EcoGeek - Clean Technology

No Impact Man is Kind of Crazy

Written by Dave Burdick

Friday, 04 May 2007

Dads. When you're young, they never do seem quite sane.

This year, one New York dad has taken the "I'll turn this thing right back around" threat about as far as it'll go; Colin Beavan and his family are in the middle of a quest to zero out their impact on the world. Appropriately enough, Beavan's blog is called No Impact Man, and he chronicles the various ways in which he's hurdling the obstacles of living in a major city--he's in Manhattan--and thinking and living green.

Here he talks about doing laundry sans electricity and here his wife writes on giving up non-local coffee

Comments (2)

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I admire this guy, but...
written by Todd , May 06, 2007

... I can't help but wonder if the environment would be better served if he took on small, but permanent changes rather than this all-or-nothing-for-one-year approach. I'm sure many of their habits will remain for life, but I'm also fairly certain that when the year is up they will start riding the subway, taking vacations, and buying take-out again.

I'm reminded of dieters who go from 5000 calories a day down to 3000, and wonder why they can't stick with it after a week. Drastic changes like these aren't made to last. But maybe if they made small, incremental changes to their behavior, it would last a lot longer than a year (and be less of a shock than giving it all up at once).

I can't complain though -- this guy and his family are doing and sacrificing far more for their beliefs than I am.

He could probably benefit from...
written by Jane , May 07, 2007

SNAP CO2 Saver App (http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/578/, since he seems to still be dependent on his computer, yet is washing his clothes in the bathtub a la grapestomp. Good intentions, though!

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Dave Burdick
		About the author:
		Dave Burdick is a New York-based writer and comedian. He's currently pursuing an MS in journalism at Columbia University, performing in the city whenever and writing about being a big dummy at daveburdick.com.
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