No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life...

I saw the documentary film of this project on Netflix Instantview the other day and was fascinated by it, so I downloaded the book No Imapact Man to my Nook (thus saving paper, but not electricity-- which is better?).

Beavan tries to pull a Thoreau and get back to basics-- not in a remote woodland cabin, but in the middle of energy-guzzling, trash mountain-producing Manhattan. During the course of the year his family shunned elevators, paper napkins, disposable cups (disposable anything, really) electricity, and any motor-driven transport. The goal was to make no environmental impact for an entire year. His effort wasn’t perfect, but it certainly was thought-provoking.

His wife is the perfect foil to his gravitas, and makes his sermonizing tolerable in both the film and the book. In the end, each of us could benefit by implementing even a small portion of what Beavan suggests. No Impact Man offers much food for thought (though only of the vegetarian, organic, locavore variety).
Watch No Impact Experiment by clicking here.

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