This was the film shown last night as part of the series. No Impact Man
This guy, his wife, his baby daughter, and their dog committed to a one year experiment where they tried to greatly reduce their carbon footprint.
Some of the changes were easy/things many could do to a degree - cloth diapers for the daughter (disposable diapers are item #3 filling up landfills), biking, walking, or using a scooter instead of a car (they live in Manhattan), buying food at the farmer's market or from within 250 miles (they have the country's largest right there and a guy w/ a plot at a nearby community garden helped them out), taking the stairs instead of the elevator, making their own household cleaners, brushing their teeth with baking soda, renting, buying secondhand or borrowing instead of buying new, composting or recycling most of their trash, using a glass instead of plastic, drinking tap water instead of bottled, trying to not have extraneous packaging materials, no plastic bags, and living without a TV.
Others were rather extreme IMO - giving up toilet paper, using candles instead of electricity (but they still cooked with it and ended up using a solar panel), no refrigeration (that one didn't work so well), no eating in restaurants, and going completely vegetarian.
Part of the experiment was that urban dwellers make up most of the world's population and so that is the group that needs to change their habits to have the most impact. Another part was that instead of waiting for legislation or corporate change, an individual was taking action.
Interesting (and hilarious - especially his wife) movie.
Even more impressive/interesting is the effect that just his family doing this for one year had and what MINOR changes in your habits could bring about:
No Impact Man
This guy, his wife, his baby daughter, and their dog committed to a one year experiment where they tried to greatly reduce their carbon footprint.
Some of the changes were easy/things many could do to a degree - cloth diapers for the daughter (disposable diapers are item #3 filling up landfills), biking, walking, or using a scooter instead of a car (they live in Manhattan), buying food at the farmer's market or from within 250 miles (they have the country's largest right there and a guy w/ a plot at a nearby community garden helped them out), taking the stairs instead of the elevator, making their own household cleaners, brushing their teeth with baking soda, renting, buying secondhand or borrowing instead of buying new, composting or recycling most of their trash, using a glass instead of plastic, drinking tap water instead of bottled, trying to not have extraneous packaging materials, no plastic bags, and living without a TV.
Others were rather extreme IMO - giving up toilet paper, using candles instead of electricity (but they still cooked with it and ended up using a solar panel), no refrigeration (that one didn't work so well), no eating in restaurants, and going completely vegetarian.
Part of the experiment was that urban dwellers make up most of the world's population and so that is the group that needs to change their habits to have the most impact. Another part was that instead of waiting for legislation or corporate change, an individual was taking action.
Interesting (and hilarious - especially his wife) movie.
Even more impressive/interesting is the effect that just his family doing this for one year had and what MINOR changes in your habits could bring about:
No Impact Man
