamed: “Orangutans have become the victims of torture by plantation workers as they wander and eat palm oil seedlings for survival."

Grist has published its list of who they consider the top ten green politicians. Who makes the list? In first place is California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his work in the state.

Other politicians include: London's own Ken Livingstone, New Zealand's PM Helen Clark and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Even David Cameron gets a look in.

Less well-known international players include Marina Silva, the daughter of Brazilian rubber tappers who founded the independent trade union movement. Partly due to her efforts as Brazil's Environment Minister deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest has decreased by 50%.

We'd heard a rumour that the Simpsons Movie might contain an environmental theme, and we weren't wrong! Here's a short clip I found introducing Homer's new pet 'Spider Pig', who turns out to play a major role in global pollution later on in the film, when Homer disposes of his droppings in a not very green way. Enjoy

If the wet weather is making your kids stir crazy, send them along to your local library to take part in The Big Wild Read. It's challenges kid's to read six books and to keep track of them in a special folder. For every book they read they can stick a tree token to their folder, and at the end of the challenge all of the tree tokens will go towards planting trees via the Woodland Trust Trees For All campaign.

Related: More Kid's stuff

Governments and environmentalists alike are pushing for far greater use of renewable energy. The aim is to end the dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy. While this in itself is a worthwhile goal, the reality of such a move using current technologies is far less attractive. According to a report by Jesse Ausubel, a professor of environmental science and director of the Human Environment programme at New York’s Rockefeller University, the use of wind farms, solar cells, hydro-electric dams and biofuels to generate electricity would require huge amounts of countryside to be industrialised or converted to intensive farmland for biofuels. Either way, the prospect is not good for the environment.

[Via The Guardian]

The Soil Association have hit out at Scottish Power over their recent announcement of intentions to "contract Scottish farmers to produce 250,000 tonnes of energy crops to be burned at Scotland’s two coal fired power stations". Their main concern is that the moves would result in over 12 percent of Scotland's total agricultural land being used for something other than food production, and this would likely have huge repercussions on a country which already produces too few food crops.

Bompas & Parr Jellymongers aim to spearhead the renaissance of English jelly. After jelly consumption in the UK tailed off in the 1990s, an Architect and his friend decided to create exceptional English jelly made from organic fruit and set up two stalls in London’s oldest and most traditional markets. From August they hope to have a stalls in Hackney’s Broadway Market and Borough Market on London’s South Bank. They also cater events, appearing at the summer garden party at the Bromley Mayoral Palace last week.

Related stories: Organic sweeties from Nature's Lader | GetReal organic desserts

Toyota has created a new model of hybrid car that plugs into a household socket with an increase in the distance it can travel between charges. Other major manufacturers are also developing their own version of plug-in hybrid cars. One thing they all have in common is a capacity to charge the battery as the car is being driven, through the brakes and the wheels rotating. The advantage of these plug-in hybrids is that they run for longer using the battery power than regular hybrids.

It’s always nice to see another ethical brand come onto the market. Chocolala make fresh fair trade chocolates with no added sugar or preservatives. I am not personally a lover of chocolate, give me some fresh organic fruit any day, but even I could be persuaded to try some of these chocolates. It’s not just that they are fair trade, or that they do not contain any added sugar or preservatives, or that they are hand made, it’s that they look so scrummy!

The chocolates are made using fair trade, local and organic products wherever possible. The company carries the Fairtrade mark so you can be sure of their ethics. The price reflects not only the quality of the chocolates, but the price paid to the suppliers to ensure decent working and living conditions for all the workers. It’s worth buying the chocolates just to support the workers!

I remember my childhood days (way back in the 1980s) watching Tony Hart on BBC’s art series ‘Take Hart’ and giggling at the animated clay Morph. Well, Morph has now morphed into a greener Eco-Morph, coming out of retirement to promote Friend’s of the Earth’s one-minute green film competition. In a 30 second promo Morph provides tips on going green and calls out to filmmakers to take part in a one-minute environmentally orientated film competition, entitled One Minute with Meaning.

The creator of Morph – David Sproxton – is one of the competition judges. Filmmakers, animators and designers have four weeks left to submit their one minute green films. So without further ado, I present to you, Morph.

The government has asked local authorities and developers to bid for money towards building five new housing settlements around the country. The new developments will consist of between 5,000 and 20,000 carbon neutral homes. The new towns will be designed to ensure schools and shopping facilities are within walking distance from the houses to reduce car journeys. The houses will have the latest energy saving technology built into them. There is already an eco-town being built at the moment in Northstowe near Cambridge. Gordon Brown has said that all new houses will be carbon neutral by 2016.

Voracious jumbo squid are preying on local fish populations in California. The Humboldt squid can grow up to seven feet long and can weigh more than 110 pounds (that's an entire Audrey Hepburn!). They are eating their way through stocks of anchovy, hake and other commercial fish making things tough for already overstretched local fishermen.