A few things I wanted to mention in the video but didn't (and didn't have the heart/editing skillz to add in):

-Beavan makes it pretty clear this project is for people with resources, in this country and globally. For those who don't even have electricity, or access to clean water, they need more, not less. That has to be part of our bigger picture strategy to deal with the situation.

-He's a never ending idealist, with a bit of sap thrown in.

Links:
No Impact Man Book
Movie
Blog
Project

This week's Not Oprah's Book Club: No Impact Man

I first heard of No Impact Man when I came across his blog. Basically Colin is a straight white upper middle class man with a wife and a baby who tried to live for a year in NYC while having zero net impact on the environment. What that means in scientific terms is not very exact, but this book is the story of their year long project.

I actually really liked the book, that it was an interesting intellectual experiment. As someone who an interest in environmental issues, I've had trouble because primarily what there is to read about these issues are really scary scary things about the fate of the world if things don't change. The same can be said about lots of issues we care about. For me it just became overwhelming to the point where I just couldn't read about it anymore from that perspective.

So what I was looking for were things written about how I could change my life or have an impact on the situation. He talks a lot about this divide between individual habit change and collective action. I there is arguments to be made on both sides, but what he comes to and where I'm at with it is there is no reason not to change our habits as individuals in addition to whatever action we might take.

There's a really interesting gender thread throughout the book that gets brought up more in the documentary (I've heard) about Colin and his wife. He paints her as more of a traditional high consumer who comes from money and likes shopping, where as he is more of a long haired hippie liberal. I think in the end she teaches him just as much as he teaches her and I appreciated how candid he was about the times he was a jerk about things and the times she really pushed him. Michelle his wife was really a co-creator in the project.

I would check it out, the book is made of 100% recycled paper. He also is continuing the experiment and there will be some links in the post to that.