By now, you’ve probably contemplated your carbon footprint — but do you know its literal meaning?

Scientists at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) have ranked as many as 30 spots around the world where human activities are causing the most damage to coastal marine ecosystems.

A majority of the inhabitants of a town in rural Australia, Bundanoon, agreed July 8 at a town meeting to ban bottled water, the Associated Press reported July 9. Approximately 2,500 people reside in the small town 100 miles south of Sydney. It could well be the first town in Australia, and possibly the world, to ban bottled water.

Almost everyone is familiar with the most common ways to help save the environment. Recycle. Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Use energy-saving appliances. Trade in your SUV for a hybrid. Et cetera, et cetera. But there are many less common ways to be green. Here are a few of them:

The Blues are going green. Chelsea Football Club is the first and only soccer team to agree to the Mayor of London’s Green500 campaign and has big plans to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 10 percent over the next two years.

Biofuels have come under a lot of scrutiny lately do to their environmental and social consequences. Most studies of the impacts are on air quality, land use, and net energy yield.

South Korea announced July 6 it will invest 107 trillion won ($85 billion) in promoting green industries throughout the country, Reuters reported the same day. The stimulus package is roughly 2 percent of South Korea’s entire gross domestic product, and will last the next five years.

U.S. power plants have witnessed a steep drop in greenhouse gas emissions lately, and operators say the bad economy cannot take all the credit, Reuters reported July 7.

Most people know that a good diet and regular exercise will keep the weight off while delivering an overall better quality of life; however, there are three things that also need to be monitored in order to make sure the weight stays off and more serious health risks do not arise.

Chemicals

The first thing to think about is chemicals.

While many in the United States enjoyed fireworks on the Fourth of July, a report was published indicating that as a nation we were “greener and happier” 20 years ago. Our overconsumption of resources does not necessarily correlate with increased well-being, and well-being can be achieved without excessive consumption, the report shows.