No Impact Man

Posted by Steve McAllister on Jul 1, 2010 in Family, Movies, Other Stuff, People | 0 comments

In late 2006, Colin Beavan started a project that changed the way many saw sustainable living. Looking for a topic to write about that had more substance than the historical projects he had been working on while also hoping to have a greater impact on the world around him, Colin endeavored to accomplish this by creating less of an impact on the world around him. For one year of their life, Colin and his family attempted to produce no garbage and no carbon emissions by buying only locally grown foods, no new products, getting rid of their television, traveling only by foot and bicycle, eventually having their electricity turned off, and doing without a number of other modern conveniences that most of us take entirely for granted.

The experiment turned into a popular blog, a book, a documentary film, and a project “to empower citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in environmental politics.” Not only did the experiment produce a media juggernaut, it also taught the Beavan family, as well as many who watched or read about it, that living simply can create a richer, more fulfilling life.

Though I missed it in the theater, I recently watched No Impact Man on DVD and was instantly inspired by the sacrifices the family made and the fulfillment they achieved through their undertaking. For anyone considering ways to live a more sustainable and eco-conscious lifestyle, I highly recommend it. However, one aspect of the film stood out to me in a very poignant way.

After Colin’s experiment gets picked up for a story in the New York Times, the media circus begins and his No Impact journey gets a great deal of attention. What got me was not so much the negative mail and comments he got from consumers hell bent on doing whatever they want with no regard for the environmental regulations and no patience for anyone offering any sort of sacrificial lifestyle, but the environmentalists who barraged him with letters telling them that his radical experiment was making them look bad. While we are facing global warming and climate change, diminishing natural resources, out-of-control corporate greed, and more toxins in our society than we can wave an aerosol can at, how can anyone, especially someone with an inkling toward eco-consciousness, fault another person for trying something radical?

One of the arguments that a critical environmentalist made was that the No Impact experiment would make people take the environmental movement less seriously. However, the success of the experiment speaks for itself. Not only did the Beavan family make it through their year and prove that we don’t need to live as wastefully as our society has become, but they also proved that living simply can help to bring a family closer together without the trappings associated with a consumerist lifestyle.

I have to applaud Mr. Beavan and his family for doing what many of us are loathe to do and for standing out as a shining example that giving up what we think we can’t live without isn’t as hard as we make it out to be.

Check out the trailer for No Impact Man and pick up a copy of the book or DVD in its 80% post consumer recycled packaging.

Steve McAllister

In addition to serving as Managing Editor and contributor to Modern Hippie Mag, Steve McAllister is an actor, musician, accomplished author and filmmaker. His most recent novel, The McAllister Code is available as an e-book at www.themcallistercode.com. Find Steve on Twitter, @InkenSoul. Read his reviews and articles here.

Steve McAllister  (360 Posts)

Steve McAllister, Modern Hippie Mag's resident Lifestyle Guru, describes himself as a Renaissance Man. An author, filmmaker, songwriter, and perpetual artistic experimenter, he has recently re-released his second book The Rucksack Letters into paperback to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the journey. His latest book, a comical foray into philosophical science fiction, is How to Survive an Estralarian Mind Meld. His latest artistic project is The Labyrinth of the Unbroken Path. .