Washing clothes adds a surprising amount to your carbon footprint – but tumble drying them racks up even more emissions

The most meaningful way to think about your carbon footprint is to consider the impact per pound spent

Depending on what you read and whether you recycle, newspapers can be a green way to spend your time or a big contributor to your footprint

The sending, sorting and filtering of spam email alone accounts for 33bn units of electricity each year

New homes require far less energy to run than older properties, but building them generates plenty of CO2

Human emissions dwarf volcanic emissions, but a big eruption can nonetheless kick out a huge amount of CO2

Making a new car creates as much carbon pollution as driving it, so it's often bettrer to keep your old banger on the road than to upgrade to a greener model

Surprising but true: a home loan can produce as much carbon as two short-haul flights

Finally, an answer to one of the most frequently asked green-living questions: is it better to handwash or use a dishwasher?

The internet releases around 300m tonnes of CO2 a year – as much as all the coal, oil and gas burned in Turkey or Poland, or more than half of the fossil fuels burned in the UK

It's a question that green experts get asked all the time: what's the best way to dry your hands?

In addition to all its other impacts, the Iraq war has caused a huge amount of carbon pollution.

• More carbon footprints: a bush fire, the world cup, more
• Understand more about carbon footprints

The banana is a strong candidate for the ultimate low-carbon food

One season of Australian bushfires can cause as much CO2 as the annual emissions of 5 million Australians or 50 million Chinese people

Green tea really is greener: the milk in a cup of white tea or coffee creates more CO2 than boiling the water

Staging the global football frenzy will create more carbon emissions than a billion cheeseburgers

Mobile phones don't consume much power – but the networks they rely on do

Cycling is usually a low-carbon way to travel – but it depends on what you eat

If you want to go green, look after your health – a major operation compares to two short-haul flights

Too much beer can add to your footprint as well as your waistline – especially if it's imported