Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment–and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Here’s a collection of tips from the No Impact community.
The following blog entry can be found here: http://apotaday.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-8-no-impact-mans-environmental.html
It’s clear that one of the main impetuses for starting this project was my need to shit or get off the pot, as they say–to get some pottery made finally so I can launch my storefront at www.rivervalleycrafts.com, but you may be surprised to learn that the incident that pushed me over the edge, on its surface, had nothing to do with art making.
A few weeks ago, Ralph and I went to a talk by Colin Beaven and a viewing of the documentary named for his project and blog, “No Impact Man,” at NYU. I’d spottily followed his year-long project to go virtually off-grid with his family in their NYC apartment via his blog, and was more than intrigued by their sincere adventure as I’d thought of going a similar path, though had never had the inspiration to take it as far as they finally did.
Listening to Colin talk heart-fully about how he and his wife learned deeply from their year of “living without” that they gained a meaning, purpose, fullness and joy heretofore unrealized in their “successful,” high-powered professional city lives, was what moved me to do my A POT A DAY project. Being in his presence, more than watching the very worthy documentary I suggest you see, about their year, was really what cinched it for me. I felt, from my front-row seat, not more than a tall body’s length from where he stood, his passion for sharing his new-found wisdom about how we’ve gone too far astray from connections with family, friends, community and the earth, as we chase the illusory, unreachable dream that Capitalism and her gi-gondo commerce and advertising promises us.
What was most inspiring about him, was that he didn’t preach. He didn’t even consider trying to convince the callow, NYU student naysayer when she provoked him. He spoke only of his and his family’s experiences and cited objective, statistical data from studies highlighting clearly that Americans are a miserable lot relative to most populations elsewhere on the globe when they are asked to rate their happiness and life fulfillment.
And when people asked what they could realistically do to tread more lightly on the earth, to find more time and meaning, his only advice was two-fold: Volunteer at an environmental organization and beyond that, figure out what you want and can do. Sage words, I think.
Ralph and I left the screening and talk buoyed by hope and inspired to shave a few “necessities” from our lives, namely the television, as we live pretty pared down as it is. We’d not been big watchers, save for those few binges a year we each fell prey to, but most evenings we did find ourselves watching an hour or two between arriving home from work exhausted and falling into bed.
So, let me get it out here now, we still have a t.v. in our living room (behind the closed doors of a cabinet, I might add), BUT we’ve not watched but a few hours total in the past three or four weeks since our No Impact Man night. Honestly, I was afraid to just turn off the cable right away. I needed to make sure we, and I, could do it–fill our evenings with more interactive and engaging endeavors.
I’m pleased to report I will call Time Warner Cable in the next day or two to cut our subscription to the most basic level, so we just get reception and the old fashioned stations. And, as soon as I have adequate time to figure out how we can get the few shows we want online I will cut the service completely (I will update you on this). I’m a great believer in moderation and the middle path. I WILL watch the boob tube from time to time, especially news, my vice.
So, A Pot A Day owes much to Colin Beaven. It’s with the time in my days and space in my head that watching less television opened up, that the project was conceived fully and executed. I’ve also been reading more than I have in the past many years, and have purchased a very inexpensive guitar from a neighborhood vendor and have begun teaching myself to play via lessons on YouTube.
This post was submitted by Cori Morenberg.
OK… I made a list on my blog of 101 things to do to live greener. Since it’s a long list, I’ll just post the link: http://open.salon.com/blog/the_almighty_beckster/2010/01/01/101_easy_ways_to_have_a_greener_2010
And yes… I’ve done all of them!
This post was submitted by Rebecca.
Is poverty thinking synonymous with Low/No Impact Living?
The psychological effects of Low/No Impact Living deserves attention.
One of the most uncomfortable consequences of Low/No Impact Living is how it triggers negative peer pressure; drawing out defensiveness BIG time. Low/No Impact Living downright provokes a lot of people because it challenges eons of conditioning.
Raising my conscious awareness of the psychological implications of Low/No Impact Living, broadens my understanding of it.
Anat Baniel, author of “Move Into Life” said, “When we move with Attention, the brain re-maps.” I am lowering my impact by remapping my brain with conscious awareness.
This post was submitted by Eileen Balint.
Revised
Is poverty thinking synonymous with Low/No Impact Living?
The psychological effects of Low/No Impact Living deserves attention.
One of the most uncomfortable consequences of Low/No Impact Living is how it triggers negative peer pressure; drawing out defensiveness BIG time. Low/No Impact Living downright provokes a lot of people because it challenges eons of conditioning.
Raising my conscious awareness of the psychological implications of Low/No Impact Living, broadens my understanding of it.
Anat Baniel, author of “Move Into Life” said, “When we move with Attention, the brain re-maps.” I am lowering my impact by remapping my brain with conscious awareness of Low/No Impact Living.
This post was submitted by Eileen Balint.
Dearest Colin,
I think your wife is an amazing woman, your daughter is an absolute doll, and you are my hero! We LOVED your documentary! It is remarkable the lengths you went to for ‘the cause’. Given all that, I am so disheartened that I cannot recommend your movie because I am lowering my impact by not buying products with excessive packaging.
The message ‘no impact’ is critically flawed in every way when it comes to humans. Just being born has a tremendous impact on the Earth. But I’m sure you’ve heard this about as many times as I’ve heard, “but how do you get your protein?” . . . . . I start my tirade here as it seems to me that it’s the most obvious place to begin. But wait, a ‘no impact’ movie with an obscene amount of packaging seems, well, absurd! Please tell me that you had no input on the packaging of your DVD! Please tell me that the distributor threatened to force feed you a Big Mac! Please tell me something I can wrap my head around, please!!
This post was submitted by Darris B. Nelson.