Following the example of 'No Impact Man'
The Associated Press has an interesting follow-up on Colin Beavan and his family, who spent a year trying to have zero impact on the environment. The story looks at what the family is doing now that the year is over.
They've mostly stuck to shopping at farmers' markets, they still don't have a TV, and they mostly use their bikes. But they use toilet paper again (sorry, but I see that as a good thing), buy some packaged items from the grocery store and take some flights for work and to visit family.
This week is the HuffPost's 'No Impact Week', where people pledge to reduce their eco-footprint. Have you signed up? How low-impact would you go or have you gone? Share your examples with us.
(AP photo of Colin Beavan, Michelle Conlin, their 4-year-old daughter, Isabella)
Comments
Unfortunately, the biggest issue with no impact week is the fact that our basic social system isn't set up for a sustainable lifestyle. Most people can't easily bike to work, most people can't power their home with reliable renewable power (Supposedly Clean Currents provides wind power electricity to my house but I have my doubts), and most importantly, we can't purchase hardly anything without running into tons of packaging. Recycling is all well and good, but even that has a negative environmental impact. In theory, if you compost your biodegradable waste (including paper, paper recycling is pretty dirty) and recycle your recyclables (most everything else) you can seriously cut back, but you'd better have a huge compost bin or access to an industrial composting facility. Then add in trasportation, water usage, the waste that goes into food production, and you realize that no impact isnt something the average person can achieve without dedicating a large portion of their life to avoiding waste. We have to make structural changes instead of being martyrs. I agree with his example (the documentary is a great way to push the issue) but unfortunately people making individual choices isn't going to change our impact. Its time to take these issues mainstream and start putting the wasteful businesses out of business
Posted by: Iandanger | October 21, 2009 12:49 PM
People pushing a cause need to understand that they need to sell it one step at a time.
If you try to tout "no impact", you'll end up convincing your target audience that this is an eccentric extremist movement. By detailing dozens of impractical little things that are difficult to accomplish and have limited value, you drown the message of a few very achievable things that really have significant impact.
Posted by: harry | October 22, 2009 1:31 AM
You can even do the no-impact man one better and yet be cleaner by getting hand held Bidet Sprayers for your bathrooms. For under $50.00 you get a kit that you can install without a plumber. You can still keep the tp around if you like, you'll just find you don't need very much of it. Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com.
Posted by: Jeff9 | October 24, 2009 8:47 AM