It's all about responsible conservation, being aware of environmentally sound ways to live, short-named "living green", the current mode of citizen-participation in a universal call to respect our planet, nature and our surroundings. Most people have that awareness and subscribe to a certain extent, to the ethos of using energy and resources sparingly. As far as energy is concerned, the growing cost to the consumer certainly acts as an incentive.

As for us, we years ago replaced all the light bulbs in our house from incandescent to the newer, more energy-conserving fluorescent types. Which contain mercury, and which do not, during the winter months when Canada is very cold, produce heat-energy, so it's kind of a half-dozen of one, half-dozen of the other.

It's been over two decades that we've recycled our kitchen waste into compost for our gardens, substantially decreasing the amount of garbage we put out at the curb on collection days. For the same length of time we've lowered our thermostat at night either manually at first, or mechanically in the later years to ensure we kept our energy usage reasonable. During the day the ambient temperature in the house is lower than many people find comfortable; we wear additional clothing to keep reasonably warm.

We make every effort possible to ensure we don't waste food. We rarely use any kind of processed food. The use of a dishwasher is kept to a minimum, but I'm not one of those who go a giant step further and refuse to use a clothes-dryer. Having done those things we feel we have modestly altered our lifestyle to a more sustainable one, environmentally, though truth to tell we could live in a smaller house.

The lifestyles section of newspapers are full of hints on how to live more energy-wise, environmentally sustainable lives. We do use some solar-powered light sources in the exterior of the house, for example. We rarely water our lawns in the summer months - almost never, though we do water the garden plants. We have planted trees around the house for shade in the summer and windbreak in the winter.

We recycle everything that can be recycled, faithfully placing our blue box (containing metals, plastics, glass) out for bi-weekly collection, or, on alternate weeks, all paper products in the black boxes. If there are items we consider to be extraneous to our needs we deliver them to the local branch of the Salvation Army for sale in their thrift shops. And we shop there ourselves for items of interest to us, particularly reading material.

We have not yet, and likely never will, however, resort to the latest suggestion (not even tongue-in-cheek) that people might consider urinating in their backyards rather than having to flush toilets incessantly. One wonders whether the bright mind that thought that one up interviewed people in India without indoor plumbing whether they consider themselves environmentally virtuous by having by necessity to relieve themselves outside in public places.

Granted, one's backyard is not a public place, but a private one. But we're speaking of a suggested practise that might not find complete favour with one's neighbours. Despite that an article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reported successful use of human urine (which in healthy individuals is almost sterile) to fertilize cabbages.