Environmental matters

Those two days I spent with my brother and his family had an environmental theme, possibly because he lives so far out in what he calls the suburbs but I call the wilds of Auckland, but also because the children's school is very concerned with environmental matters.

When we went down to the little beach one time, the kids found some fishing wire tangled in the bushes. They spent a good ten minutes untangling it, winding it up, making sure they'd got it all, and making sure there were no hooks left behind. They seemed to think this was their job. There was certainly no question of leaving it there.

When they finished, they handed it to me.

"Why are you giving this to me?" I asked.

"You have to carry it, because we'll be riding our bikes when we go home," said the eight-year-old.

"Why are we taking it home?" I asked.

The six-year-old rolled his eyes.

"This is how you do the ENVIWONMENT," he said. He didn't quite tell me I was an idiot, but it was a close thing. I was suitably humbled.


These environmental concerns seemed to have been catching. Every time my brother farted loudly, which happened more often than I want to remember, I accused him of increasing his carbon footprint way beyond what is reasonable for any one person. This had no effect. He even seemed quite proud of his contribution to global warming.

Family, eh?