The year's biggest tree planting week is coming up and it's your chance to get your hands dirty in the reforestation of the UK's woodlands.

The 35th National Tree Week will be from 25th of November to the 6th of December. This annual celebration of all things barky begins the season of winter tree planting. There are events being held across the country where you can get involved with local community groups and councils to improve your local treescape.

At least 200 schools and local groups, plus the Tree Councils 8,000 Tree Wardens (volunteers who gather information about local trees and get involved in local tree matters) will be organising tree planting and other activities during the week. If you'd like to set up your own tree inspired activity visit the Tree Councils website to get some useful tips on how to do so, as well as promote your event on their site.

Those of us in the (over)developed world could do with (re)learning some of the old stories of communities who use the traditional method for forecasting the weather (beats relying on a flaky weatherman to determine whether you take that trip to the beach tomorrow).

Let's look at the farmers and fisherman of Vietnam. For generations those that still follow the traditional ways have been predicting floods, storms and droughts by tracking nature. In the drought prone region of Ninh Thuan farmers take the dragonfly's opinion on such matters on overhead climatic conditions. If the dragonfly travels low to the ground, rain is sure to be on its way; if it travels high, the sunshine's will be out for that picnic.

This is just one example of what a group of aid agencies is taking note for a project to find out whether whether the indigenous knowledge passed down the generations through proverbs, folk songs and legends still hold true in this time of climate chaos.

The indigenous people know a lot about disaster adaptation and the aid agencies are looking to collect this information. This will be used to help them create programs to reduce the risk of natural disasters in Vietnam; it's coastal regions a sitting duck for rising sea levels which will be ruinous for rice production in the country as well as the tens of thousands of families residing there. Climate change is expected to hit Vietnam very hard.

There is strong evidence to support this research project. A UN report found nomads on the coast of Thailand were one of the communities spared during the 2004 tsunami because they used their passed down knowledge to see early changes to the environment and flee to higher ground.

Nature appears to be unleashing its wrath on us. But it's simply doing its thing, self-preservation and all that. We are fools if we overlook the hand it lends and the clues it gives for our preservation also.

Yes, you heard it first here folks, a new source of energy has been utilized from the cook's dinner staple - the humble onion. An onion processor in California which cuts the tops, tails and skins off onions has devised a unique electrical system that is powered by their waste onion. Gills Onions loses 35% of the onions or 300,000 pounds of waste each day in the process of dicing, slicing and pureeing onions which it sells on to wholesale and retail customers.

Gone are the days when Gills sends out its waste onions to fields to decompose naturally into the soil (which is a great idea if it weren't for the lack of fields around town and the insects that onions attract).

So, Gils has invented the AERS or Advanced Energy Recovery System. The AERS turns all their onion waste into electricity and cattle feed. Basically the system squashes out all the onion juice, which is then goes into an anaerobic digester to turn into methane gas. The gas is pumped into fuel cells and is used to form electricity. The onion solid is what is fed to the cattle.

Gills 300,000 pounds of daily onion waste makes about 600 kilowatts of electricity every day which is enough to run up to 40% of the companies factory. Gills says that it expects to take about US$700,000 off their electricity bills each year and save about US$400,000 in waste disposal costs. That's a lot of onion mula.

Apparently some of Gill's neighbours are keen to get in on the action - both a carrot producer and winery are apparently interested in learning more about the system. Everyone plays their part in looking after the earth.

These days we're not short of films focused on the state of the planet's environment. Movies like The Day After Tomorrow, An Inconvenient Truth, 11th Hour and the latest The Age of Stupid are indications that the film industry is hot to trot in terms of feeding people what they are most keen to digest at the moment. Green knowledge is good for us, if we want to survive the next century that is, and we're craving it like never before. The glamorous albeit money making machine that is Hollywood, is doing its best to get it to us - but at what cost?

A UCLA study in 2006 called Sustainability in the Motion Picture Industry found that the ecological impact of the Californian film and TV industry lay only behind the petroleum and aviation industries. The Age of Stupid confessed it's total carbon footprint in its closing credits at 94,270kg of CO2 which is about the amount created by eight Brits per year.

Huge lighting rigs, massive energy consumption from generators required on location, heavy diesel-guzzling trucks for transport and all the excesses that surround the charm of the industry; Hollywood doesn't tread lightly.

What are they doing about it? Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox are apparently on it. Green Power generators that run on ultra-low sulphur diesel and sustainably sourced soya bean; the world's first high powered low energy LED lighting system; and an eco digital cine camera that is film and tape free are just some of the ways Hollywood are hoping to green up.

The Best Practices Guide for Green Production created by the Motion Picture Association of America is another initiative that sees the film industry greening up. A new code for the UK film industry, Green Screen, is also aiming to reduce London's movie footprint by 60%. And it seems it's been working with Evan Almighty being the first carbon zero comedy.

Film is the perfect vehicle to get the eco message to a wide audience. The higher the standard of quality of production and the more poignant and captivating the script the more likely people will take notice... particularly if its own green credentials are modelling that message.

The more movies that get people to care to the point of acting upon their sensibilities, the healthier our planet will be.

900g organic carrots (chopped small)
400g onions (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 tsp ground coriander
25g butter
25g plain flour
1 litre stock (chicken has great flavour but vegetable is fine too)
125ml double cream

Sweat the carrot, onion and garlic in the butter until soft (about 20mins), adding the coriander halfway.

Season with salt and pepper and stir in the flour until well combined with the butter and juices.

Gently work in the stock, so that you are not left with lumps of flour and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend until smooth, stir in the cream and bring back to simmer if required.

Serve garnished with fresh coriander leaves if you have any.

Even my husband, who claims to hate carrots, loves this soup.