Like many of us, writer Colin Beavan was frustrated by the slow political response to the threat of climate change. (Can that pace still be referred to as “glacial”?) Unlike the rest of us, he decided to take matters into his own hands by becoming No Impact Man. No Impact Family, actually: “For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets. . . .” Not even caffeine. The experiment began in November, 2006, and you can find out how it went on Beavan’s No Impact Man blog. Or see the movie, which got a standing ovation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Either way, you’ll be entertained and learn a lot — not just about genuinely effective ways to reduce our carbon footprint, but about the ripple effect that one person’s radical act can set into motion.

In March, 2009, in Mumbai, India the Tata Nano launched to much fanfare. At 100,000 rupees ($1985 at the time), it’s the world’s least expensive car. Another impressive number: 65 miles per gallon.

The four-door Nano is a little over 10 feet long, about five feet wide (think twin bed), and powered by a 33 horsepower engine that can get the car up to 65 miles per hour. It’s sturdy too: the Nano just surprised quite a few doubters by passing European crash tests (shown in the video). The vehicle will still have to pass American safety and emission standards, modifications scheduled for completion by 2011 or early 2012. It's likely to be the cheapest car on the lot, and probably the most fuel-efficient. (The Smart Fortwo clocks in at 41 mpg; you can watch it crash here. However, buyers of what Tata has dubbed “the People’s Car” will have to do without power steering, air conditioning (except in the luxury model), and trunk space for anything much bigger than a lunchbox. Will the gas mileage and eco-points make the Nano irresistible in the land of the muscle car?

The road to the recycling bin may be paved with good intentions, but Americans still have a long way to go in this department — especially considering how much waste we generate. Reasoning that a little incentive couldn’t hurt, former management consultant Ron Gonen founded RecycleBank: a program that rewards households for their recycling efforts.

Each participating household gets a big blue recycling bin embedded with a computer chip. Each week the cart is scanned and weighed at the curb, the weight converted to points, and the points credited directly to an individual account. The points can be redeemed for discounts and rewards at hundreds of participating businesses, including Sears, CVS pharmacies, and Home Depot. To Gonen, it’s not just the economics, it’s the quantifiable sense of accomplishment. “RecycleBank tries to ensure that everything we do is measured — and we share those numbers,” he says in a Time magazine article. Like the Climate Change exhibitions multiplier effect interactive, a counter on the home page tracks the number of trees and gallons of oil that members have saved to date. Municipalities win too, because costs drop when less waste goes to landfills. Since launching successfully in Philadelphia in 2006, RecycleBank now operates through much of the Northeast. See if your town or borough is already a RecycleBank partner, or if not, how you can help make it happen.

Summer’s the easiest time of the year to eat locally. All kinds of fruits and vegetables are starting to ripen, whether in your garden or piling up on stands at the farmer’s market. If you don’t have a patch of dirt to call your own, how about finding a community garden through the American Community Gardening Association? It’s a great way to meet your neighbors and spend less to feed your family great food. If you’d just as soon have the tomatoes and peaches show on your doorstep, consider supporting “community supported agriculture” by joining a CSA. Members who subscribe to CSA farms receive a box of fresh seasonal fruits and veggies each week. To locate a farm or market near you, enter your zip code in the Get Local Info box on The Daily Green's homepage.

One whole wall of the Climate Change exhibition is devoted to the Multiplier Effect: an interactive display that shows how individual actions can combine to make a real dent in our carbon footprint. What kind of change makes the most sense for the way you live? What if you drove less? Or planted a tree, or changed to energy-efficient light bulbs? What would happen to CO2 levels if more people joined you? Even more? Have fun with this cool interactive and find out the answers.

We heard about GoodGuide.com from Daniel Goleman, the author of Ecological Intelligence, when he was a guest on Bill Moyers Journal. This consumer website rates over 70,000 “safe, healthy and green” products (food, personal care, household chemicals, and toys) on a ten-point scale. Ratings are broken down according to the social, environmental, and health impacts of the product. You can see how Beech-Nut Butternut Squash, Ecover Floor Soap and Surf's-up Beach Barbie stack up against the competition, and easily access the methodology and the sources on which the ratings are based. The site also makes it easy to compare prices and find stores by zip code, and has a “news and recalls” section.

GoodGuide originated as a UC Berkeley research project, when Dara O’Rourke was smearing sunscreen on his five-year old daughter Minju for the umpteenth time and wondered (for the first time), “What’s really in this stuff?” An Associate Professor of Environmental and Labor Policy at Berkeley, O’Rourke did his homework and was dismayed to discover that the sunscreen contained a toxic ingredient. Realizing how little consumers know about the products on their shelves, he created a team of scientists, technologists and industry professionals to remedy the information gap. This resulting web resource gives us, in Goleman’s words, “radical transparency”: the actual costs of many of the bottles and boxes we choose between every day.