The country's greenest house has just been sold at a profit of £625,000. Aaron and Raphaella Curtis, who have a whopping eight children, made the brave move of acquiring a site next to a partially demolished viaduct, and creating their own eco home. The move was initially greeted with scepticism by their friends - the same friends who are now eating their words in the face of the extremely lucrative sale which the Curtis family has just made.

The building's walls are made of recycled material, and it uses solar panels and a condensing gas boiler. The materials were all locally sourced to eliminate the need for transporting them over large distances. The house has won a sustainability prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and it was named Norwich and Peterborough Eco-house of the Year.

Uncharacteristically clear summer skies (Yes, really; the clouds were mostly sent our way –Ed) have caused havoc in the Arctic, allowing sunlight to filter through and melt huge volumes of ice.

Scientists from Canada's Queen's University were shocked to see temperatures rise from the usual average summer temperature of 5C to an astonishing 22C on a field trip to the Arctic in July. Sea levels sank accordingly, and by September were the lowest ever on record. What makes the discovery even more shocking is that the temperature recordings were taken in one of the coldest places in the whole of North America, Melville Island.

The RSPB warned today that increasing levels of pollution and global warming could signal the disappearance of the Norfolk Broads. The Norfolk Broads is Britain's largest protected waterway, and an important conservation site, home to some of the rarest plant and animal species in the country.

Current regulations mean that the environment is not required to be a priority for groups and authorities operating in the Broads. The RSPB is adamant that a change in policy would save the area from decline, saying that the problem will be 'difficult to tackle, but by no means impossible given sufficient will and resources from the government and its agencies'. With this in mind, the RSPB is pressing for a carbon budget to be set up in the Broads. They are also keen to implicate such plans as returning the dwindling population of wading birds to its far healthier state of 25 years ago, and ensuring that all food in local pubs is locally sourced.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is keeping his pre-election pledge for a ‘green revolution’ in France. The first stage is a massive consultation exercise using an internet questionnaire and public meetings around the country. The consultation will not decide policy, but it will directly influence policy. There are of course critics of the president that are calling this a publicity stunt, but the fact is the president is doing something constructive and bringing the public into the process of reducing France’s carbon emissions. The public are basically being asked whether they want to save the planet. They are also being asked to voice their opinion on specific policies. For example, they are being asked if they would accept a 10kph speed limit reduction, given that this measure alone can save 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

Despite the fact that changing your light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescent low-energy ones is probably the easiest environmentally-friendly change you can make, many people still haven’t done this. And the reason? Early low-energy light bulbs could be unreliable and often didn’t fit the light-fittings already in place in many homes.

But light bulbs have changed a lot since then and if you haven’t considered low energy light bulbs recently, now is the time to take another look as Nigel’s Eco Store has a new range with 10% off until the end of September – just enter code LIGHT01 at the checkout.

Related: A bright idea from Jason Bruges and Greenpeace

Gaia Thinking is a new book series with titles addressing climate change, environmental and ethical issues. Eco political figure, Zac Goldsmith, has called them “a ground breaking series that addresses the most important issues we face today.” The books examine key concerns including carbon emissions, the state of our oceans and how the 21st-century lifestyle impacts on our physical and mental wellbeing. The publishers have commissioned leading authors, all experts in their fields, to explain the challenges we face and to inform and enlighten. Gaia Thinking is aimed at a mainstream audience and market themselves as practical books that reveal how our choices make real difference to our future. Sounds obvious, but we often need reminding of it. They’re also printed on Cyclus Print which is 100% totally chlorine-free (TCF) and 100% post consumer waste (PCW).

Gaia books sell for £7.99, published by Octopus.

Related stories: Rubbish! Book by Richard Girling | How to be an ethical shopper

Love film, politics and the environment? Then keep an eye out for the Groovy Movie Picture House. The world’s first solar powered, touring cinema is soon to be famous for bringing cutting edge, environmentally-focused, uncompromising, inspiring and of course creative films to all corners of the UK. This travelling cinema is often found at festivals (of the film and music variety) and is hosting this year’s Green Screen Independent Film Festival.

The Groovy Movie Picture House is powered by eight large solar panels, which turn sunlight into electricity to fuel state of the art projectors, amplifiers and lighting. On the film side of things: Groovy Movie prides itself in showing short and feature films by independent and radical, professional and non-professional film makers.

If you fancy yourself a bit of a film maker, then the guys at Groovy Movie would love to hear from you. Or, if you are more like me and just like to sit and watch, then check out the website for when and where Groovy Movie will be screening near you.

Related: Big Chill to feature pedal powered movies

In a bizarre twist on the viability of carbon off-setting, there is now evidence that some of the schemes are causing an increase in child labour in poorer countries. In an example of such a scheme, Climate Care is paying poor and impoverished families in India to stop using diesel-powered pumps to irrigate their fields and replace them with human-powered treadles instead. One family ‘benefiting’ from Climate Care’s scheme is the Ram family. Their six year old daughter and her four young brothers now work flat out in the searing sun to pump water into their family field. Climate Care is the company that sells off-sets to British Airways customers, so they can feel better about their long-haul flights.

Medway council is due to reach a final decision next month regarding proposed plans to build a new coal power station, the Kingsnorth facility. The proposals come from E.ON UK, an organisation which Greenpeace describes as 'the company that talks green but walks a decidedly murky black'. If the power station is built, it will be the first coal power station built in the UK for over 30 years.

Clearly, if this move goes ahead, it will be an environmental disaster. If you added up the carbon emissions of 24 of the world's lowest carbon dioxide emitting countries, you would reach an amount similar to what this power station will emit. Coal power stations waste two thirds of the total amount of energy they produce. The effect this facility will have on climate change could bring serious flooding to large areas of Kent.

Last year, we reported that broadcaster Sky had gone carbon neutral. Since then, they have sponsored Lights Out London, introduced a 'recycle your set-top box' scheme, brought out a new green-minded cartoon character to appear on our screens shortly, and continue to get involved with loads of green initiatives.

Many companies are making similar claims about carbon neutrality, so we decided to look behind the hype and find out exactly what Sky have done to minimise emissions and encourage greenness in its customers and employees. I put some questions to them to find out...

Hippyshopper: Where does Sky get its green energy from? Do you use an eco-friendly electricity supplier?

Sky: We buy our electricity from Scottish and Southern electricity, which is from 100% renewable sources.

M&S continues to be one of the greenest places to shop on the high street, as it has been announced that two of its new branches are set to be powered entirely by renewable energy. The two branches will be located in Glasgow and Galashiels, with their energy provided by a wind turbine in Aberdeenshire. Both branches are due to open in October.

In addition to this initiative — which, Marks and Spencer claim, will reduce carbon emissions from the stores by 95% — these stores also hope to adopt a policy of collecting rainwater for use in flushing the stores' toilets. Marks and Spencer say they hope to be a completely carbon neutral company by 2012.

You still have a chance to register for the Tree-athlon events in London – on Saturday 15th September - and Leeds - on Sunday 23rd September in aid of Trees for Cities, a charity which aims to beautify cities and combat global warming through tree-planting.

The Tree-athlon events, like the more traditional triathlons, have three different parts to them: a 5km run, a ‘Tree Wish’ which will be printed on participants’ running bibs, and a fashion swap to recycle clothing you no longer want or need.
In addition to benefiting a good cause, you can challenge yourself with the run, reduce your carbon footprint (and need for wardrobe space) by getting rid of old clothes, and express your wishes for urban treescapes. Tree-athlon will soon be unveiling this year’s celebrity supporters so you never know who you might run into on the day. At the very least, you may just have a good day out and meet some like-minded souls.

Marks and Spencer have announced that two of their new stores will be run on wind power. This is in line with their recent pledge to become carbon neutral by 2012. The new stores will be in Glasgow and Galashiels and will feature a series of eco-enhancements which are aimed at reducing the company's carbon footprint. The wind turbine, which will be located in Aberdeenshire, will power both stores and will reduce energy use by 55% according to the company. They also claim this will lead to a drop of 95% in carbon dioxide production.

The government is auctioning a former state-owned site for the location of the UK’s first carbon-neutral village. Five major house-builders are involved in the bidding process to build 150 new carbon-neutral houses. The site is on the outskirts of Bristol and has been dubbed ‘Hanham Hall’. This pilot project will allow the winning builder to test their energy efficient housing design and build. The whole scheme is expected to be completed in three years, a full six years before the government’s target date for carbon neutral housing.

It can be a pretty tough life as an environmentally-conscious music fan. Of course, there are the big concerts like Live Earth, but putting out an album and running a tour can be quite energy-intensive events. So do you battle with your guilt and attend gigs and buy CDs, or not? Well, with Leeds-based Buen Chico, you don’t have to make that choice!