Ever wonder what the real benefits of organic cotton are? Or why you keep hearing about electric cars? Or what you need to know about indoor air pollution and the health of your family? Welcome to TreeHugger's Green Basics column, where we filter the green world and fill you in on what you gotta know.

Here you'll find the sustainable backstories -- the green basics -- for many popular green ideas, technologies, and cultural phenomenons, in quick, easy-to-digest, single-serving sizes. You'll learn all you'll need to know to sound smart at your next dinner party, and we'll give you a few resources that you can use to learn more, just in case you're just starting your PhD and really want to get down to the nitty-gritty.

For quick, easy access at the stroke of a key and click of a mouse, they'll all be kept right here for your browsing convenience, ready and willing to assist you in your daily endeavors to live green. Dig in!

And be sure to check out our guides for How to Go Green and our book Ready, Set, Green too!

Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know

It's an age old question, when it comes time to check out when grocery shopping: paper bags or plastic bags? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there are an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag.

From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind the bags. From where paper bags come from, to how plastic bags are recycled, to how much energy goes in to making both, here’s the real story on paper vs. plastic.

How Does Solar Energy Work?

For as long as our planet has spun 'round the sun, there's been solar energy cascading down on the earth, and, for a long time -- since the 7th century B.C., when glass was used to magnify it -- humans have been working to harness it.

These days, technology is a bit better, providing electricity, heating, lighting, and even flight, but the point is the same: use the sun’s warm glowing warming glow for our benefit. What’s the best way to use the massive and largely untapped potential that exists with solar energy? Read on.

An Explanation of the Water Cycle (with Pictures and Diagrams)

Water, water, everywhere, so let's all have a drink (or so we all learned as kids, right?), but it's definitely not as easy as that these days. Let’s sit back and enjoy an explanation of the water cycle.

Also known as the hydrologic cycle, the water cycle describes the process by which the various forms of water move about the planet in a fairly constant balance. But, just because it's fairly balanced doesn't necessarily mean we have all the water we need, whenever we want it. But first, what is the cycle, really? Keep reading to take a spin through the water cycle.

VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds, Indoor Air Quality and Respiratory Health

You can't see them, but they're all around us. They aren't listed as ingredients on the objects we bring in our home, but they're often there. They're volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, a wide range of carbon-based molecules (organic compounds) used in a wide range of products that find their way into our homes.

Under normal conditions, they vaporize, effectively leaving their host and entering the air, where they combine with other airborne compounds to form ozone, which isn't good to breathe. Here’s the low-down on avoiding these undesirable VOCs.

Eating Local Food: The Movement, Locavores and More

The local food movement, eating local, being on the "100 mile diet" or being a locavore are all synonymous with local food, an idea that has risen to prominence as an important part of the larger green movement. Local food integrates production, processing, distribution and consumption on a small scale, creating sustainable local economies and a strong connection between farm and table.

Learn the myriad environmental, social, economical and agricultural benefits of supporting small family farms and seasonal food grown right in your own backyard.

Your Carbon Footprint: Calculating, Reducing and Offsetting Your Impact

In addition to metrics like ecological footprint, each of us (and each of the products and services we use and consume every day) has a carbon footprint; it's a way to measure the relative impact of our actions -- as individuals, as businesses, communities and countries, as we eat, work, travel, play, etc. -- in terms of the contribution made to global climate change.

Measured in carbon emissions (usually in pounds, tons or kilograms), it's become an increasingly useful and popular tool to help contextualize global warming in our daily routines and lives.

Your Ecological Footprint: Defining, Calculating, and Reducing Your Environmental Footprint

An analysis that gauges our impact on the planet's biological systems, ecological footprint measures human consumption of natural resources in comparison to Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate them. Individually, each of us has "a footprint," and they aggregate across geographical zones like countries and continents.

Calculation of the footprint takes into account just about everything we do; it's a very complex calculation that answers a straightforward question: how much of the Earth's resources do our lifestyles require?

Post-Consumer Recycled Goods: Recycling Waste Into Stuff

Once a material or product has served its intended use and has been saved from disposal, it is then considered "post-consumer"; once it's collected and recycled, it becomes “post-consumer recycled.”

"Post-consumer" differs from "pre-consumer" or "post-industrial" waste, which is generated from industrial or manufacturing waste. Since post-consumer comes in small quantities from our homes, it is more difficult to separate and collect, but very important, as it keeps tons of material from going to the landfill.

Indoor Air Quality: Causes Of, Testing, and Monitoring Indoor Air Pollution

Pollution from power plants, cars, and other transportation is a well-known contributor to poor outdoor air quality, but our indoor air quality is often worse; it can be up to 10 times worse for you than the air outside.

Microbial pollutants like mold, pet dander and plant pollen can combine with chemicals like radon and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to create a pretty toxic environment in your home; since we spend an average of 90% of our time indoors and 65% of our time inside our homes, according to the National Safety Council, that can add up to allergies, asthma and worse.



More Green Basics follow! Keep reading to get the scoop on organic food, organic cotton, compact fluorescent light bulbs, electric cars, biodiesel and much, much more.