No Impact Man -- Notes with a Critical Eye
His premise: there is a way to live causing no environmental impact (while in the big city). (Can one person make a difference?)
My perspective: that there is no way to do this, because one always is spending money while in the city, and money always has a negative net impact, if not in the exchange/trade that is observed, then in the next exchange, or the one after that.
As I watched the film, I made notes, jumping between lists, and updating the lists, as I went. In particular, I was watching for:
1. money use
2. energy use
3. use of anything that required money, energy, and/or other resources to be created, and eventually, to be de-created.
***
No Impact Man -- Notes with a Critical Eye
Positives
1. buy less stuff
2. got rid of TV -- taken out of the home
3. no subway, cars, planes
4. farmers market + 250 mile diet
5. composting w worm bin
6. cloth diapers
7. vegetarian
8. walks everywhere
9. no caffeine
10. sharing use of electricity
11. buying no clothing at all
12. use reusable containers
13. shopping from bulk bins
14. borrowing items
15. cotton toilet paper (cloth reusable)
16. straight razor
17. sharing things with others, taking things to thrift store
18. shop at re-store
19. also ate seasonally
20. urban community garden
21. not using cleaning chemicals
22. mixes cleaning products himself
23. no more cosmetics
24. does laundry in bathtub -- looked like fun family time
25. uses pot-in-pot evaporate refrigerator -- nice -- (but didn't work, probably wasn't hot enough to cause enough evaporation, plus not the same shapes as the Nigerian design) -- [more in the DVD extras]
26. turns off all electricity
27. ride bikes all over the place
28. no trash
29. baked goods -- took energy
30. meets with congressman
31. goes to talk with a group of college students
32. wear warmer clothes in apartment
33. recommends volunteering with an environmental organization (to become part of a community)
34. (in extras) -- gleaning - freegans -- (this would have been more interesting to have in the film)
35. (in extras) -- supportive building super
Errors - Still Impacting
1. uses electricity (money) running computer and video camera
2. uses lights
3. washes clothes -- (later stopped)
4. plastic diaper covers, manufacturer cloth diapers
5. rides train to a farm
6. cow farm runs on electricity, lots of energy to build a barn, employees
7. cooking using fuel
8. uses cell phone
9. heat the apartment
10. pay for the apartment
11. buying food
12. can rent items -- money
13. use of city water and city sewer
14. farm market -- people still drive to market -- purchase canopies, etc.
15. money going to farmers market
16. burning (consuming) candles and matches
17. wife uses heat, a/c, electricity, ice at work, city water,
18. city water for watering garden
19. ice from neighbor -- electricity, money
20. wife uses beauty salon
21. taxes
22. street cleaners, road work, police, fire department
23. uses PV solar panel (money, manufacturing, etc.)
24. babysitter and/or daycare(?) (money)
25. wife works for a business magazine (lots of trees to print)
26. goes to doctor; uses doctor
27. that optimism will cause change
28. at the end of the 12-months, turns all of electricity back on, and go back to many of the high-impact ways
Supposed Positive Impacts
1. Help with research project to put oysters back in the Hudson river to filter water
2. Cleaning out tree "pits" in the Bronx (the mulched area around trees that are growing near roads, all cemented in by sidewalks)
3. ???
Interesting to Think about More
1. critiques from "environmentalists"
2. having a second child -- issues of partnership
3. discussion on the relevance or irrelevance of the book
4. a journey, transportation, over a year
5. "Every time you try to do something right, no matter what level you are on, there are unforeseen results." -- by the "Mayor" -- see clip around 70 minutes
6. How to acknowledge that there is always an impact; and then do somethings positive enough to have a positive effect which outweighs the negative.
Compare the impact of this year to if these three people didn't exist at all (if they were dead for example).
Question
1. Who was doing the camera work? Two cameras? As it was happening? How so lucky to get some of these pictures?
http://noimpactcommunity.org/
http://noimpactproject.org/
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/
My perspective: that there is no way to do this, because one always is spending money while in the city, and money always has a negative net impact, if not in the exchange/trade that is observed, then in the next exchange, or the one after that.
As I watched the film, I made notes, jumping between lists, and updating the lists, as I went. In particular, I was watching for:
1. money use
2. energy use
3. use of anything that required money, energy, and/or other resources to be created, and eventually, to be de-created.
***
No Impact Man -- Notes with a Critical Eye
Positives
1. buy less stuff
2. got rid of TV -- taken out of the home
3. no subway, cars, planes
4. farmers market + 250 mile diet
5. composting w worm bin
6. cloth diapers
7. vegetarian
8. walks everywhere
9. no caffeine
10. sharing use of electricity
11. buying no clothing at all
12. use reusable containers
13. shopping from bulk bins
14. borrowing items
15. cotton toilet paper (cloth reusable)
16. straight razor
17. sharing things with others, taking things to thrift store
18. shop at re-store
19. also ate seasonally
20. urban community garden
21. not using cleaning chemicals
22. mixes cleaning products himself
23. no more cosmetics
24. does laundry in bathtub -- looked like fun family time
25. uses pot-in-pot evaporate refrigerator -- nice -- (but didn't work, probably wasn't hot enough to cause enough evaporation, plus not the same shapes as the Nigerian design) -- [more in the DVD extras]
26. turns off all electricity
27. ride bikes all over the place
28. no trash
29. baked goods -- took energy
30. meets with congressman
31. goes to talk with a group of college students
32. wear warmer clothes in apartment
33. recommends volunteering with an environmental organization (to become part of a community)
34. (in extras) -- gleaning - freegans -- (this would have been more interesting to have in the film)
35. (in extras) -- supportive building super
Errors - Still Impacting
1. uses electricity (money) running computer and video camera
2. uses lights
3. washes clothes -- (later stopped)
4. plastic diaper covers, manufacturer cloth diapers
5. rides train to a farm
6. cow farm runs on electricity, lots of energy to build a barn, employees
7. cooking using fuel
8. uses cell phone
9. heat the apartment
10. pay for the apartment
11. buying food
12. can rent items -- money
13. use of city water and city sewer
14. farm market -- people still drive to market -- purchase canopies, etc.
15. money going to farmers market
16. burning (consuming) candles and matches
17. wife uses heat, a/c, electricity, ice at work, city water,
18. city water for watering garden
19. ice from neighbor -- electricity, money
20. wife uses beauty salon
21. taxes
22. street cleaners, road work, police, fire department
23. uses PV solar panel (money, manufacturing, etc.)
24. babysitter and/or daycare(?) (money)
25. wife works for a business magazine (lots of trees to print)
26. goes to doctor; uses doctor
27. that optimism will cause change
28. at the end of the 12-months, turns all of electricity back on, and go back to many of the high-impact ways
Supposed Positive Impacts
1. Help with research project to put oysters back in the Hudson river to filter water
2. Cleaning out tree "pits" in the Bronx (the mulched area around trees that are growing near roads, all cemented in by sidewalks)
3. ???
Interesting to Think about More
1. critiques from "environmentalists"
2. having a second child -- issues of partnership
3. discussion on the relevance or irrelevance of the book
4. a journey, transportation, over a year
5. "Every time you try to do something right, no matter what level you are on, there are unforeseen results." -- by the "Mayor" -- see clip around 70 minutes
6. How to acknowledge that there is always an impact; and then do somethings positive enough to have a positive effect which outweighs the negative.
Compare the impact of this year to if these three people didn't exist at all (if they were dead for example).
Question
1. Who was doing the camera work? Two cameras? As it was happening? How so lucky to get some of these pictures?
http://noimpactcommunity.org/
http://noimpactproject.org/
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/