You must have seen the kind of newspaper columns telling you the various ways in which you can be greener and save the planet. Well, if you're cutting down on paper consumption, you'll have read all that spiel online at any rate.

Some of this advice is of use: recycling your plastic bags; driving a more fuel-economic car - and some of it is worse than useless. In particular I am thinking of the big push towards eco light bulbs. Those things crack faster than the ice at a Billy Connolly show - particularly the swirly sort. I have had three of the buggers smash in my house in the past year. Environmentally friendly? That's so inaccurate anyone saying so should be prosecuted under the sales descriptions act. They are not environmentally friendly, they are environmentally lethal.

Victoria McMagnus describes the usefulness in giving up modern lifestyle patterns we don't need in her latest column:

The Appeal Of Giving Up Modern Inconveniences