No Impact Man – Extream or No?

Can you live without…

• Packaging of any kind?
• Plastic bags?
• Shopping for new clothes?
• A fridge?
• Food that’s not grown locally?
• Disposable diaper?
• Electricity?
• A car?
• Toilet paper?!

For an entire year? In New York City?

That’s exactly what Colin Beavan decided to live without. The problem – he’s got a wife and young child along for the ride. The movie No Impact Man is the story of the Beavan family who made a decision to see what they could leave behind for a year to see what sort of impact, or lack of an impact I should say they could have on the planet.

To leave no impact is hard. According to the No Impact Man website this would mean, “Eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage.” Simply by being born you’ve already screwed the environment in some way so creating less of an impact while you’re here can help to make up for some of the havoc we’re spreading as humans on the earth, however, is this too extreme?

I just viewed an advanced screening of this film last night, and I’ll be reviewing it soon. Heads up, I don’t think this family made decisions that were/are too extreme. Possibly not extreme enough because I’m not sure the movie translates to the general non-green public – more about this in my review though.

Overall I liked the film and if you’re lucky it’s in a theater near you. Watch for my review coming soon.

[image via Oscilloscope Laboratories]