KEY POINTS:
What are you doing to make a difference?
My wife and I have just built a house planned by a Danish architect - he is into thermal ratings and energy-efficient homes, so we have built it to trap the sun and we use gas to heat the
water.
We shop at Pak'n Save because it's cheaper to feed four kids there! We also take our own reusable bags.
We consciously built our home very near our children's school so they run across a lemon orchard and a rugby paddock then up a hill to get to school, which is neat for their fitness and our petrol bill.
The supermarket is just around the corner, so the boys often go on their bikes to grab milk or bread which saves gas also.
The children know more about what goes in the recycling bin than us as they have done school projects on those little triangles on bottles.
We have an amazing septic tank which is full of worms!
They eat up all our waste and turn it into treated water for the garden.
We grow our own veges and don't use any chemicals on them.
What more could you do?
I drive to Auckland once a week and I could get a more fuel-efficient car, and also we could cut down on packaging and make more food from scratch, which would be healthier for us and the environment.
What is your biggest environmental sin?
Probably our huge hot bath, which we fill up every night and all jump in.
I think it is better than all six of us having separate showers, though. We have a weakness for concrete - I have had a basketball court poured outside our house and my wife tells me pouring concrete is not good for the atmosphere.
We are planting trees to make up for it, but this year was so hot we used more water than ever before!
Global Warming - Man or Nature?
I don't think Adam and Eve had to worry about sunburn or God would not have let them be naked.
The Garden of Eden sounds like the ultimate in friendly environments.
Let's hope we all can get back to that.
