Wilderness Holds Hope

No Impact Man: The Documentary

Video description: “In this engaging documentary, a Fifth Ave family goes green when writer Colin Beavan leads his wife, Michelle Conlin, and their baby daughter on a yearlong crusade to generate no trash and otherwise make no net impact on the environment.”

I think this experiment was inspiring. Here are some tidbits pulled out of context.

“It’s not about using as little as we can possibly use, but finding a way to get what I need in a sustainable way.”

“My blog post today was about opportunities in the crisis. Imagine if we made the city nicer to live in… the two comments on the post so far are ‘Let’s be realistic.’ Like you can’t make a city nice, so forget it. There’s such a lack of idealism, but I think realism got us where we are.”

“[The project] is not about depravation, it’s not about not taking care of yourself. It’s the opposite. It’s about seeing if it’s possible to have a good life without wasting so much…Can I live on this planet doing more good than harm?” 

“Most people as they consume don’t understand what the real cost of those goods are. The pollution that was created to make it, the health affects that are associated with it. We are the point sources for all the greenhouse gas that everybody is trying to curb right now. I mean I think we should spend more time recognizing that people’s lives are being compromised every single day and have been for decades.” 

“I’m not talking about the polar bears, I’m not talking about people if far away island communities that are going to be hurt when the ocean levels rise. I’m talking about people who are already living with the effects of our over-consumptive society.”

“I believe the most radical political act there is, is to be an optimist. The most radical political act there is, is to believe that if I change other people will follow suit.”

“I believe very strongly that a lot of the environmental problems on our planet have come because of a breakdown of community. Because without community none of us are accountable to anyone else.”