No Impact Man

I recently watched a movie called No Impact Man, a documentary about a man, his wife and young daughter who live in New York City that, over the course of a year, work to reduce their environmental impact to zero. The family implemented new ways to reduce their impact in phases, starting with not using an carbon-emitting modes of transportation; no cars, trains, buses, elevators even! Because most of our food travels over 1,500 miles before it gets to our homes, they avoided grocery stores and restaurants and only ate food from farmers markets that was grown within 250 miles of their home.

After six months of their experiment, the Beavans even cut out electricity from their daily lives in their apartment!!! For the remaining six months, they used their gas stove to cook, read and ate by candlelight every night, and used a cooler for their perishables.

Being a glutton for punishment, my immediate reaction to the movie was “How can I do this too?” My poor housemate was less than thrilled with the idea of turning out the electricity permanently (especially as we approach finals time). But it has forced me to look at what I consume and how I can not only reduce that, but how I can modify my daily living to make less of a negative impact on the physical world around me. This seems more realistic and attainable.

So before you shower me with accolades for being Earth-conscious (as I sit in front of my computer with a space heater blowing directly on my legs and I anxiously await jumping into my brand-new car to head to the gym), take a minute to check out Colin Beavan’s blog. Also check out the movie- it's available 'Watch Instantly' on Netflix! See what he’s doing and see if there are some small steps you can take to make the Earth better for those who will come after us.