Its Easy to Make a Pledge!

- Dr. Rosie Hyde

Our family made a pledge on greeningspirit.ca. It took a little coordination - first I printed off the list of suggested environmental commitments, then we had a family meeting to decide what we could commit to, then I posted our chosen commitments on the Greeningspirit web site pledge area. It was cool when our "to-do" list showed up on the web site, and the total number of tonnes of CO2 changed because of our contribution! To be honest, the choosing of commitments takes some thought.

Sample portion of family meeting:

Parent: "What about this - shall we commit to a high-efficiency furnace?"

[Both parents blench at the thought of the cost impact. Quick examination of conscience. Quick estimate of whether we could just turn off the furnace and use hot water bottles. Inner awareness of how close our existing horrid furnace is to the end of its service life. Consideration of very substantial estimate received for converting to solar. Moment spent listening to rain on the roof.]

Children: "This is boring. Can we get down from the table now?"

[Adults contemplate how many years the children still want to use the planet and how little CO2 we can really bury in the sky.]

Parent: "OK, put a check mark".

And on to the next environmentally friendly decision...