A seafaring adage goes: “If the winds are shifting, adjust your sails.” But even with the disturbing winds of climate change, the shipping industry, with its combustion of fossil fuels (accounting for 2.4% of global emissions), remains outside binding emissions-reduction agreements.

There have been some eco efforts, but the Carbon War Room points out that ship owners feel little need to green their fleets, as those hiring the vessels pay the fuel costs. When the price of bunker fuel (the sludgiest oil left over from refining) drops, as it has, eco resolve disappears.

We all suffer from “sea blindness”, according to filmmaker Denis Delestrac, whose new exposé, Freightened: The Real Price of Shipping (premiering at Sheffield Documentary Festival), suggests lucrative shipping companies shirk their ethical responsibility.

So what about your own maritime footprint? Shipmap.org, from UCL’s Energy Institute, plots the routes and specifics of 5m vessels using 2012 data. It is eye opening: they navigate the Panama Canal carrying not just the plastic “Made in Taiwan” toys we might associate with cargo ships, but also “dry bulk” from the ores that go into our electronics to the grain that feeds our cattle. Even our gas is sent by ship.

As responsible consumers, we should get on board the Fairtransport movement, where ocean miles, impact and the treatment of crew are factored into the supply chain of a product and support SkySails, which uses offshore winds in lieu of fossil fuels. Last month Tres Hombres, the world’s only sail-powered cargo vessel, berthed in Falmouth, dropping off carbon-neutral chocolate from the Caribbean and rum for New Dawn Traders. There are also sail-powered deliveries of French wine to the UK. A drop in the ocean, but at least we are engaging with shipping’s true costs.

The big picture: saving the Dutch Elm

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dutch elm disease: the fightback begins

The battle against Dutch elm disease (DED) has entered a new phase in the UK. On 25 May, the first British elms were injected with the biological vaccine Dutch Trig. This represents the next chapter for environmental campaigning group conservationfoundation.co.uk, which tirelessly champions the Dutch elm as one of the most majestic and important tree species we have – especially around the Sussex coast. The good news is that conservationists believe they have a fighting chance of saving the species.

Well dressed: read the washing label

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Love Your Clothes … and don’t throw them away too soon!

One of the smartest things you can do for your ethical wardrobe is to extend the life of everything in it. Extending the ‘active life’ of clothes by just nine months reduces carbon, water and waste footprints by around 20-30% each. So we should weep every time a T-shirt gets put out to grass prematurely.

According to research by the Love Your Clothes campaign last year, the useful existence of 39m items of apparel in the UK came to a premature end because we can’t read ‘personal care’ labels properly.

We’ll save the argument that the clothing industry shouldn’t make them so complex for another day, and commit to swotting up on the helpful guide and quiz at loveyourclothes.org.uk. (You might also win a washing machine, which will in many ways represent the acid test).

Email Lucy at lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @lucysiegle