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No Impact Man
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.
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In March of 2007, The New York Times ran a story called “The Year Without Toilet Paper,” about Colin Beavan, Michelle Conlin and their daughter Isabella. Almost instantly, No Impact Man was thrust into the spotlight.
Colin and his wife decided to live for a year generating as little waste as possible. They avoided carbon-fueled transportation and shopped for nothing other than food which was grown within a 250-mile radius of their East Village apartment. Eventually they stopped using electricity all together, in a kind of 9th floor walk-up version of Walden Pond.
The Times profile generated a stream of critics and some defenders. Colin’s year, and his blog from the time inspired the book No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries he Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process. A documentary film rolls out in U.S. cities this month.
As part of our "next green thing" series, Colin Beavan joins us to talk about his experiment and whether it's possible for one family to truly make a difference.
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The interview neglected a critical aspect: what is impact man's current lifestyle. Has he gone back to the air conditioners, daily starbucks libations, and supermarket foods? I'll bet he even uses toilet paper.