Pledges

Start walking or biking for short distances, with time you might
get fitter.
Every kilometer saved on petrol counts!

Buying second-hand gifts (eg: lots of good stuff on TradeMe) is a great way to recycle.
Buy NZ made and know minimum transport has been involved in your shopping.
Give people cloth table napkins for Christmas if they're in the habit of using paper ones. They will need washing, but are a tiny addition to the washing load you're all ready doing. And will save miles of paper over time.
Wrap your presents in Christmas fabric, or make bags from the fabric. They can be used again next year by the receiver.

Read as much as you can, read tim flannery(the weather makers) and(michael pollan) The Omnivorves dilemna and jared diamond (collapse) just get out there and learn it gives you the strength to teach others and make green decisions.

I get pretty annoyed by all the air conditions in every car. Especially in New Zealand it isn't that hot, that you would need it. Just turn down your windows a bit and the hot air is going out the car. Not that it brings you fresh air in your car, it also saves fuel! The engines are consuming much more fuel if the heating or air conditioning is on. Open windows instead!
More fuel means using valuable resources, blowing more toxins into the air, more green house gases => climate change!

Buy second hand clothes wherever possible - less cost, more personal style!
Lots of clothes at the opshop are almost brand new and cost a fraction of the price of new. I love finding bargains and for each secondhand clothing item I buy I think of the energy savings that a new one wasn't 'made in china' to meet my need for a new item of clothing.

Please take only free-range eggs into your shopping basket, nothing from chicken factory built on animal cruelty.

I ordered our fortnightly deliver of organic food online late last night and it arrived at the usual time this evening. Lovely looking food it is too BUT so much of it wrapped in plastic! The brocolli, cauli, cabbage. The salad greens, lettuce, bok choy and spinach. Even the boxes all the food came in are lined in plastic. To be fair the oranges, apples and kiwifruit were all packed in brown paper bags (diligently recycled as lunch bags in our house - "just like Bart Simpson", says the 7 year old!

electric blankets are a unnecessary use of electricity when we can achieve the same outcome using a hot water bottle and extra blankets.

Instead of dropping your towel in the washing basket after each shower hang it up and use it a few more times. Using a towel everyday wastes copious amounts of water needed to wash them.

...can you see anything through the smoke?

I am sick of following vehicles that are blowing huge amounts of smoke. It might seem expensive to get your vehicle serviced, but with the current cost of petrol its got to be cheaper long term and better for the environment to run a well oiled piece of machinery.